Forthcoming books to look forward to from Penguin and Michael Joseph

Isaac Bell is back in another nerve-shredding historical thriller from the international bestselling author Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. Intrepid detective Isaac Bell engages in his most dangerous case yet. It is the early years of the twentieth century, air travel is in its infancy, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway is offering $50,000 for the first flier to cross America in less than fifty days. He is even sponsoring one of the candidates a barnstorming woman flier named Josephine Frost and that's where Isaac Bell comes in. Frost's violent tempered business magnate husband, Harry, has just killed her lover and tried to kill her and now he's on the run but Whiteway is sure he'll try again. Not that that's news to Bell. He tangled with Harry Frost ten years before, and lost badly. He knows that Frost has access to thieves, murderers and thugs in every city in the country. He knows Frost won't just be coming after his wife, but after Whiteway. And Bell knows that if he takes the case, Frost will be after him, too. Yes, Bell knows all that . . . but he still has no idea what he has just gotten himself into. Things are not quite what they seem to him and that will prove to be a very fatal mistake indeed. The Race is due to be published in October 2011.


Gamble is the latest novel by Dick and Felix Francis. It is due to be published in September 2011. As one of the youngest ever winners of the Grand National, Nick 'Foxy' Foxton's career as a world-class jockey is on perfect track until a near fatal accident cuts his dream brutally short. But when he returns to Aintree as a spectator years later, nothing can prepare him for what unfolds. Minutes before the biggest event on the racing calendar, Nick's affable American colleague Herb Kovak is shot at point-blank range, the gunman disappearing among the stunned crowd. Along with the police, Nick is left baffled as to why anyone would want to kill such an apparently gentle soul. With the press speculating about links to gangland crime and a crumpled note containing a threatening message found in the dead man's coat, Nick begins to doubt how well he really knew Herb. And on discovering Herb had named him as the benefactor of his will, Nick questions why he has been entrusted with the legacy. Is this a generous gift from a friend or is it, in fact, a poisoned chalice?

AD 262 and the Imperium is in turmoil after the struggle for the throne. Furthermore, Ephesus, Asia's metropolis, lies in ruins, shattered by a mighty earthquake. Its citizens live in fear as the mob overwhelms the city, baying for blood to avenge the gods who have punished them. Yet an even greater threat to the Empire advances from the North. The barbaric Goth tribes sail towards Ephesus, determined to pillage the city. Only Ballista, Warrior of Rome, knows the ways of the barbarians, and only he can defeat them. The Goths' appetite for brutality and destruction is limitless and before long Ballista is locked into a deadly blood feud, with an enemy that has sworn to destroy him and the Imperium at all costs. The Caspian Gates is the latest novel in the Warrior of Rome series by Harry Sidebottom and it is due to be published in July 2011.

Disgrace is the latest novel by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen and is due to be published in January 2012. It is 1987. A brother and sister are brutally killed in a summer house in the north of Denmark. The police investigation suggests that the murderer is to be found within a group of young boarding school students who are known for their addiction to gang violence. But the evidence is not strong enough to prove this theory, and the case is shelved. Twenty years later, Carl Moerck and his assistant Assad stumble over the file documenting the murders. No one really knows why it has reappeared, but someone seems to be interested in revisiting the events surrounding the case. When Moerck's bosses strictly forbid the Department Q team to reopen the file, both he and Assad know there is something terribly wrong and get hooked on the story. The first lead they uncover takes them to the very top of Danish high society the world of stockbrokers, businessmen and plastic surgeons. But it also takes them to the very bottom: to Kimmie, a young homeless woman who lives on the streets of Copenhagen and who seems to know a secret that could seriously threaten three incredibly powerful men.


The Death Relic is the new action-adventure thriller set amidst Mexico's ancient Mayan ruins by Chris Kuzneski. The New World, 1545 . . . Vanquished by the Spanish Empire, little remains of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. From the ashes of their cities, a unified legend emerges: the Christians who conquered them possessed a mysterious object, an artefact so powerful so deadly that it was known throughout the Americas as 'the death relic'. Yucatan Peninsula, present day . . . When Maria Pelati's research team disappears in Mexico, Jonathon Payne and David Jones embark on a perilous mission to find the missing archaeologists. The duo quickly finds a link between the group's work and its recent disappearance. Following the clues left behind, the pair try to solve one of the darkest mysteries of the New World, but their quest for the relic might cost them their lives. The Death Relic is due to be published in September 2011.

It’s 1640, and the pall of war hangs over France . . . The young Chevalier de Roland has scarcely set foot in the city before he crosses swords with a cruel nobleman to defend a young woman's honour. Too late he learns he has stumbled on a conspiracy within the King's own household to seize power by secret alliance with Spain. Accused of treason and forced to flee into hiding, André must fight on alone, staking both his life and his honour in the battle to save France. Blood and Steel is an epic swashbuckling page turner that sweeps from the political intrigues of Cardinal Richelieu to the great battlefields of the Thirty Years War. Blood and Steel is by A L Berridge and is due to be published in August 2011.


The Chill of Night is by James Hyman and is due to be published in October 2011. It is the second book in the series to feature Detective Michael McCabe. Lainie Goff thinks she has it all. A glamorous young Portland attorney with the brains and looks to match her ambitions, she's on the fast track to a partnership. Until one cold winter night she discovers that her belief in her ability to handle any situation was misplaced. Now she's just a frozen corpse in the boot of a car at the end of Portland Fish Pier. And a problem for homicide detective Michael McCabe. Luckily for McCabe, there's a witness. A mentally disturbed young woman named Abby Quinn saw what happened to Lainie. Unfortunately, Abby mysteriously goes missing the very same night. With a victim who'd known more than her share of bad guys, a list of suspects that seems to get longer and longer and his only witness missing, McCabe has got his work cut out. But it's only a matter of time before the killer strikes again . . .


Every Serial Killer Knows . . . The vicious burns scarring the victims' flesh reveal the agony of their last moments. Each woman was branded with a star, then stabbed through the heart. With every death, a vengeful killer finds a brief, blissful moment of calm . . . The Perfect Time . . . Ten years ago, Eva Rayburn and her sorority sisters were celebrating the end of the school year. That party turned into a nightmare Eva can't forget. Now she's trying to start over in her Virginia hometown, but a new nightmare has begun. Every victim is linked to her. And Detective Deacon Garrison isn't sure whether this mysterious woman needs investigating or protecting . . . To Make His Mark Only Eva's death will bring peace. Only her tortured screams will silence the rage that has been building for ten long years. Because what started that night at the sorority can never be stopped not until the last victim has been marked for death . . . Senseless is by Mary Burton and is due to be published in September 2011.


The Templar's Quest is by C M Palov and is due to be published in November 2011. The Montségur Medallion points the way to the most coveted relic, the Holy Grail. In the wrong hands it could destroy civilization . . . Finn McGuire finds himself framed for a string of murders moments after he uncovers the legendary Medallion in an ancient Syrian chapel. The culprits are a group of Nazi SS descendants known as The Seven who will stop at nothing to possess the pendant . . . and the Holy Grail. Their wish? To resurrect the Third Reich. Former MI5 operative Caedmon Aisquith is an expert in the Knights Templar and the Grail; he knows the Seven can only desire it for evil and when Finn approaches him, the two join forces in a quest to find the deadly relic and halt the bloodshed. Their race takes them from the Louvre to a medieval citadel in the Pyrenees. But the stakes are high, for the fate of mankind hangs in the balance if they fail . . .


The Thousand by Kevin Guilfoile is due to be published in September 2011. Long ago, a thousand men and women abandoned their lives to follow a stranger. Now their legacy threatens modern existence . . . Long ago, a thousand men and women abandoned their lives to follow a stranger. Now their legacy threatens modern existence . . . In 530 BC a mysterious ship appeared off the rainy shores of Croton in what is now Italy. After three days, a man disembarked to address the curious and frightened crowd that had gathered. He called himself Pythagoras. Exactly what he said that day is unknown, but afterwards a thousand men and women abandoned their lives and families to follow him. Over the centuries they became a secret society of powerful individuals safeguarding the teachings of one of history's most brilliant mathematicians. But now, triggered by a brutal murder in Chicago, the brotherhood erupts into civil war, and a young woman finds herself at the centre of ancient revelations that could not only become instruments of terror but could jeopardize civilization itself . . .


The Rembrandt Affair is by Daniel Silva and sees the return of Gabriel Allon. Glastonbury, an art restorer, has been brutally murdered, and the newly discovered Rembrandt he was working on has disappeared. Spy turned art restorer Gabriel Allon has only one thing in mind: recovery. But this unspeakable act of violence once again draws Allon into a world of danger he thought he had left behind forever. Allon is persuaded to use his unique skills to trace the painting and those responsible for the crimes. As he investigates, he discovers there are terrible secrets connected to the painting, and terrible men behind them. Before he is done, he will have undertaken a journey through some of the twentieth century's darkest history - and come face to face with some of the same darkness within himself. The Rembrandt Affair is due to be published in August 2011.

Lilian Jackson Braun Has Died

Mystery writer Lilian Jackson Braun has passed away. She was 97-years-old.

Braun (pictured) created the popular The Cat Who… mystery series. Her first book, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, was released in 1966. She wrote two sequels and then she took an 18-year-break before resuming her prolific career. Writing fiction was not Braun’s primary occupation; for most of her life she served as a full-time journalist for the Detroit Free Press until her retirement in 1984.

Here’s more from BlueRidgeNow.com: “In 1986, the Berkley Publishing Group published the novel [The Cat Who Saw Red] and Braun continued writing after that. Within two years, Berkeley released four more novels and reprinted the three mysteries from the ’60s. G.P. Putnam’s Sons has since published 21 “The Cat Who” novels, one each year through 2007.” (via Publisher’s Weekly),

Braun, who also published two short story collections, retired in 2007 after the publication of The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers.


Her longtime editor, Natalee Rosenstein, said Braun - whose books were translated into 16 languages - had "ultimately created a whole new chapter in the American mystery".

Guest Blog: C J Box - Letter From Wyoming

Letter From Wyoming

By C.J. Box

Blood Feud

C J Box addresses the issue of blood feuds in the Joe Pickett book In Plain Sight which is due to be published on 1 July 2011.

---

Wyoming isn’t known for family feuds – no more than any other place. I credit this with a combination of transients, transplants, and a healthy live-and-let live attitude that makes judgments on men depending on what they do and how they act rather than where they come from.

But there are exceptions. And as a young newspaper reporter in a small remote ranching town, I had a front row seat to a family squabble that went nuclear. I didn’t want to get involved or take sides – no one did. But there was no choice.

The Curse of the Third Generation Ranch is what lawyers and accountants call it. The first generation are those who bought or homesteaded the land, fought the elements and the bad guys, and eked out an existence in the hardscrabble Rocky Mountains. They passed on their property and legacy to the second generation, whose blood still ran hot with the legacy. Then the third generation came along. They never knew any of the hardships, but were born to wealth and privilege. And when it came time to running, selling, or dividing the land -- things sometimes went badly.

The feud I witnessed involved two sixty-something brothers who had lived their lives under the crushing thumb of their mother, who ran the ranch with brutal efficiency and pitted them against each other for her affection. When she died, hell broke loose.

The town became divided in loyalty to one brother or the other. They insisted on it. Meanwhile, each recruited thugs as ranch hands or, in effect, private armies. Incidents began: an employee for one brother beaten by a shovel by employees of the other; pickups and equipment set on fire during the night; two ranch hands who were sent to gather cattle and simply never came back. The battle raged for two years.

All because mom refused to choose.

COMPETITION TIME

Out of Range is the fifth in the Joe Pickett series, published by Corvus. The next Joe Pickett adventure In Plain Sight, is due to published on the 1st July 2011.

There are two copies of Out Of Range up for grabs. To win simply tell us the name of the falconer in the Joe Pickett series. Send your answer to the Shots editor . Don’t forget to add your name and address in case you are the lucky winner. Good Luck.

Lynda La Plante’s BLOODLINE Launch at The Ivy

A celebration was held last night at the prestigious ‘Loft at The Ivy’ in London’s West-End; thanks to Simon and Schuster’s UK publishing Director Suzanne Baboneau for launching Lynda La Plante’s 7th Anna Travis novel ‘Bloodline’.

Under the watchful eye of DCS James Langton, DCI Anna Travis takes charge of an investigation for the first time. But is it purely a missing person's case - or a full blown murder enquiry? An ominous pool of blood and no victim lead Anna on a desperate hunt for a man who has disappeared without trace. As Anna becomes obsessed with seemingly irrelevant details, Langton fears that she is losing control. They still have no body and Anna is under increasing pressure to make an arrest...

La Plante has a dual career now alternating between her writing and her TV work, she is as busy as ever.

Baboneau welcomed the eclectic guest list, which comprised TV and Film people from Lynda’s Production Company, Lynda’s friends as well as a few book reviewers including Barry Forshaw, Peter Guttridge, and the Telegraph’s Jeremy Jehu and Ali Karim from Shots Ezine. Also present and mingling were actress Lynda Bellingham, singer and TV presenter Cilla Black and writer and actress Fidelis Morgan. It was good see that Fidelis is back writing again between acting roles, in her ‘quirky’ historical romps.

I had a chat with Suzanne Baboneau who knew of my enthusiasm for Tom Robb Smith’s debut novel Child 44 and she told me that Simon and Schuster were delighted with book #3 which I am anticipating with excitement.

To celebrate the launch of Lynda La Plante’s Bloodline, Shots eZine inconjunction with Simon and Schuster UK have a signed copy in an exclusive competition.

All you have to do is answer this simple question –

Helen Mirren starred as Detective Jane Tennison in a TV series created by Lynda La Plante, can you name the title of the series?

[a] Prime Rib
[b] Prime Suspect
[d] Primo Levi
[e] The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Send your answer in an email to shotscomp@yahoo.co.uk marking the subject line “Plante1” and please include a postal address

The Closing date for entries is 1st August 2011

Terms and Conditions for the competition are below –

Good Luck!

Even if you don’t win, Bloodline is released on June 23rd and well worth exploring the dark lens of Lynda La Plante

Photos © 2011 Ali Karim “Suzanne Baboneau and Lynda La Plante at The Ivy in London” on Tuesday 7th June 2011

Terms and conditions for the Lynda La Plante Competition
Closing date for entries is 1 / August / 2011 12:00:00 AM
All correct entries will be entered into a prize draw and the first correct answer picked at random on 1 / August / 2011 12:00:00 AM will be declared the winner of the book.
The winner will be notified by email within 14 days of the promotion closing date and is required to accept their prize by email or phone call within 14 days of notification.
In the event of non-acceptance within the specified period, the promoter reserves the right to reallocate the prize to the next randomly drawn correct and valid entry.
The winner will be notified within 28 days of the closing date. No responsibility can be accepted for lost or misplaced entries
The prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative
Only one entry per person
Incorrect or illegible answers or entries received after the entry date will not be entered into the prize draw
The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
No geographical restrictions

Criminal Roundup

The Literary Festival Scene

According to Alex Hippisley-Cox the literary festival scene in the UK is booming. It seems hardly a week goes by without some kind of literary programme being staged and the public’s thirst for these types of gatherings seems to grow with each new event. As publishers and publicists now start to plan their authors’ personal appearances during those all-important pre-Christmas months, the first question they will no doubt ask themselves is: what literary festivals are taking place around the publication date, and how can we get our authors involved? Read more.

Val McDermid at Middlesborough Libraries FestivalThursday, 16 June 2011 - 19:00

Bestselling crime writer Val McDermid talks about her books including latest novel Trick of the Dark at Acklam Library, Acklam Road, Middlesbrough, TS5 7AB.

When writers were real men:

Maybe guys aren't reading because manliness is absent from literature.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/06/06/2011-06-06_when_writers_were_real_men.html#ixzz1Ogg9S2QL

Open Road In Deal With Penzler's New Mysteriouspress.com

According to an article in Publishers Weekly, Open Road Integrated Media has formed a partnership with mystery maven Otto Penzler to publish and promote digital editions of titles developed by Penzler's just-launched MysteriousPress.com.

First Conan Doyle Novel To Be Published

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first novel, The Narrative of John Smith, is to be published for the first time.
The book, about a man's reflections on life after he finds himself confined to his room with gout, was written between 1883 and 1884. Conan Doyle sent it to a publisher but it was lost in the post and he then had to reconstruct it from memory. It was never finished. The first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, was printed three years later.
BBC

John le Carré's 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'

After months of frustration, Le Carré took the original manuscript of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," into his garden and burned it. Such is the diligence of the master craftsman. Then he went back to work with a new take. The version of the book that he completed and published in 1974 — now regarded as perhaps the greatest spy novel written — is so complex precisely because its form itself is a journey of exploration into the "inside-out logic of the double-agent operation," into the past and into the complex natures of loyalty and betrayal.

David Hewson and The Killing

Shots Ezine were delighted to receive this wonderful news, following the hotly contested world rights acquisition last week for the literary publishing rights of the BAFTA-winning Danish crime TV series, THE KILLING, Pan Macmillan is delighted to announce that crime writer, David Hewson, will be the author to novelise the series.

Highly respected, and much admired for his popular Rome-based Nic Costa detective series, and three other thrillers set in Seville, Venice and the USA, Hewson’s particular skill for female characters and passion for writing and researching novels set in a foreign country make him perfect for translating THE KILLING to the page.

David Hewson says:

“It’s a great honour to be asked to turn the best crime series on TV – and the fascinating character of Sarah Lund – into books, alongside my own novels set in Italy. The richness, innovation and complexity of THE KILLING have captured the imaginations of TV viewers around the world. I’m flattered to know that it’s going to be my task to bring this acclaimed classic series to the printed page. Rome and Copenhagen are very different places, but both wonderful stages for compelling crime fiction. I can’t wait to start work with my first trip to Denmark in a few weeks.”

Acquiring editor, Trisha Jackson, says:

“We believe that David is the perfect author for this project. Apart from being a wonderful writer, his particular strengths lie in atmosphere, sense of place and female characters. And we trust him implicitly to create a brilliant thriller from this wonderful series.”

Pan Macmillan plan to publish the novelisation of series one in the autumn of 2012.

David Hewson is the bestselling author of more than sixteen books published in more than twenty languages. His popular Costa contemporary crime series is now in development for a series of TV movies in Rome. His latest novel, The Fallen Angel, was published by Pan Macmillan in February this year.

Incidentally talking of Danish Crime Thrillers, we’d strongly recommend Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Mercy from Penguin, out currently in the UK and due for release in the US this August as ‘The Keeper of Lost Causes’.

Photo © 2007 Ali Karim taken at the Theakstons Harrogate Crime Writing Festival 2007 “David Hewson and Caroline C.J. Carver

Hardcase’s Hiatus comes to an end

Shots Ezine were delighted to get an update from the award-winning writer Charles Ardai who also holds the helm at Hardcasecrime Publishing. After the well documented problems with their previous partner, they have re-launched with the British Publisher Titan Books. So what’s coming from the Ardai's Hardcasecrime stable?

Our year's hiatus was due to the exit from the book publishing business of the publisher we'd worked with since launching the line, Dorchester Publishing. We're now working with a new publisher, the terrific UK-based Titan Books, who in turn works with Random House in the States, and it feels like our books couldn't be in better hands.

To kick things off we'll be publishing our first ever hardcover title, a brand new novel by Lawrence Block called GETTING OFF. It's the first original novel Block has ever written for us (all our previous Block titles were reprints of his early work), and honest to god, this thing is going to startle people. For it, Block is resurrecting a female pseudonym he last used almost 40 years ago (we're publishing it as by "Lawrence Block writing as Jill Emerson"), under which he wrote six frankly erotic novels in the 60s and 70s. GETTING OFF is a Jill Emerson book all right, in terms of its rather explicit content -- but it's a Lawrence Block book, too, in terms of its compelling crime story plot and its disturbingly appealing main character, who may have the highest body count on her hands of any woman ever to headline a mystery novel, but whom you find yourself quite liking despite that.

It's hard, these days, to call a book shocking and really mean it, but I would bet money on readers genuinely being shocked by some of this book's content.

In a good way, of course.

Also coming in late September is a new story about Max Allan Collins' popular hit man character, Quarry, in QUARRY'S EX, and then in October we have two titles people have been waiting for for a long time: CHOKE HOLD, Christa Faust's follow-up to her Edgar Award-nominated Hard Case Crime novel MONEY SHOT; and THE CONSUMMATA, a novel Mickey Spillane started writing in the 1960s (and that Signet announced in its catalogue at the time), but that he set aside unfinished until shortly before his death, at which time he asked old friend Max Allan Collins to complete it for him. It's taken 44 years, but THE CONSUMMATA is finally finished and we're very excited to be the ones bringing it to readers at last. Set in Miami's Cuban-American community and starring the main character of Spillane's bestselling THE DELTA FACTOR, it's a great read, Spillane at his irrepressible Spillaniest.

More Information available from http://www.hardcasecrime.com/

Photos © 2008 Ali Karim from Bouchercon Baltimore of Charles Ardai at the PWA Shamus Awards and Lawrence Block recognized for his contribution to the Crime Fiction Genre

Latest Crime News Round-Up

Arthur Ellis Award Results -

The winners of the 2011 Arthur Ellis Awards were announced on recently by the Crime Writers of Canada for excellence in works in the crime/mystery/thriller genre published for the first time in the previous year by permanent residents of Canada, or by Canadian citizens living abroad.

Best Crime Novel: Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Little, Brown)
Best First Crime Novel: The Debba by Avner Mandleman (Random House)
Best Crime Novel in French: Dans le quartier des agités by Jacques Côté (Éditions Alire)
Best Crime Non-Fiction: On the Farm by Stevie Cameron (Alfred A. Knopf)
Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book: Lost For Words (The Worst Thing She Ever Did) by Alice Kuipers (HarperCollins)
Best Crime Short Story: "So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Best First Unpublished Crime Novel: Better Off Dead by John Jeneroux

Alibi teamed up with HarperCollins and Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate to unearth some of the country's hottest new crime-writing talent of 2011.The shortlist has been drawn up and voting is now open. You can vote here? The overall winner will be announced during a special reception at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

Those of us that are waiting for the release of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy will be pleased to learn that the date it will be released will be September 2011 for the UK and November for the US. With an all-star cast featuring amongst others, former Bond villain Toby Jones, Oscar winner Colin Firth, Kathy Burke, Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch and John Hurt. Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy is an adaptation of John Le Carre‘s classic spy thriller that follows a British Intelligence operative whose task is to delve into the world of Cold War espionage and root out a Soviet mole in the Circus, the highest echelon in the British Intelligence Services.

Very interesting article on the Library Journal website about the gender reading stereotypes. A lot of suspense writers have commented on it. Makes for very interesting reading!

Nordic Bookblog have an interesting book review on The Tattooed Girl the Enigma of Stieg Larsson. Sounds that this will be of added interest to all those fans of Stieg Larsson!

Barry Forshaw whose book The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Biography of Stieg Larsson was published in 2010 is due to be the keynote speaker at a one-day symposium taking place at the University of Hertfordshire. Under the auspices of Film in Humanities the symposium will consist of talks and discussions on Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy - as a series of books, television programmes, and films.

With the recent release of the latest James Bond book, there is an interesting article in the Guardian about James Bond’s changing incarnations. The responses are as interesting as the article itself.

If you missed it the first time around then there is another chance to see the three-part series Whitechapel (Jack the Ripper) again. Featuring Rupert Penry-Jones it will be shown on ITV3 at 9pm on Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 June 2011.

With lots of us looking forward to Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories due to be shown on BBC1 on Sunday 5 June at 9pm it is interesting to read Jason Isaac’s comments (not that I agree with them) on Jackson Brodie not being a detective. Are we talking about the same character here? I see this more as a marketing ploy not that I think one is needed.

Fans of the mobster film Goodfellas will enjoy reading 50 genius but useless facts about the film!

According to the Bookseller, former CWA Chair Tom Harper has moved publishers. Formerly published by Random House’s Cornerstone his next three books will be published by Hodder & Stoughton. The books described as "literary conspiracy thrillers.

From books to film!

According to NYmag.com David Fincher has optioned Jason Starr’s 2009 crime novel Panic Attack, about a New York shrink who shoots and kills a home intruder, then faces a media frenzy and the victim's vengeful accomplice.

Deadline.com have announced that Chris Columbus who produced a number of the Harry Potter films as well as Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightening Thief has acquired the fill rights to Michael Koryta’s thriller The Cypress House. There is also an excellent article in CNN about his latest book The Ridge.

Kerry Greenwood’s series featuring 1920s-era private detective Phryne Fisher is due (according to Australian ABC) to be made into a 13 part ABC series. Phryne Fisher is a sleuth who sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl-handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit.

According to Variety.com Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon and Craig Robinson have all signed up to the film adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s crime novel Freaky Deaky. William H Macy has already committed himself to the project.

Deadly Focus

Deadly Focus by RC Bridgestock, is the new novel from husband and wife writing team Bob and Carol Bridgestock. Writing under the name R C Bridgestock the couple have almost 50 years experience working at the front line of policing.

Bob Bridgestock brings 30 years of service in the West Yorkshire police force where he rose to the position of Detective Superintendent. Having worked on and helped solve many high profile murder cases, Bob brings a level of authenticity to Deadly Focus often lacking in police procedural novels. Carol worked for 17 years in the police force being a member of the Civilian Support Staff, seeing life in the force in a supporting role and experiencing the life of a partner who husband was dealing with scores of high profile cases.

Deadly Focus is the first in a series of novels to be published by Caffeine Nights featuring D.I. Jack Dylan and is set in the fictional town of Harrowfield, Yorkshire. “Even though I worked on a large number of violent crime and murder cases I never wanted to write a non-fiction book, but I draw on those experiences and my extensive knowledge of how real life investigations proceed.” Bob Bridgestock said.

“I write the plot and the story line, taking the reader with me from the moment the Detective gets the call to a body. So from first-hand experience readers can travel to the dark corners, feel frightened and threatened, as well as laughing.” says Bob. “Jack Dylan is an ordinary man doing a tough job which leads him to deal with some of the darkest things faced by humanity.”

Carol works on the draft, building up the story line and characters whilst also bringing out the underlying emotion of the tough side of being a detective. She also adds a perspective which is often over-looked in drama and fiction and that is of the supportive partner. “Often the lead detective is portrayed as being a loner or returning home to nothing more than a whiskey bottle. There are thousands of partners out there who support their husbands and wives, who every day put themselves in harm’s way to keep this country safer. Dylan comes home to a supportive partner in the shape of Jen, and she becomes the rock to keep him anchored.”

Deadly Focus opens with a young girl being snatched from the streets of Harrowfield as she returns from her grandmother’s house a few doors down the road. As realisation dawns on the parents of the child, a body is found and a second child goes missing. D. I Jack Dylan knows that the cases may be connected and realises that a child serial killer may be stalking the streets of Harrowfield. As the case progresses an unexpected twist takes the case close to home and Dylan’s home life begins to suffer.

Deadly Focus is published in paperback and all eBook formats on 31st May 2011.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-907565-08-3

eBook ISBN: 987-1-907565-09-0

About Caffeine Nights
Deadly Focus is published by Caffeine Nights Publishing in both paperback and eBook versions. Caffeine Nights has adopted an environmental stand against the unsustainable felling and use of trees in publishing. Caffeine Nights CEO, Darren Laws said. “Publishing is a dirty business but there are ways to make it more sustainable and adopt practices to make publishing greener and more efficient. The paper stock our printers use is guaranteed Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) certified and Forest Stewardship Council™ - (FSC®) certified. We work on a basis of print on demand only supplying books to order to save over-supply to bookstores and almost eliminate returns, saving the pulping and landfill of returned stock.”

www.caffeine-nights.com
01634 837049
info@caffeinenights.com

Is Roy Grace an Agent of Ernst Stavro Blofeld?

Like the plot of an Ian Fleming thriller, Peter James’ remarkable Roy Grace thriller Dead Man's Grip the seventh novel in James’ highly acclaimed detective series set at the dark edges of Brighton, has pipped Jeffery Deaver’s James Bond re-boot ‘Carte Blanche’ from the top of the UK charts, by just under 800 copies as reported by The Bookseller this morning. This is made even more interesting due to the heavy supermarket discounting of the Bond Title -

James Bond has failed in his latest mission: to top the bestseller charts. Despite a bargain £5 deal at Tesco (75% off the £19.99 r.r.p.), sales of Jeffery Deaver's 007 novel, Carte Blanche (Hodder & Stoughton), were insufficient to score it a number one.

The thriller, which sees MI6's finest given carte blanche to prevent a terrorist atrocity, sold a solid 16,158 copies in its first three days on sale. It is strong enough for eighth position in the Official UK Top 50, but it falls some 797 copies short of the bestselling hardback fiction book of the week, Peter James' Dead Man's Grip (Macmillan), which also benefited from a £5 deal at Tesco. Carte Blanche's sales figure is around a third of the 44,093 sales Bond's previous outing, in Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care (Penguin 007), racked up in its first four days of sales in May 2008.

If you’ve not read either novels by Peter James or Jeffery Deaver then you’ve been missing two exceptional thrillers. Shots Ezine passes our congratulations to both authors for producing such exhilarating work, which is helping the cause of literacy in these crazy days.

Incidentally this year marks Peter James’ Chairmanship of The Crime Writers Association, the same organization that awarded Jeffery Deaver with the Ian Fleming CWA Steel Dagger for his remarkable novel ‘The Garden of Beasts’, which is what caught the eye of the Ian Fleming estate, and remains my favourite Deaver Thriller.

Photos Top © 2011 Ali Karim taken at Crimefest 2011 ‘Peter Guttridge Interviews Peter James’ and Bottom © 2004 Ali Karim taken at the CWA Dagger Awards 2004 when Jeffery Deaver won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

Latest Crime News Round-Up

All things Ian Fleming -

With the recent publication of the new James Bond book Carte Blanche Steven Poole does not appear to be too enamoured with it. His review in the Guardian can be found here. The Guardian ponders the question as to who should write the next Bond book since they are no longer the work of Ian Fleming, but products from "©Ian Fleming Publications Limited". A further review by Stephanie Merritt can be found in the Observer.

Below one can also see Jeffrey Deaver talking to Mariella Frostrup about the new James Bond novel at the 2011 Hay Festival.

Saturday 28 May 2011 was Ian Fleming’s birthday and he would have been 103 years old!

-----------

Laura Wilson rounds-up a number of crime fiction books in the Guardian amongst them Denise Mina’s latest book The End of the Wasp Season and the Hypnotist by Lars Kepler who are actually authors Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril & Alexander Ahndoril.

With the publication of her first novel Without Guilt Marcia Clark talks to Kira Cochrane of the Guardian about life after the fabled OJ Simpson trial.

Very interesting article in the Daily Telegraph from the Hay Festival where Sir John Scarlett, the former chief of the Secret Intelligence Service talks about an unnamed author who nearly derailed an MI6 operation when his plot line.

Thrillerfest VI is due to take place between 6 and 9 July in New York City. The shortlist for the awards can be found here and include authors such as Carla Buckley, Michael Connelly, Mo Hayder, J T Ellison and Jon Trace.

Fans of Agatha Christie will welcome the news that John Curran’s new book about Agatha Christie - Agatha Christie's Murder in the Making: Stories and Secrets from Her Archive will include an unseen Miss Marple story. The book is due out in September 2011.

Fans of Luther will welcome the fact that it is due to return to our screens on 14 June 2011. An interview with the creator Neil Cross can be found below.

Excellent article by Tim Kevan in the Guardian as he makes the case for the courtroom drama. He comments on the fact that many authors have used the courtroom in creating their stories. From Shakespeare to Erle Stanley Garden and Henry Cecil’s Brother-in-Law to John Mortimer’s Rumpole series and of course not forgetting the most famous of all Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Tim Kervan also notes that of recent there has been a move towards putting the courtroom further into the background and concentrating on the lives of the lawyers themselves.

According to the Bookseller Headline have bought three books from author Lisa Gardner on her move from Orion to Headline. The first book Catch Me will feature her series character D D Warren and will be published in 2012.

For those of you (including me) that did not get a chance to see the unofficial trailer of the US version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before it was taken down by Sony, here is the official version!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will be released in the UK on 26 December 2011.

NPR have served up an interesting list of crime fiction books to read for the summer. The list includes Jo Nesbø, Morag Joss and Lawrence Block who returns with a new Matt Scudder book A Drop of the Hard Stuff. An interview with Lawrence Block can be found here.

Fans of William Gibson will be pleased to know that a film of the cyber thriller Neuromancer is in the offing. According to Marketwire.com the announcement was made recently at the Cannes Film Festival. The full press notice can be found here.

A lot of us are looking forward to seeing the six-part series featuring Jason Isaac in Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories which is due to be shown on the BBC1 starting on Sunday 5^th June 2011. The trailer can be seen below. An interview with Jason Isaac can be found here

Congratulations go to Santiago Roncagliolo whose novel Red April has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Red April is the story of a hapless prosecutor on the trail of a violent serial killer in the Peruvian town of Ayacucho. It takes place during Holy Week in 2000, in the aftermath of the Shining Path insurgency. The full article can be found in the Guardian.

Congratulations also go to Crimespree Magazine who have signed a deal with Down & Out Books for e-versions of their excellent magazine.

Fans of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series will be sad to learn that he is due to end the series (according to GalleyCat) with Nevermore.

SFX.co.uk have an interesting interview with author John Ajvide Lindqvist. Lindqvist is the author of the novel Let The Right One In.

Anthony Horowitz five part drama series for ITV Injustice is due to be shown from Monday 6 June 2011. In it actor James Purefoy plays a criminal barrister who decides not to take on any more murder cases after he suffers a nervous breakdown that is until he is approached by an old friend.

According to the Bookseller, Will Atkins at Pan Macmillan has acquired the world rights for two books from author David Jackson. The first of the two books is The Helper which features NYPD detective Callum Doyle whom readers first met in Jackson’s debut novel The Pariah

Noir Nation is looking for submissions of short stories, graphic novels, true crime and essays on the place of noir.

The Jackal Turns 40

I was delighted to see that Random House UK have just released a special 40th Anniversary edition in Hardcover of one of the greatest thrillers of all time, namely Frederick Forsyth’s ‘The Day of The Jackal’. Naturally I have several paperback editions of this ground-breaking [in the truest sense of the term] thriller, but when it came out [in the 1970’s] I was a poor student, and had to make do with reading it in mass-market format. Now as a book collector, I have always wanted to own a hardcover edition, and finally my wish has come true. Out this week is a handsome edition for the collector though priced reasonably at £20, it’s a perfect excuse to re-read a novel that can be truly termed a ‘definitive’ work of the thriller genre.

I have continued to read Forsyth’s work ever since I picked up that second-hand paperback of Jackal in the 1970’s, though that debut work has inspired a generation of writers [and continues to do so]. F. Paul Wilson even wrote an essay about it in David Morrell and Hank Wagner ITW 100 : Thriller Novels. I was fortunate to meet and talk with Forsyth last year at the Specsavers CWA Dagger Awards, while Selina Walker of Transworld / Random House explained how Forsyth had extreme trouble finding a publisher.

In the Telegraph, Forsyth explains the process –

He hawked his book around from February to September 1970, when it was finally accepted by a publisher, who told Forsyth he could see why The Jackal had been so roundly rejected. “They told me I’d broken all the rules,” he says. For starters, de Gaulle was still alive (he died in November 1970) so readers knew a fictional assassination plot (set in 1963) couldn’t succeed. Forsyth had even told readers, early in the novel, that de Gaulle would die in his bed. The publishers were also wary of a book whose central character has no name. The Jackal slips out of alias after alias, eventually being buried anonymously.

A small print run was planned. Then, to the surprise of both Forsyth and his publishers, buyers at bookshops began reordering copies before publication. “The run went up to 8,000 copies,” he says, “and that was felt to be one hell of a risk. There were no reviews. The book slithered out through the summer of ’71. Slowly, the orders began to move faster. It was all word of mouth. Then my publisher phoned me at 4am in my bedsit. He’d sold the book to an American publisher for $365,000, which was roughly £100,000. And I got half of that. I’d never seen money like it and never thought I would. My family were disbelieving. They read it. My mother, God bless her, never quite understood the reference to fellatio.”

Read More Here

As an amusing aside related to this novel, I must tell you about the time Mike Stotter [Shots’ Editor-in-Chief] and I flew to New York for ITW Thrillerfest II in 2007. Thanks to Zoe and Andy Sharp we managed to get first class tickets at a very specially discounted deal with ‘Max-Jet’ [who unfortunately have since gone bust]. Neither of us had flown first class across the Atlantic before, so after a particularly grueling time [prior to our Thrillerfest trip], we decided to relax and soak up as many of the delights of that first class cabin as we could, including plenty of smoked salmon to soak up the Champagne and Malt Scotch we were knocking back. As the drinks flowed, we were laughing at some of our past miss-adventures and the absurd things we’d witnessed, and generally having a great time. Mike got up and excused himself to take a toilet break in a ‘staggering’ manner due to excessive champagne consumption. While he was gone, the head stewardess came over to me and smiled holding up her clipboard checking my name. “Mr. Karim, we’re delighted that you and Mr Stotter are having a good time on the flight, but for the benefit of the other passengers, could we ask you to keep the noise down a little please.” She said in a clipped American accent. Now I had consumed a great deal of Champagne and Malt Scotch at the time, and have a mischievous streak, so I smiled back and replied “Sorry for that, but Mr Forsyth is enjoying your hospitality, but I’ll ask him to keep his voice down”. I am still amazed how I kept a straight-face while staring at the Stewardess straight in the eye. She looked back at the passenger manifest on her clipboard and shook her head and checked the seat numbers above us. “Sorry, Mr Forsyth?” She flipped the manifest over, checking all the names. “Sorry, I should have mentioned, Mr Frederick Forsyth likes to travel incognito, he has a ‘special’ identity - Michael Stotter. Like in his novel.” She looked at me quizzically. I cleared my throat and in the most authoritative upper-class English accent, I continued. “I’m Karim, Ali Karim his security man. You know must know who Frederick Forsyth is?” She looked confused. “You must know!” I continued stretching my arm out like a sniper taking aim “The Day of The Jackal.” I could hear a few people in the seats behind whisper “hey, did you hear that! Frederick Forsyth is on the plane!” And then I noticed other passengers looking at us and before long more whispers spread back along the cabin like a Mexican wave. The stewardess looked back at me and said “of course, I saw the film with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere! and the Jackal is a master of disguise.” I heard the toilet door open and a decidedly ‘wobbly’ Mike Stotter stumble out. I didn’t want to remind her of the novel and the original Fred Zinnemann film so I continued, “precisely!”

The stewardess moved away and smiled as Mike took his seat. The stewardess winked at me and said “Anything we can do for you Mr…..Stotter,” and winked at him. Mike smiled back and replied in broad cockney, “more champagne would be nice” and with that the stewardess went back to the galley. Mike looked at me and screwed up his eyes intently, “is it me, or are people staring at us?” I shrugged and told him it was his imagination, but I heard a voice tut behind us “that’s not Frederick Forsyth, I’ve seen him on TV, he’s much taller than that and a damned sight older!” I looked innocently at my feet. “Did you hear that? Freddy Forsyth’s on the plane?” Stotter retorted. I didn’t have the heart to tell him anymore till we got into the Hyatt, instead I knocked back the champagne. “Did you notice that stewardess?” Mike said as she left our glasses filled with bubbly, “she keeps winking at me…..” I could only but laugh as the rest of first class stared at us and I tried hard to keep a straight-face.

To read more about our adventures at Thrillerfest 2007 click here, here and here – And this year we’re unable to attend Thrillerfest, but will be at Bouchercon St Louis in September….traveling economy.

Photo © 2010 Ali Karim “Selina Walker with Frederick Forsyth” at the Specsavers CWA Dagger Awards 2010 Grosvenor House London

Author Barry Eisler joins Amazon Imprint!

In March this year best-selling author Barry Eisler announced that he had turned down a two-book deal worth $500,000 from St Martin’s Press. He was subsequently interviewed by author Joe Konrath on his blog A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing about his decision to turn down the deal and go the self-publishing route. The same interview can be also found on Barry’s blog The Heart of the Matter as well. He also explained the reasons why he went down the self-publishing route to author Jason Pinter in an online article in The Daily Beast.

Amazon appears have managed to persuade him to change his mind once again and he has according to BizJournal.com (where you can read the complete article) been lured into joining Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer mystery imprint. All this was revealed at the recent Book Expo America (BEA) with Idea Logical’s Mike Shatzkin in New York. Eisler in his discussion explained that his next book would be released initially in e-book format with a print edition to follow and his advance was "comparable" to traditional deals offered to him for his book.

London Review Bookshop World Literature Weekend 17-19 June 2011

The London Review Bookshop is hosting a World Literature Weekend, which will take place in Bloomsbury. There are two events of particular interest to crime fiction readers.

On Friday 17 June (2 p.m.) Spanish crime writer Teresa Solana (who is the author of A Not so Perfect Crime) will take part in a seminar on Catalonian writing and on Sunday 19 June (also at 2 p.m.) there will be an event with Scandinavian crime writers Karin Alvtegen and Hakan Nesser. Both events are to be held in the Stevenson Room of The British Museum. Further details can be found at the London Review Bookshop and to book tickets call: 020 7269 9030

National Crime Writing Week - 13th to 19 June 2011

This year the National Crime Writing week is due to take place between 13th and 19th June 2011. National Crime Writing Week is a week of events celebrating crime writing. As part of National Crime Writing Week I shall be taking part in a debate on the judging process.

London South Bank University in association with The Culture, Writing and Performance Department within the Faculty of Arts and Human Science are hosting a day whole event surrounding crime fiction. The event “Meet the Authors: Choosing the Best in Crime and Mystery Fiction” will take place on Thursday 16 June 2011.

The event is due to start at 12:30pm and authors Frances Fyfield, Belinda Bauer, S J Bolton, Natasha Cooper, Chris Fowler and Gerald O’Donovan will be in attendance. The first panel "What's in a prize?” will start at 13:30 and will include authors Belinda Bauer, S J Bolton and Gerald O’Donovan alongside Transworld editor Sarah Adams and publicist Patsy Irwin and they will be discussing the mysteries of being nominated, the effects of being short-listed and what happens when you win. The panel will be moderated by Margaret Kinsman.

The second panel is entitled “What’s in the judging process?” where alongside Christopher Fowler, Zoe Watkins and David Wilkerson I shall be talking about what it is like to act as a judge for a literary prize. The panel will be moderated by crime writer Natasha Cooper, a former Chairman of the CWA and a former CWA judge. The second panel is due to start at 15:30pm.

At 17:00 Barry Forshaw a former CWA Gold Dagger judge and a distinguished crime fiction critic will interview author Frances Fyfield.

More information on the event and booking information can be found here. Information about other events can also be found on the CWA Website.