Murder One .... So Long, Farewell........

With less than twenty-four hours to go Murder One are currently having a sale with 40% off all their full price books. Tomorrow (Saturday 31 January 2009) is the last day if you want to get your hands on some goodies. The shop will be open from 10:00am until 2:00pm, so if you are planning on going into central London, don't forget to pop into the shop. The good news is that the mail order business will still be continuing and I understand that there will be a place (not exactly sure but I believe that it will be in Hoxton) where customers will be able to go and pick up their ordered books.

So, as they said in Sound of Music - So long, farewell Auf wiedersehen, adieu.

Spread the Word

Spread the Word: books to talk about have drawn up their short list of 10 from 50 nominated books in their search to find the best book to talk about this year. Votes cast on their website will decide the winner with the announcement being made on World Book Day 2009, Thursday 5 March. Amongst the short list are two crime novels – Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis and Season of the Witch by Natasha Mostert.

Bad Traffic is the first in a series of crime novels to feature Chinese detective Inspector Jian. It began life as a response to two real life crimes: the death by suffocation of more than fifty illegal Chinese immigrants in a lorry container, and the drowning of the cockle pickers on Morecombe Bay. Lewis combines a unique and moving thriller with the vicious and topical issue of people trafficking. He finds himself not only having to deal with persuasive and nasty killers but in a situation where he is not able to make himself understood properly because of the language barrier.

In Season of the Witch, Gabriel Blackstone is a cool, hip, thoroughly twenty-first century Londoner with a remarkable gift. A computer hacker by trade, he is also by inclination - a remote viewer; someone whose unique gifts enable him to 'slam rides' through the thought processes of others.

But reading people’s minds is something he does only with the greatest lack of enthusiasm that is until he is contacted by an ex-lover who begs him to use his gift to find her stepson, last seen months earlier in the company of two sisters. He soon gets drawn into the lives of two beautiful sisters who are practising witches.

The only other crime novel to make it on to the longlist is Adrian McKinty's excellent book The Bloomsday Dead. The Bloomsday Dead is the final book in the trilogy and follows on from Dead I May Well Be (which was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award) and The Dead Yard which won the award for won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller in 2006. In The Bloomsday Dead Michael Forsythe finds himself once more drawn back to Ireland to find a missing girl. It is the only opportunity that he will have to save his own skin.

Rolling Stone

The success of Nick Stone just keeps on rolling. Not only did Mr Clarinet win the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award (2006), The International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel (2007), The Macavity Award for Best First novel (2007) the book was also nominated for the Barry Award (2007) and the Gumshoe Award (2008). He starts 2009 with a bang. He has just won the PRIX POLAR SNCF (Detective Novel Award) 2009 for the Best Crime Book by a foreign writer for 2009.

Published in France as Tonton Clarinette, it was up against The Square of Revenge by Pieter Aspe and The Hostage by Olav Hergel.

Established in 2000. The 9th edition of the SNCF Thriller prize drew a larger amount of participants than any other readers' prize event in France. No less than 2000 fans of the genre, spread over 12 regional reading groups, worked all year to come up with their final selection.

The awards ceremony will be on 9th February at the Théâtre Le Trianon in Paris, where the European and French whodunit prize winners will be announced.

A change of pace for Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis latest foray into the historical world will be about the English Civil War. According to Book Trade Info Rebels and Traitors is a departure from her much loved Roman series. The historical novel will tell the story of two different people on different sides of the war and what it is like to have fought on the frontline. Century who also publish her Roman series have acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights. Traitors and Rebels will be published in September 2009.

The most recent book in her Ancient Rome series featuring Marcus Didius Falco is Alexandria and a review can be found here. The twentieth book in her excellent series is due out in June 2010 under the title Nemesis.

And if you want to read SHOTS' interview between Mike Ripley and Lindsey, click here.

Rick Mofina

Author Rick Mofina's standalone novel Six Seconds is due to be released in the UK by Mira on 17 April 2009. If you would like to get your hands on a free proof copy please go here. There are 200 copies being given away.

Six Seconds is about a mother's search for her abducted son and a detective's investigation into a mysterious death lead them to uncover a global plot to asssinate the Pope - using the boy as a weapon.

I will be doing a Q & A with Rick nearer the date and it will be posted on the Shotsmag.co.uk website in due course. Watch this space!

London Boulevard

News from my friend David Thompson’s Busted Flush Blog is that Ken Bruen’s London Boulevard will start filming soon with Colin Farrell and Kiera Knightley on board.

Oscar Winner William Monahan (screenwriter of The Departed) is set to direct the film which is due to start filming during the summer.

London Boulevard is the story of criminal known as Mitchell. When Mitchell is released from prison after serving three years for a vicious attack he doesn't even remember, Billy Norton is there to pick him up. But Norton works for Tommy Logan, a ruthless lowlife with plans Mitchell wants nothing to do with. Attempting to stay out of Logan's way, Mitchell finds work at the Holland Park mansion of faded movie actress, Lillian Palmer. But it isn't long before Mitchell's violent past catches up with him. When innocent people start getting killed and his eccentric sister's life is put in danger, Mitchell is forced to act.

If done well London Boulevard will certainly be worth going to see.

JEFFREY DEAVER LIVE BLOGCHAT

On Tuesday 27th January between 12 noon and 5pm, Waterstone's will be hosting a live web chat with bestselling American crime writer, Jeffery Deaver, from his home in the US who is promoting his new stand-alone novel, The Bodies Left Behind. As many of you know, Jeffrey is a good friend to SHOTS, so remember to ask him about The Garden of Beast before Ali does!
You can see him in the UK this July when he comes over to promote his new Kathryn Dance novel, Roadside Crosses.

His fantastic publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, have given us 2 copies of the hardback to giveaway - absolutely free. Just email me at shotseditor@yahoo.co.uk with Deaver Giveaway as the subject line, and I will pick the two lucky winners. Good luck.
More info is on this link

Dennis Lehane - A Life in Writing

Following on from the interview in the Daily Telegraph last week end there is another excellent interview with Dennis Lehane in today's Guardian (24 January). A Life in Writing.

He talks about his latest novel The Given Day and the length of time that it took him to write. As he says in the interview "I feel like if this bombs, God: it's going to be my Heaven's Gate, my Waterworld". The Given Day which took him 5 years to write is to be the first of a trilogy. He also talks about his series featuring detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro of which has a massive fan base. Lehane is very forttunate with Hollywood. Firstly there was the success of Mystic River which in 2004 was nominated for best picture and also won awards for two of the actors Tim Robbins and Sean Penn. Then there was Gone Baby Gone which was filmed by Ben Affleck and featured Casey Affleck in 2007.The film of course was not released in the UK until 2008 allegedly as a result of the disappearance of Maddie McCann. Fans of the Kenzie and Gennaro series are of course pleased to hear that there will be another one in the series soon. Lehane also talks about his stint writing for the Wire and the fact that it seemed to be a daunting task. The interview is certainly worth reading and is illuminating about his writing as it is about what makes him tick.

Dennis Lehane will be at Borders Charing Cross Road on 12 February 2009

Dennis Lehane

Further to Ali Karim's blog earlier about the forthcoming visit of Dennis Lehane and Tess Gerristen to the UK, on January 18 there was an excellent interview with Dennis Lehane in the Daily Telegraph. Initially it was not available on line but it appears that someone sensible at the Daily Telegraph has now decided that it should be. The full interview can be found here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/4223368/Dennis-Lehanes-The...

I for one am looking forward to the event with Tess Gerristen that is going to be taking place at Borders Charing Cross Road on 12 February. I am sure that it will be a fascinating evening.

Science solves Italian Job mystery

A little piece of frivolity on a Friday. This is been doing the rounds in the UK today.

For 40 years, film fans have pondered what happened to Sir Michael Caine's gang at the end of The Italian Job.
The movie ended with the back of the bus laden with gold bullion perched over a chasm in the Alps, and Sir Michael's character Charlie Croker says: "Hang on a minute lads - I've got a great idea."
However, the riddle of how they could have extricated the gold - and themselves - from the cliff-hanger scenario has never been solved - until now.
John Godwin, 39, an IT manager from Godalming, Surrey, beat 2,000 other entrants in a competition organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to work out how it could have been done, in a time limit of 30 minutes.
His strategy is designed to redistribute weight, involving knocking out windows, draining the fuel tank, and loading extra ballast (rocks) on to the front of the bus.
With various windows broken, a member of the team could be lowered from one of them to let the air out of the front tyres, to make the coach more stable.
Croker could then have used an access panel to get to the fuel tank, near the rear of the vehicle, and remove its drainage plug.
One man could then safely leave the coach, and pass ballast in to weigh the vehicle down at the front. The gold could then be moved to the front and taken off.
Mr Godwin adds: "What happens then? Separate problem I suppose, but waiting for a passing motorist and either hijacking (feels quite bad) or buying their vehicle with stolen gold (still feels bad, but less damage and no blood) would see the men on their way to Switzerland..."

Check out the graphic:

Murder One - Last Chance...........

Like many, I am upset about the demise of Murder One. However, there is still a little time left to potter on down to the shop and pick up some bargains. Initially Murder One was due to close on Saturday 24 January 2009, but luckily for us this has been extended by a week. So those of you who have not managed to get to the shop there is still a bit more time to do so.


I have at last got my hands on the excellent short story collection called “These Guns for Hire – 31 Short Stories about Hitmen” which was edited by JA Konrath. I have been trying to read these stories since it was first published.

Left Coast Crime nominations 2009

The nominations for the Left Coast Crime Awards have been announced. Winners will be announced at the Awards Brunch on March 11.

Bruce Alexander Memorial Mystery Award
Nox Dormienda, A Long Night Sleeping - Kelli Stanley (Five Star)
Touchstone - Laurie King (Bantam)
Tell Me Pretty Maiden - Rhys Bowen (St. Martin Press)
A Royal Pain - Rhys Bowen (Berkeley Prime Crime)
A Fatal Waltz - Tasha Alexander (Harper Collins)

Hawaii Five-O
Angel Falls - Baron Birtcher (Iota)
Fractured - Karin Slaughter (Delacorte Press)
The Black Path - Asa Larsson (Delta)
The Angel of Knowlton Place - Kate Floral (Five Star)
Mahu Fire - Neil S. Placky (Alyson Books)
Death of a Cozy Writer - G.M. Malliet (Midnight Ink)

Lefty
Thugs and Kisses - Sue Ann Jaffarian ( Midnight Ink)
Six Geese a Slaying - Donna Andrews (St. Martins)
Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill - N.M.Kelby (Shaye Areheart Books/Random House Group)
Greasing the Pinata - Tim Maleeny (Poisoned Pen Press)
Getting Old is to Die For - Rita Lakin (Dell/Bantam)
It Happened One Knife - Jeffrey Cohen (Berkeley Prime Crime)

Congratulations to all the nominees.

The Guardian 100 Crime Books - extra

I received an email from Mike Ripley this morning drawing my attention to another "1000 Novels" to read before you die list (the Telegraph did a 100 list only a week ago). Mike said: "In the crime section, there were some odd choices to say the least ("Jurassic Park" a crime novel - the T Rex did it??) but no authors I would say shouldn't be there per se, even if I would argue about the particular books picked.
As with all lists, though, it's who was left out and my quick scan of the online version suggests the following notable ommissions:
Margery Allingham, John Ball, John Bingham, Christianna Brand, Sarah Caudwell, G K Chesterton, James Crumley, CHARLES DICKENS!!!!, C.S. Forester, Dick Francis, David Goodis, Cyril Hare, Fergus Hume, Dennis Lehane, Ted Lewis, John D Macdonald, Philip MacDonald, Ross MacDonald, Leo Malet, Horace McCoy, William McGivern, William McIlvanney, Manuel Montalban, Robert B. Parker, Anthony Price, Ellery Queen, Minette Walters,Hilary Waugh, Charles Willeford, Charles Williams.
There are many other personal favourites (Jonathan Latimer, Kenneth Fearing, Alan Furst, P M Hubbard, Robert Player etc. etc.) I would make case for were I asked, but ignoring some or all of the above is ridiculous.
I'm sorry, but picking three James Bond books and two Michael Crichtons and thus (in theory) missing out any 3 of the above is disgraceful.
Any other howlers spotted?"
I had a quick scan and was surprised that Michael Connelly, John Harvey, Michael Dibdin, HRF Keating, Philip Kerr, Steig Larsson, Stef Penny, Mickey Spillane and Gaston Leroux were missing.
Have a look and tell me what you think.

Latte or Espresso?

Fancy a quick latte or Americano? How about a book to go with the order? Newsstand claims it is the first UK company to have successfully installed the Espresso Book Machine and said it is in talks with a number of book publishers to offer their books via an on-demand book printing service.
The company, which describes itself as "a jack of all trades", works with newspaper and magazine publishers and offers online magazine subscription and polywrapping services.It said it has already printed between 500 and 600 books since the on-demand book-printing machine arrived last October.Using the Espresso, Newsstand offers items from publishers' backlists, along with enlarged type for the visually impaired, which a spokesperson for the company described as "quite a good market".The books are all paperback and perfect bound and Newsstand charges £10 for the standard version and £14 for an enlarged book. Costs may be higher depending on arrangements with specific publishers, and the company said that for out-of-copyright books, Newsstand would make a charity donation.The company is using version 1.5 of the Espresso Book Machine, of which there are just nine in the world. "They're basically prototypes," said the spokesperson.The news comes at a time when on-demand services are tightening their belts. Self-publishing company Lulu.com recently made a quarter of its staff redundant. And although Blackwell said last June it would bring an Espresso machine to the UK, it will now do this in late spring, according to a Blackwell spokesperson. The machine will run at its London Charing Cross store.

How to get the endorsement of a life time!

Has this ever happened before? Off the top of my heard I cannot remember this ever being the case but I may well be wrong. I stand corrected if that is the case. What you may well ask am I talking about?

Patricia Cornwell the best selling crime writer has given debut author Philipp Meyer a big push up the ladder by ingeniously endorsing his debut novel America Rust in her latest Kay Scarpetta novel Scarpetta. Could this be a co-incidence or are there other forces at work here? While Cornwell and Meyer are published by two different publishing houses they do share something in common and that is an agent, Esther Newberg of International Creative Management.

Further information can be found here:-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/media/19cornwell.html?_r=1&ref=business

Phillipp Meyer’s book is not due for publication until next month. It will be interesting to see what effect Ms Cornwell’s endorsement has on his sales!