Capital Crime Mystery Panels

Widows Screening & Mystery Panels Revealed

CAPITAL CRIME, CAPITAL ENTERTAINMENT In two days, we throw open the doors to the Grand Connaught Rooms and welcome hundreds of crime and thriller fans to Capital Crime. FRIDAY FILM We're pleased to announce we shall be screening WIDOWS, the brilliant film directed by Steve McQueen, adapted from Lynda La Plante's seminal series. The screening is open to all Friday Day Pass and Weekend Pass holders. MYSTERY PANELS FRIDAY On Friday, we're thrilled to be welcoming two brilliant authors to Capital Crime to talk about the experience of having their novels adapted for screen. SJ Watson is an international bestseller whose debut novel, Before I Go To Sleep, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong. Paula Daly is the critically acclaimed author of six novels. Her books are being adapted for the new ITV series, Deep Water, starring Anna Friel. They will be talking to Capital Crime co-founder and screenwriter, Adam Hamdy. SATURDAY Adam Hamdy will be back on Saturday as part of a panel on the Craft of Writing. He'll be in conversation with his partner in Capital Crime, David Headley, the founder of DHH Literary Agency and Goldsboro Books, and Vicki Mellor, Fiction Publishing Director at Pan Macmillan. A number of Capital Crime passholders have asked for a panel on writing advice, so if you're an aspiring author, come along. There will be an opportunity to ask questions of the panellists. You can find the final Capital Crime schedule here: https://www.capitalcrime.org/capital-crime-schedule/ FREE SHIPPING We’re pleased to announce our festival bookseller, Goldsboro Books, is offering free UK shipping on books bought at the festival, so you don’t have to worry about carrying a suitcase full of signed books home with you. Let Goldsboro take the strain while you enjoy meeting your favourite authors and discovering new ones. International shipping is also available. Please ask staff for details. CAPITAL ENTERTAINMENT, CAPITAL VALUE We’re also delighted to announce that all pass holders will be entitled to complimentary tea and coffee at the festival, courtesy of the fine folks at Pan Macmillan. Weekend pass holders will be entitled to two complimentary drinks from the bar at the opening night drinks party, thanks to DHH Literary Agency. And Saturday and weekend pass holders will be entitled to two complimentary drinks from the bar at the Saturday night drinks party, thanks to Amazon Publishing. All our pass holders will also receive a fantastic goody bag packed with books, samplers and freebies. VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! Pass holders are currently voting for the Amazon Publishing Readers' Awards. If you're a Capital Crime pass holder, visit www.capitalcrime.org, log into your account and cast your votes today. If you have any questions about Capital Crime, please try our FAQs: https://www.capitalcrime.org/faqs/ If you're planning to come to Capital Crime and haven't booked your pass, you're running out of time, and we're running out of tickets. Click here https://www.capitalcrime.org/capital-crime-schedule/to book your passes or visit www.capitalcrime.org

Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Day One

This is the first blog post about this year's Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.  I hope to blog continuously throughout the festival.

My trip down to Harrogate started around 11:00am when I met up with Shots editor Mike Stotter and fellow Shots reviewer Kirstie Long.  Mike had suggested that we drive down to Harrogate together.  It was good suggestion and so after a 4 hour trip (with a pit stop for around 40 minutes) we arrived at Harrogate.  The journey down was unmemorable to the extent that we had no trouble with traffic whatsoever.

After arriving at Harrogate and checking into our hotel (Mike at the Holiday Inn) and I at a lovely small Bed and Breakfast across the road  from him we made our way to the Old Swan. One of the first people that Mike and I bumped into as we were checking in was fellow ShotsMag contributor Ali Karim.

It was lovely to be back in Harrogate and amongst the first couple of people that we met were authors  Zoe Sharp and Greg Hurwitz.   As we sat talking to them both various other people stopped to say hello.  These included Steve Mosby (who recently won the CWA Dagger in the Library), Isabelle Grey, Mari Hannah, NJ Cooper, David Marks, Martyn Waites, Publicist Kerry Hood, Chris Simmons and Stuart McBride.  I also bumped into Val Mcdermid, Ann Cleeves.


The main event that took place on Thursday was Creative Thursday.  Creative Thursday is an opportunity for would be authors to pitch their work and receive feedback in front of a group of editors and agents. A daunting task!

The main event of the day was of course the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel & Festival Opening Party. Queuing up to get into the room where the event was being held I managed to catch up with the absolutely delightful Laura Lippman and Chris Mooney whom I was lucky to have met again on Wednesday evening (and have dinner with). The room was packed to the rafters at the opening ceremony which was compered by Mark Lawson.  Festival organiser Sharon Canavar opened the proceedings by welcoming everyone to the festival explaining that the festival first took place in 2003 and it was the following year that Theakston's came on board as a sponsor.  It is a relationship that has stood the test of time. Anne Cleeves was the first writer in residence for the Festival and the current one is Martyn Waites.  There are over 80 authors present at the Festival and people from all over the world.  12,000 are due to attend.

Simon Theakston  (Executive Director T&R Theakston’s) once again extolled the virtues of the event and the reasoning why they have continued to be involved and sponsor the Festival. 

This year is the 8th Crime Novel of the Year of the Award. After an introduction and brief chat with the shortlisted nominees (SJ Bolton, SJ Watson, Steve Mosby, Denise Mina, Christopher Brookmyre and John Connolly) each author was given a commemorative engraved glass tankard. SJ Watson confirmed that filming was due to start next year on Before I go to Sleep and that Nicole Kidman was due to be the lead female character.  

Mark Lawson spoke briefly about the Outstanding Contribution Award that was also being given. The award was being given to Colin Dexter and it was Programme Chair Mark Billingham who gave a lovely speech talking about his background and work and how much Colin Dexter and Inspector Morse has become not only synonymous with Oxford but with the lives of many crime writers and readers from the start with his first book Last Bus to Woodstock.  Colin Dexter accepted the award to a well-deserved ovation and as can be expected from him despite his rather frail appearance gave a very very witty acceptance speech.

©Photo Ali Karim

The winner of the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award went to Denise Mina and her novel The End of The Wasp Season.  It was a win that was clear that everyone was very happy with indeed.

After the "formal" Opening Party attendees moved on to the "informal" party where they were fed and watered with of course Theakston's Old Peculier and some rather gorgeous cakes.

After the Opening Ceremony, the Shots crew disappeared off to catch a quick bite to eat before returning to the Old Swan Hotel to join the throng in the bar and catch up with various people.  It was lovely to be able to snatch quick words with old friends and authors including Peter Robinson, Sam Eades, David Marks, Christopher Fowler, Thalia Procter to name a few.

Thursday being the first day of the Festival I did not stay up too late but wandered back to where I was staying just after 11:30pm.

Friday will be starting off with a bang as John Connolly will be interviewed.  Should be good fun.

Criminal Splattering's

Norwegian crime fiction authors Gunnar Staalesen (The Writing on the Wall) and Thomas Enger (Burned) are due to attend CrimeFest this year.  However, if you can’t wait until then they will be appearing at a Nordic Noir book club event on 23 May where they will be talking about and exploring the history of and recent trends in Norwegian crime fiction.  More information can be found on the Nordic Noir book club website.

The Agatha Awards were given out at Malice Domestic on Saturday 28 April 2012.  The winners are as follows –

Best Novel: 
Three Day Town by Margaret Maron (Grand Central Publishing)

Best First Novel: 
Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown)

Best Non-fiction: 
Books, Crooks And Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz (Linden)

Best Short Story: 
Disarming by Dana Cameron, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine – June 2011

Best Children’s/Young Adult: 
The Black Heart Crypt by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)

Best Historical Novel: 
Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

Congratulations to all the winners.  A full list of all the nominees can be found here.

With The Killing and Borgen winning such a wide fan base, there are a number of articles floating around cyber space about the phenomenon. The BBC’s Emma Jane Kirby visited the sets of both productions to try to unearth the secrets to their success.  Read her report here.  From the Independent.

Very funny and silly but well worth the read.  Forbes have posted their annual 15 fictional millionaires.  Their list of the fiction’s richest.  On the list is C Montgomery Burns the most hated man in Springfield.  Forbes managed to snag an interview with him.  Also on the list are Lisbeth Salander, Tony Stark and Wayne Bruce amongst others.

According to the Guardian and The Hollywood Reporter the estate of cult science-fiction writer Philip K Dick is to revive a legal battle for profits from the futuristic Matt Damon thriller The Adjustment Bureau.  The representatives first filed a lawsuit against director George Nolfi and production company Media Rights Capital in October 2011, claiming its targets refused to pay millions of dollars in royalties.  It was thrown out two months ago.  The Adjustment Bureau is loosely based on Dick's 1953 short story Adjustment Team, in which everyday existence is revealed to be a product of mysterious unseen manipulators.  The full complaint can be read here.

Shotsblog has blogged about the forthcoming prequel to The Godfather, The Family Corleone and the law suits that have surrounded it on more than one occasion.  They can be read here and here.  Now according to Entertainment Weekly now a trailer for the forthcoming book can be seen below.

The Book Bond have previewed a number of the vintage classic James Bond book covers that are due to be published in September 2012.  Personally I am in two minds about them.  Some of them are okay but hmm, I think they could have been better.

The BAFTA 2012 Television Award nominees have been announced.  The full list can be found here.  Once again Benedict Cumberbatch has been nominated for Best Actor in his role as Sherlock.  His co-star and last year’s BAFTA award winner for Best Supporting Actor Martin Freeman has once again been nominated, but this year he will be up against his Sherlock co-star Andrew Scott who plays Moriarty.  The Drama Series category sees previous winners Misfits and Spooks up against each other, alongside ITV1’s Scott and Bailey.  Borgen and The Killing II are up against each other for the International Award.  The award ceremony will take place on 27 May 2012.

Gary Phillips has always been one of my favourite crime writers from the first time I picked-up Violent Springs and read his first published novel featuring PI Ivan Monk to our subsequent and very infrequent meetings.  The last time we met was at St Louis in 2011.  He remains and has always been one of the nicest people to talk to.  I found it most interesting to read his blog post on the MysteriousPress.com blog about what led him to write Violent Springs.  It was also pleasing to note that the Ivan Monk series can now be read as e-books.  If you have not read them yet then please do.  His ability to weave into his stories the social dynamics of everyday life and situations is one of the best things about the series.  I for one would love him to write another Ivan Monk book.

The long list for the Desmond Elliott Prize for new writers has been announced and the full list can be found here.  Congratulations go to all the nominees but specifically to SJ Watson who has made the long list with his novel Before I Go to Sleep.  Not only that but Before I go to Sleep has also been voted TV Book Club viewers best read of the series.  Elizabeth Haynes's Into the Darkest Corner took second place.

CrimeFest is less than a month away and the Shots gang will be there in full force as usual.  As in previous years see here, here and here for some insights to my previous attendance at CrimeFest. I shall once again be blogging and hopefully this year tweeting as well using the hastag #CrimeFest2012.

According to The Bookseller Hodder and Stoughton have acquired the Roman Britain debut novel The Lion and The Lamb, by Durham academic Dr John Henry Clay.  Set in Britain in AD 366, depicts the struggles of a young soldier with a mysterious past, drawn into a conspiracy that threatens all he holds dear as the enemies of Rome rebel during the Great Barbarian Conspiracy.