Copies of Stuart Neville’s Collusion up for grabs!

An LA Times Book Prize Finalist, and sequel to Stuart Neville's award winning debut, The Twelve /The Ghosts Of Belfast is up for grabs on the Shots Ezine.

Collusion

Former paramilitary killer Gerry Fegan wanders New York City, hiding from a past he escaped at terrible cost. But he made a fatal mistake: he spared the life of Bull O'Kane, a ruthless man who will stop at nothing to get his revenge. Too many witnesses survived a bloody battle at his border farm, and now he wants them silenced, whether man, woman or child. O'Kane calls the Traveller, an assassin without pity or remorse, a killer of the purest kind.

Back in Belfast, Detective Inspector Jack Lennon, father of one the witnesses, is caught up in a web of official secrets and lies as he tries to uncover the whereabouts of his daughter. The closer he gets to the truth about the events on O'Kane's border farm, the more his superiors instruct him to back off.

When Fegan realises he can't shake off the trail of violence that has followed him across the world, he has no choice but to return to Belfast and confront his past. The Traveller awaits Fegan's return, ready for the fight of his life.

So if you want to get your hands on one of the 5 copies of this excellent book I would suggest that you hurry over to the Shots Ezine competition page.

The Life of a novelist in Bangkok is not what you think!!

Jake Needham is our guest blogger. Jake has published four contemporary crime novels set in Asia and his fifth will be published this fall. Jake's books have appeared in more than a dozen separate editions in four languages as well as optioned for motion pictures.

Two of Jake's titles, THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE and THE BIG MANGO, are now available in the UK from Marshall Cavendish International. Two other titles, KILLING PLATO and LAUNDRY MAN, will be available by the end of this year.

About twenty years ago, I was living in Los Angeles and earning an embarrassingly substantial living writing and producing crap movies for American cable television. Then, to my complete surprise, HBO offered a deal on a far classier feature film script I had written a couple of years earlier, a political thriller set in Asia, and abruptly my life spun off in an entirely unanticipated direction. It was that deal which led directly to me living for the last two decades in what is surely the world's most notorious city.

This is how that happened. The production company thought it would be cool to shoot the film in Bangkok and they wanted a producer on the project who had at least a remote idea of where Bangkok actually is. I put up my hand. Looking back, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. If I had, I think I would have kept my hands in my pockets.

The good news here is that while we were in production in Bangkok I was lucky enough to meet the lovely and long-suffering woman who is now my wife. She was born in Thailand, but had gone to boarding school in the UK from the age of twelve and graduated from Oxford. After that she returned to Thailand and signed on as the editor of the Thai edition of Tatler Magazine. After all, other than becoming prime minister, which almost everyone avoids, what else can you do in Thailand after graduating from Oxford?

Anyway, she came out to the set one day while we were shooting in order to interview the writer of the film for a Tatler article. I modestly made my appearance. A year later, to the complete horror of her very prominent and highly respected Thai parents, we were married. We have lived in Bangkok ever since.

I am now a novelist and occasional newspaper columnist, having come to the realization a dozen or so years ago that I don't particularly like movies. Over the past ten years I've published four contemporary crime novels set in Asia. The fifth will be published this fall and the sixth early in 2012. And here is what I have learned as a result of that. Living and writing in ASia requires coping with that two-edge sword you here so much about these days. Yes, the place is a cornucopia of inspiration and a fountain of material for the crime novelist, but the asumptions many peoplemake about who you are when you live in a place like Bangkok can be very heavy baggage indeed.

My first clue as to what I was up against came from the puzzled looks and hostile stares I attracted back in the States when I first told people I was taking up residence in Bangkok. Years later, in a novel of mine called LAUNDRY MAN which became the first in the Jack Shepherd series, the main character related a similar experience. Jack Shepherd was a lawyer in Washington DC who, on a whim, decided to take a job teaching international business at a Thai university. This is how he described what happened to him then:

When people in Washington first began to hear that I was leaving to live in Bangkok and teach at Chulalongkorn University, a few of them jumped to the conclusion I was making a point of some kind, abandoning the land of my birth for reasons that were probably political and no doubt wacky. Others who heard what I was doing—and I noticed this group seemed to be composed mainly of women—attributed my change of address to middle-aged male angst fueled by overly moist fantasies of slim, submissive Thai women serving me brightly colored tropical drinks with little umbrellas in them.

Most people, of course, fell into neither of those categories. Most people just assumed I had lost my damned mind.

Part of the problem was that the whole idea of living in a foreign country was just so strange to most Americans, particularly since very few of them had ever seriously entertained the thought, however fleetingly, themselves. After all, everyone wanted to come to America, didn't they? Half the population of the earth was fighting to live in Orange County and work in a 7-Eleven, wasn't it? Why in God's name would an American even think of living anywhere else?

When the subject of my residence in Bangkok comes up with people back in the States these days, everyone I know talks of one of two things. The first of those things is food. Everyone I meet claims to love Thai food. Sending out for Chinese is cheap. Sending out for Thai is cheap, too, but is seems a lot more exotic. Most Westerners have no real idea what they are actually eating in either case, but Thai food is both cheap and exotic and how can you beat that.

The second is, of course, sex. Bangkok is inexorably linked in most people's mind with stories they have heard somewhere, although few will admit to remembering exactly where, of an unabashedly dissolute life and the easy availability of free sex. Well, perhaps not exactly free, but certainly pretty inexpensive. Thai sex is generally thought of as a little like Thai food. Cheap but with an exotic flare to it. Can't beat that combination in any context, can you?

With all that going for it, you would think that the idea of living in Bangkok would be pretty interesting to a lot of people, wouldn't you? You might think so, but you'd be wrong.

A couple of times I tried defusing the scowls that generally appeared at the mere mention of my residential status by joking that, well, a man could sure make a worse choice than taking up residence in a city internationally famed for food and sex but when I saw the solem expressions that quip provoked in most Americans, I quickly eliminated it from my repertoire. Maybe the suggestion that food ands sex are actually an interesting part of life makes Americans uncomfortable. Maybe I ought to have more friends from France.

Anyway, the reaction I typically got when people found out I was living in Bangkok inevitably went like this. Oh, the place is no doubt exotic and interesting, people murmured, but…it's a city where a lot of people go who aren't particularly nice, isn't it?

Sadly, I never found a way to deny that with a straight face. Even the New York Times just a few days ago said more or less the same thing about Thailand, making the observation that "the world's wretched refuse seems to show up there in droves" (their story is here); and heck, who can argue with the New York Times?

At its most benign, Bangkok is part Miami and part Beirut, but most of the time Bangkok is anything other than benign. I have always thought there must be some kind of international network devoted to coaxing social misfits and dropout cases worldwide into coming to Bangkok, because come they do by the thousands. They walk away from third-shift jobs in places like Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Berlin, and Toronto, buy a cheap airline ticket, and make their way to the Land of Smiles.

Some are looking for a cheap tropical paradise. Others think they've found Sodom and Gomorrah. And almost every one of them is hoping in some way or another to make a fresh start on a life that probably had until then very little to recommend it. Many of these refugees from reality probably couldn't have located the city on a map before they decided it was the place for them. Maybe they still can't, but now Bangkok is their last, perhaps their only hope.

Deep in the empty hours, it is this army of the socially dispossessed and the downright criminal that takes control of the small part of the city that is friendly to foreigners. Tuk-tuks, little three-wheeled motorcycle taxis, fly back and forth most of the night ferrying carousers between the two clumps of go-go bars that anchor the neighborhood: Nana Plaza on the west, and Soi Cowboy about a mile to the east.

They are all there. The lonely, the frightened, the guilty, the depressed, and the psychotic. Soaked with sweat, they rush from one bar to another, reeking of that peculiarly sour, metallic odor habitually given off by the emotionally overmatched and underachieving. After midnight, it is this floodtide of the lost and abandoned that owns Bangkok.

The problem with being a novelist who lives in Bangkok is that a lot of people assume you're there because you one of those guys; and that you're writing books, probably very bad ones, only because you're on the lam from another life and can't get a real job. Even worse from my point of view, they assume your novels are tales about the ocean of cheap hookers and crappy beer in which most people are absolutely certain all foreign men living in Bangkok are perennially adrift.

I had a literary agent once who told me that more than half of the American editors to whom he submitted my novels refused to read them at all. We have no interest in that kind of material, they sniffed, and returned my manuscripts to him unread.

Hey, my agent shouted back, Needham doesn't write those kinds of books, but he found that no matter how loudly he shouted he was still facing a formidable wall of presumption based solely on my personal geography. One editor even asked my agent if I was a pedophile, because why the hell else would anyone live in Bangkok?

Seriously. I am not making that up.

So, please, allow me to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

I write crime novels that are set largely in modern Asian cities. My books are about the people who ride the margins and work the netherworld of contemporary Asia. They aren't about Thai prostitutes and western sex tourists.

Happily, Marshall Cavendish International, a very fine publisher owned by a major Singapore media group, now publishes my novels. They distribute the print editions of my books throughout Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and -- beginning this month with THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE and THE BIG MANGO -- in the UK and Europe as well. In addition to that, by the end of this year e-book editions of all my novels will be available internationally in every popular format.

So now hear this. I no longer give a damn what American publishers think about my place of residence or what my choice of it might say about me.

My Jack Shepherd Series - LAUNDRY MAN, KILLING PLATO, and LAWYERS, GUNS, AND MONEY coming this fall - is about a high-flying international lawyer who has swapped the fierce intrigues of Washington for the lethargic backwater of Bangkok where he is now just an unremarkable professor at an unknown university in an unimportant city. Or is he? A lawyer among people who laugh at the law, a friend in a land where today's allies are tomorrow'a fugitives, Jack Shepherd is a man perpetually tantalized by the moral labryrinth that bedevils all western expatriates in Asia.

My Inspector Samuel Tay series – THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE and, coming next spring, BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA – is about a police inspector in the Singapore CID who is something of a reluctant detective. He is a little overweight, a little lonely, a little cranky, and he smokes way too much. When he thinks back, he can't even remember why he became a detective in the first place. All he knows is that he is very, very good at what he does, and probably not much good at anything else.

Sorry, but there's neither a Thai hooker nor a western sex tourist to be found in either series.

I just hope you're not too disappointed.

More information about Jake and his novels can be found on his website www.JakeNeedham.com

History in the Court

Goldsboro Books will host the first History in the Court evening on the 29th September 2011 following on from the success of Crime in the Court earlier in the year. This will become an annual event that will be an informal gathering for fans of history and historical novels to meet some of the best historical writers published today. History in the Court will take place between 5pm till 9pm.

Cecil Court may have been "fit for good inhabitants" but we have good reason to suppose that eighteenth century Cecil Court was not an especially salubrious address. The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, fully searchable online, give an insight into life in the street at the time, whenever the inhabitants fell foul of the law. Residents crop up regularly in the trial transcripts, mostly for petty theft but also for highway robbery, forgery and arson. In 1735 Elizabeth Calloway, keeper of a Brandy Shop in Cecil Court where her clientele could be found "drinking, smoking, and swearing, and running up and down Stairs till one or two in the Morning" seemingly over-insured her goods and set the place alight. Her neighbours' houses were also burned to the ground while she sat smoking her pipe and drinking good Sussex beer with friends a few streets away. It was the first London address of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his family (1764-5), arguably where he composed his first symphony.

Long before Cecil Court became the home for Goldsboro Books it has a history that makes it the world famous street it is today. Cecil Court was laid out in the late seventeenth-century, filling in open land between St Martin’s Lane and Leicester Square as London spread steadily west. It is still owned by the family from which it takes its name, the Cecil family of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, who are the descendants of Robert Cecil, created first Earl of Salisbury by James I after he smoothed over the transition from the house of Tudor to that of the Stuarts. It was the first London address of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his family (1764-5), arguably where he composed his first symphony; film pioneers such as James Williamson and Cecil Hepworth regarded ‘Flicker Alley’ as the heart of the early British film trade and a young Arthur Ransome honed his writing skills while doing as little work as possible for Ernest Oldmeadow at the Unicorn Press at No. 7 Cecil Court. More information about Cecil Court can be found on their website www.cecilcourt.co.uk

Over 30 authors have been invited and are due to attend. They include - AL Berridge, Richard Blake, Nick Drake, Stella Duffy, James Forrester, Seth Hunter, Michael Jecks, Ben Kane, Karen Maitland, Manda Scott, C J Samson, Laura Wilson and Robyn Young to name a few.

Tickets are available and can be purchased here.

Forthcoming books to look forward to from Transworld Publishers

The Affair is the latest book by Lee Child in the excellent series featuring Jack Reacher. March 1997. A woman has her throat cut behind a bar in Carter Crossing, Mississippi. Just down the road is a big army base. Is the murderer a local guy - or is he a soldier? Jack Reacher, still a major in the military police, is sent in undercover. The county sheriff is a former U.S. Marine - and a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere. Is the Pentagon stonewalling her? Or doesn't she really want to find the killer? The adrenaline-pumping, high-voltage action in "The Affair" is set just six months before the opening of "Killing Floor", and it marks a turning point in Reacher's career. If he does what the army wants, will he be able to live with himself? And if he doesn't, will the army be able to live with him? And is this his last case in uniform? The Affair is due to be published in September.

Seven days. Three killings. And one woman who knows too much...Crime reporter Annika Bengtzon is woken by a phonecall in the early hours of a wintry December morning. An explosion has ripped apart the Olympic Stadium. And a victim has been blown to pieces. As Annika delves into the details of the bombing and the background of the victim, there is a second explosion. These chilling crimes could be her biggest news story yet. When her police source reveals they are hot on the heels of the bomber, Annika is guaranteed an exclusive with her name on it. But she is uncovering too much, and soon finds herself the target of a deranged serial killer... The Bomber is by Lisa Marklund and is due to be published in November 2011

On a rainswept London night, the wealthy unscrupulous Robert Kramer hosts a party in his penthouse just off Trafalgar Square. But something is wrong. The atmosphere is uncomfortable, the guests are on edge. And when Kramer's new young wife goes to check on their baby boy, she finds the nursery door locked from the inside. Breaking in, the Kramers are faced with an open window, an empty cot, and a grotesque antique puppet of Mr Punch lying on the floor. It seems that young Noah Kramer was thrown from the building, but the child was strangled, and the marks of the puppet's hands are clearly on his throat...what's more, there was a witness. It's a perfect case for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. As John May and his team interrogate the guests, Arthur Bryant heads into the secret world of automata and stagecraft, illusions and effects. His suspicions fall on the staff of Kramer's company, who have been employed to stage a gruesome new thriller in the West End. As a second impossible death occurs, the detectives uncover forgotten museums and London eccentrics, and take a trip to a seaside Punch & Judy show. Then Bryant's biographer suddenly dies. Was it a tragic accident, or could the circumstances of her death be related to the case? There's just one hour left to solve the crime, but Bryant has buried himself away with his esoteric books. The stage is set for a race against time with a surprising twist... Bryant and May and the Memory of Blood is by Christopher Fowler and is due to be published in September.

Driver: Nemesis is by Alex Sharp. "The Driver": John Tanner is the wheelman, an undercover cop with an awesome driving ability. He earned his stripes racing stock cars through city streets and now he's the best in the business. But his legendary skills are about to be put to the ultimate test..."The Mission": Tanner must infiltrate the criminal underworld of The Indian, the most feared gang leader in New Orleans - a man so terrifying that people claim he has voodoo powers. But when a figure from his past appears, Tanner must face an even more deadly enemy..."The Nemesis": Jericho is an ice cold hitman with a longstanding grudge against Tanner, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Tanner is going to have to drive for his life to survive, complete his mission and stop the city being brought to its knees. Driver is due to be published in August.

Defender of Rome is by Douglas Jackson and is due to be published in August. Gaius Valerius Verrens returns to Rome from the successful campaign against Boudicca in Britain. Now hailed a 'Hero of Rome', Valerius is not the man he once was - scarred both physically and emotionally by the battles he has fought, his sister is mortally ill, his father in self-imposed exile. And neither is Rome the same city as the one he left. The Emperor Nero grows increasingly paranoid. Those who seek power for themselves whisper darkly in the emperor's ears. They speak of a new threat, one found within the walls of Rome itself. A new religious sect, the followers of Christus, deny Nero's divinity and are rumoured to be spreading sedition. Nero calls on his 'Hero of Rome' to become a 'Defender of Rome', to seek out this rebel sect, to capture their leader, a man known as Petrus. Failure would be to forfeit his life, and the lives of twenty thousands Judaeans living in Rome. But as Valerius begins his search, a quest which will take him to the edge of the empire, he will discover that success may cost him nearly as much as failure.

Snuff is by Terry Pratchett and is book 39 in the Discworld Series. According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse. And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder. He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment. They say that in the end all sins are forgiven. But not quite all... Snuff is due to be published in September.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 sent shockwaves around the financial world. Never before had such a large and prestigious organisation been allowed to fail, and to fail so quickly. It began a domino effect, hitting banks and economies around the world. Theories abound as to the cause of the collapse - the sub-prime bubble, bad management, even good old-fashioned greed. But what if it was none of the above. What if Lehman Brothers had been brought to its knees by the deliberate and wilful act of one man bent on a course of financial terrorism? Moreover, what if it was only a dry run for a bigger and even bolder attack on the financial capital of the world, the City of London? Samuel Carver is about to find himself on the biggest mission of his life. Carver is by Tom Cain and is due to be published in August.

It's Egypt, 1320 BC. The future of Egypt lies in the hands of chief detective Rahotep when he undertakes a clandestine mission across enemy empires and rogue states to deliver a top-secret letter, written by the Queen to her arch-enemy, the King of the Hittites. It is a mission from which Rahotep may not return. But he also has a wildly personal motive; to seek out a depraved murderer at the heart of a mysterious and brutal new opium cartel that has emerged within the criminal underworld of Thebes. His quest brings Rahotep face to face with his own dark demons, which he must conquer if he is to return home in time to save Egypt's greatest dynasty and his own family from the terror that threatens them all... Egypt: The Book of Chaos is by Nick Drake and is due to be published in August.

A murder committed on paper, safely within the confines of a novel, is one thing. To see that same crime in the real world, is something else entirely...Frank Fons is a very successful crime writer. His novels, famed for their visceral descriptions of violent death, have made him a household name. But now someone is copying his crimes. For Frank what once seemed a clever, intriguing plot twist, has suddenly become a terrifying, blood-spattered reality. In the novel, a redhead who was scared of water is drowned. In the mirror-image of the real world, she has become an ex-girlfriend chained and left to die at the bottom of the harbour. A corrupt police-officer tortured to death becomes a contact who dies with fear in his eyes. Someone is taking Franks' fiction and using it to destroy his life. The writer must become the detective. In fiction, the bad guy always gets caught, but in real life there is no such guarantee. Fear becomes real. The knife cut hurts like hell. Our narrator may not survive. No-one is promising you a happy ending. For Frank what had once been a game is now a matter of life and death. Death Sentence is by Mikkel Birkegaard and is due to be published in September.

The Colour of Death is by Michael Cordy and is due to be published in August. In a residential neighbourhood of Portland, Oregon, an unknown young woman uncovers a shocking crime scene by inexplicably sensing the evil within its walls. To the police, she is a mystery. She can't even tell them her own name. They christen her Jane Doe. Suffering terrifying hallucinations, Jane is assigned to Nathan Fox, a forensic psychiatrist struggling with his own demons. Together they must piece together the jigsaw that is Jane's identity. Then a sequence of brutal killings terrorizes the city and Fox learns Jane is the only cryptic link between the unrelated victims. To solve the murders, Fox must discard his black and white preconceptions, look beyond the spectrum of normal human experience and confront the dark truth of her past...And his own.

Dead Centre is the latest Nick Stone novel by Andy McNab. Indonesia, January 2005. Nick Stone is working undercover, to retrieve incriminating material from amongst the tsunami-ravaged chaos of a devastated landscape. His team is attacked and a man dies -- but not before he makes an agonising promise that will return one day to haunt him...Moscow, March 2011. Semi-retired but restless, Stone finds himself at the centre of an extraordinary encounter which turns his world upside down. An oligarch's young son and heir has been snatched -- with his mother -- from aboard a luxury yacht in the Seychelles, and only one man has what it takes to track them down and bring them home. The fuse is lit, and Stone is hurtled into his most complex and compelling mission yet -- a mission that leads him from the Alpine enclaves of the super-rich to the savage underbelly of war-torn Somalia. And in a world where piracy, extortion and betrayal lurk in the twisted wreckage of imperial ambition, Stone's principal objective turns remorselessly from liberation to revenge... Dead Centre is due to be published in September.

Adult movie actress, Raven Lane, is one of the most lusted after women in America, with millions of fans to prove it. But when a headless corpse turns up in the trunk of her car, she realises that fame carries a terrible price. Fearing for her life, and with the LAPD seemingly unable to protect her, Raven turns to elite bodyguard, Ryan Lock for help. Lock stops bad things happening to good people, but can he stop the tidal wave of violence now threatening the city of Los Angeles as Raven's predator targets - and kills - those closest to her? As events spiral out of control, Lock is drawn into a dangerous world where money rules, where sex is a commodity to be bought and sold, and where no one can be trusted, least of all his beautiful new client. But what he cannot know is the terrifying price he's about to pay - just for getting involved... Gridlock is the third book in the series by Sean Black to feature Ryan Lock and is due to be published in August.

The Silent Girl is the latest book in the Isles and Rizzoli series by Tess Gerritsen. In the murky shadows of an alley in Boston's Chinatown a hand has been discovered. On the rooftop above lies a woman's severed head. Two strands of silver hair - not human - cling to the body that lies nearby. These are Detective Jane Rizzoli's only clues, but they are enough for her and Dr Maura Isles to make a startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel. Seventeen years early a horrifying attack in a Boston restaurant left five people dead. Only one woman connected to the massacre is now still alive - a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dare not tell. A secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of the city. A secret that may not even be human. It soon becomes clear than an ancient evil is stirring in Chinatown: an evil that has killed before, and will kill again - unless Jane and Maura can track it down, and defeat it. The Silent Girl was published in July.

August 1942. North Africa. The desert war hangs in the balance. Although their retreat has finally been halted, morale in the British Army is at rock bottom. When the commander of the Eighth Army, General Gott, is killed, it seems that foul play is at work. An impenetrable Axis spy circuit could be compromising any hope the Allies have of stemming the Nazi tide. Jack Tanner, recovering from wounds in a Cairo hospital, is astonished to receive a battlefield commission, which will propel him into a very different world when he returns to action. Fit once more, he finds himself facing the full onslaught of Rommel's latest offensive. In its aftermath, Tanner and his trusty sidekick Sykes are recruited to work behind the Axis lines in a desperate attempt to take the fight to the Nazis. But the murky world of subterfuge, deceit and murder they find themselves in is a million miles away from the certainties of the battlefield and somehow they must discover who they can trust in the cat-and-mouse world of counter-espionage. Hellfire sees Tanner fighting his way through his most dangerous adventure yet - one that takes him from the dark backstreets of Cairo to the open Mediterranean and finally to one of the decisive clashes of the entire war - the Battle of Alamein. Hellfire is by James Holland and was published in July

Ngaio Marsh Award finalists announced

THE FINALISTS for the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which will be presented as part of the upcoming Christchurch Arts Festival, have now been announced.

The award, now in its second year, is made annually for the best crime, mystery, or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident. Its namesake, Dame Ngaio Marsh, is renowned worldwide as one of the four iconic “Queens of Crime” of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

The award was established last year with the blessing of Dame Ngaio’s closest living relatives.

Over the past two months an expert panel consisting of seven local and international judges has been considering the best examples of locally written crime and thriller fiction published in New Zealand during 2010. The judges are now pleased to announce that the finalists are:

• BLOOD MEN by Paul Cleave (Random House);
• CAPTURED by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster);
• HUNTING BLIND by Paddy Richardson (Penguin); and
• SLAUGHTER FALLS by Alix Bosco (Penguin).

The judges praised BLOOD MEN as “a gruesomely gripping story” told “in clean, sharp prose, with authentically laconic dialogue and flashes of very dark humour”; said CAPTURED was “fascinating”, with “amazing twists and turns” and a “main character who was drawn so well”; rated HUNTING BLIND highly for its “sense of downright creepiness” and “some fascinatingly complex characters”; and were impressed by “the depth and complexity” and “well-executed plot unfolding at a good pace” in SLAUGHTER FALLS.

This year’s winner of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel will be announced at a ceremony at the conclusion of the “Setting the Stage for Murder” event at the TelstraClear Club in North Hagley Park on the afternoon of Sunday 21 August 2011. New York Times bestselling international crime writers Tess Gerritsen and John Hart will also be appearing at the event. The winner will receive a distinctive handcrafted trophy designed and created by New Zealand sculptor and Unitec art lecturer Gina Ferguson, a set of Ngaio Marsh novels courtesy of HarperCollins, and a cheque for $1,000 provided by the Christchurch Writers Festival Trust.

“The four finalists are a great representation of both the quality and depth of contemporary Kiwi-written crime fiction,” said Judging Convenor Craig Sisterson. “It was a particularly tough decision for the panel this year, as judges were impressed by each of the books on the longlist, and there was a real diversity of storytelling, settings, and styles. There were some very good local crime novels published in 2010 that haven’t become finalists, but that’s a good sign of the growing strength of our own indigenous interpretation of a genre that’s popular around the world.”

Like Dame Ngaio in her heyday, local crime writers are now showing that they can stand shoulder-to-shoulder, quality-wise, with their more well-known international contemporaries, said Sisterson. “We should be proud of our best crime writers, and support and celebrate their success, just like we are justifiably proud of other New Zealanders who achieve great things in their chosen field.”

For more information, please contact:

Craig Sisterson, Judging Convenor craigsisterson@hotmail.com or (021) 184 1206

Mapping the unfashionable city

Nick Quantrill is our guest blogger. He talks about his hometown Hull where his books are set and his series character Joe Geraghty. In 2006 he won the HarperCollins “Crime Tour” Short Story Competition. As states on his website when not writing fiction, Nick contributes reviews and essays to a variety of football and music websites. He lives in Hull with his wife, cat and the constant fear his favourite sports teams will let him down.

My home city of Hull stands in isolation on the River Humber in East Yorkshire. At best, you’d politely refer to it as unfashionable and possibly point to its regular appearance propping up national social and educational league tables. I certainly haven’t been dealt the hand of Rankin’s Edinburgh or Billingham’s London. Hull has always been an industrial city and its thriving fishing industry once provided the city’s wealth and purpose. But the Cod Wars of the 1970s, which saw Iceland’s setting of quotas in their fishing waters, decimated the industry, and along with it, the city.

My debut novel, “Broken Dreams”, attempts to capture some of this within the structure of a crime novel and explain the city. The star of the story, Joe Geraghty, is a small-time PI who operates from the historic old town of Hull. Asked by a dying woman to find her estranged daughter, the story behind her disappearance points to the girl’s deceased father, Ron Platt. As a former trawler-man left high and dry with no work and no financial compensation, his world was radically different, leaving him unable to understand the choices his daughter made. Hull had to be more than a map on the page. Hull had to bleed into the soul of characters such as Ron. The city had to impact on their lives, and for many, the lack of alternative employment has been a reality.

The second Joe Geraghty novel, “The Late Greats”, is also set in Hull. The challenge this time was to move away from one of the defining aspects of the city to capturing something of its character. “The Late Greats” is more inward looking and attempts to portray this through the story of reformed 1990s band, New Holland. When singer, Greg Tasker, is reported missing, Geraghty finds himself going deeper into the city and into Tasker’s life, forcing him to explore relationships between groups of very different people and how they make sense of themselves in the wider context of the place. Hull’s good and bad points surface in the story. The city can be often be cynical and wary of outsiders. But my Hull is also unpretentious and self-sustaining, as evidenced by the way the city, with little fanfare, dusted itself down after being the second most bombed city in the UK during World War Two, and more recently, after the 2007 floods.

The third, as yet untitled, Geraghty novel once again tries to examine the city from a different viewpoint. Instead of looking inwards, this time the issue of renewal and finding a new purpose in a changing world forms the backdrop to the story. The answer might lie in leading the way with renewable energy, with Siemens in the process of agreeing to build a major offshore wind turbine manufacturing plant, creating a significant number of local jobs. As a resident of the city, I hope the plan comes to fruition. As a crime writer, I can’t really lose either way. The future is very much open and there for the taking.

My Hull is a contradiction. Its isolation can make it a harsh and difficult place. You don’t pass through Hull. You have to have a purpose to visit. But the city also a distinct character and feel. For better or worse, it lives and breathes. Rankin and Billingham have the iconic buildings and the romance of Edinburgh and London, but I know I’m equally lucky. Every city is unique and fascinating, whatever the outside perception of it is, and through the eyes of Joe Geraghty, I’ll continue to discover and map my isolated city on the River Humber in East Yorkshire.

Information:

“Broken Dreams” is published by Caffeine Nights. “The Late Greats” follows autumn 2011. Joe Geraghty stories feature in “The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime” Volumes Eight and Nine.

www.hullcrimefiction.co.uk

Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival – Harrogate day 3 & 4

The third day of the festival started with an interview of the best-selling author Tess Gerritsen. The interviewer was broadcaster Dame Jenni Murray. Once again a phenomenal success it was clear that she is still a firm favourite. One just had to look at the massive queue of people who waited patiently to get their books signed. The queue was so long that I wisely waited until the end before getting my copy of her latest book signed.

Under the able hands of Andrew Taylor the panel The Outer Limits took a look at the phenomena that is the growing popularity of novels, which blend paranormal elements with crime fiction.

One of the most anticipated panels was the New Blood panel. Once again introduced by Val McDermid who is well known for championing debut novelists, the members of New Blood panel this year were SJ Watson whose novel Before I go to Sleep has been receiving rave reviews since it was published earlier this year. Julia Crouch whose first novel Cuckoo delivers a psychological chill, Gordon Ferris whose novel The Hanging Shed was a major success initially as an eBook before being published in print form. The final member of the panel was Melanie McGrath whose novel White Heat is set in Alaska. As interesting as the panel was and it was extremely good, in my opinion the most fascinating thing was watching Val McDermid dancing to Madonna’s Like a Virgin on stage!

Some of the other panels that took place in the afternoon included Legal Eagles, which featured MR Hall, Frances Fyfield, Martin Edwards and Helen Black. The panel were accused of bringing their profession into the world of the fictional courtroom. It was up to Peter McCormick whose is the senior partner at McCormick Solicitors to act as judge. One of the most intriguing panels off the afternoon was Vice Society. Authors James McCreet, Val McDermid and Adam Creed were joined by Jackie Malton (the real life inspiration Jane Tennyson) panel as they discussed the depiction of sex and vice in crime fiction. The panel as moderated by S J Parrish.

The early evening panel saw David Baldacci in conversation with Joseph Finder.

One of the highlights of the conference saw MC Beaton celebrate her 75^th Birthday. The celebration was done in conjunction with the Criminal Consequences Dinner. Tables were hosted by crime writers which included Helen Black, C J Box, Alison Bruce, Charles Cumming, Christa Faust, James Forrester, James McCreet and Danny Miller to name a few. With the help of the crime writer on the table the other guests on each table played a game of Criminal Consequences.

Prior to the quiz taking place late on Saturday night special guest Lee Child braved Room 101 to declare what his crime writing pet hates were. So what went into Room 101? For starters bad reviews. Lee particularly mentioned Persuader (book 7) in the series, which had received a number of bad reviews. It was not that Lee had a problem with bad reviews it was more along the lines of the fact that the bad reviews did not make sense and were more akin to someone not willing to write a constructive review.

The next one that did not actually make it into Room 101 was author’s who lie about themselves. The others included authors who describe their characters who are looking at their reflection in a mirror and those who actually say, “there is a murder”. Listening to Lee Child was extremely good fun and interesting. He regaled us about the time that he met President Obama who bummed a cigarette off him and also enlightened us all as to why Reacher is rootless! As he explained, it is an alternative to a rooted series and he wanted to be different from everyone else. As can be expected there was a massive queue of people wanting to get their books signed by Lee Child.

Val McDermid and Mark Billingham hosted the late night quiz. Sadly, the Shots team that was made up of myself, Ali Karim and his wife Muriel, his son Alex and daughter Miriam and author Joseph Finder did not win. We did however have a fantastic time.

As usual after the quiz everyone congregated either in the bar or outside (the weather was so good) and stayed up talking to the small hours.

The Final Day

Surprisingly, I did not have too late a night on Saturday thus I was able to get up bright and early for the final two events. The first event saw authors CJ Box whose books are set in Wyoming, Anne Zouroudi (Greece); Urban Waites (Seattle) & Elly Griffiths (Norfolk) discuss under the title No Place Like Home their different series. All the authors set their books in different locations and they have each managed to stake their own claim on their specific area. The panel was moderated by author Laura Wilson who also sets her books in London.

Of course the one event that I am sure that everyone was looking forward to was special guest Dennis Lehane being interviewed by 2012 programming Chair Mark Billingham. It was standing room only for this event. Dennis Lehane who is known for being the author of such novels as Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island and Mystic River spoke in a wide ranging interview about his work. He talked about his background, what drew him to writing, the reason why he stopped writing the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series and what made him decide to go back to them after a 10 year break and write Moonlight Mile. He also spoke about his work on the acclaimed HBO television series The Wire. The interview was extremely well received and one could tell not solely because it was packed but also due to the way in which he received an ovation.

So what were the highlights! I am not going to say because I think it will be unfair. The whole festival was a brilliant well run affair. What I can say is that it was lovely to catch up with the delightful Christa Faust and if you have not read her novel Money Shot then you should do so. Katy Wild the Editorial Director of Hard Case Crime and the large number of reviewers and bloggers that were also in attendance.

The one thing I will admit to is losing my voice late on Sunday. It was a shame because it was not due to excess alcohol but rather me laughing and talking so much!

If the way in which the festival was run this year is anything to go by then 2012 will be smashing! Mark Billingham will be the Chair and a number of the special guests have already been announced. These are Harlan Coben, John Connolly and Charlaine Harris. The festival is due to take place between 19 & 22 July 2012. So book the date in your diary.

One must not of course forget to say a big thank you to Sharon Canavar and Erica Morris along with the rest of the team for putting on such a fabulous event.

Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Harrogate Day 2

Friday 22 July was the second day of Theakstons Old Peculair and it certainly started with a bang. The first event was Martina Cole being interviewed by the 2011 Programming Chair Dreda Say Mitchell. They could not have started the full day off with a better event. Martina Cole was a brilliant interviewee. Via some interesting questioning Dreda Say Mitchell managed to illicit some very interesting bits of information from Martina. She talked about her books (she was 21 when she wrote her first book), her television work (she has done programmes on girl gangs and female serial killers), her television production country, her work in prisons and the adaptation of her books for television. Her interview certainly went down a storm with those attendees that turned up for the 9am start.

The Old Blood panel that took place was a look back on what had happened to some authors that had taken part in the festival’s renowned “New Blood” panel. The authors who took part were Nick Stone whose third book Voodoo Eyes has just been published, Mark Mills, Allan Guthrie and Cathi Unsworth. With Martyn Waites as the moderator it was a freewheeling event that saw the authors discussing topics such as self-publication, what had changed for them, eBooks and writing in general.

A CWA/ Thriller Award event also took place on Friday where a number of awards were given out and long-lists announced.

CWA Chair Peter James said: “Crime fiction is today more popular throughout the western world than any other form of fiction writing. This is because through this medium the authors write in depth and with the greatest intelligence about human life, the human condition, and issues that affect the lives of each and every one of us. That is what great writing always has been about and always will be.”

The winners, presented here with the judges’ comments, are as follows:

THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER

For crime, thriller, suspense or spy fiction novels which have been translated into English from their original language, for UK publication between June 1 2010 and May 31 2011. Prize money £1000 for the author and £500 for the translator.

Winner

Three Seconds by Anders Roslund & Börge Hellström, Tr. Kari Dickson (Quercus)

Judges’ comments: The Swedish duo’s usual maverick cop takes a back seat to a riveting exploration of a deniable operation involving an undercover agent deep inside a criminal organisation. Their new character, doomed to betrayal by political manoeuvring, fights for his life with great intelligence and courage.

Shortlisted

The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri, Tr. Stephen Sartarelli, (Mantle)

Needle in a Haystack by Ernesto Mallo, Tr. Jethro Soutar (Bitter Lemon Press)

The Saint-Florentin Murders by Jean-François Parot, Tr. Howard Curtis (Gallic)

River of Shadows by Valerio Varesi, Tr. Joseph Farrell (Maclehose)

Death on a Galician Shore by Domingo Villar, Tr. Sonia Soto (Abacus)

THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

Any non-fiction work on a real-life crime theme or a closely-related subject by an author of any nationality, as long as the book was first published in the UK in English between between 1^st June 2010 and 31^st May 2011. Prize money £1000.

Winner

The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr (Simon & Schuster)

Judges’ comments

The judges were this year very impressed with the quality of the seventeen submissions for the Non-Fiction Gold Dagger. The subjects were particularly notable for their international coverage; not only the United States and Britain, but also France, Japan, Mexico, Spain and Bali. The winner of this year’s dagger is commended for its excellent style and its appeal to the general reader. The judges would like to give a honourable mention to In The Place of Justice by Wilbert Rideau (Profile).

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Shortlisted

In The Place of Justice by Wilbert Rideau (Profile)

The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders (HarperPress)

Slaughter on a Snowy Morn by Colin Evans (Icon Books)

The Murder Room by Michael Capuzzo (Michael Joseph)

Mr Briggs’ Hat by Kate Colquhoun (Little, Brown)

CWA SHORT STORY DAGGER

Any crime short story first published in the UK in English in a publication that pays for contributions, or broadcast in the UK in return for payment, between 1^st June, 2010 and 31^st May, 2011. Prize money £500.

Winner

Homework by Phil Lovesey - The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime Vol 8 - Ed Maxim Jakubowski (Constable and Robinson)

Judges’ comments – A cleverly structured piece with clever narration allying character situations to Hamlet. A neat and original study of relationships and revenge taking the form of a girl’s school project that gradually reveals to us the devious game that she was up to.

Commended (second place)

East Of Suez, West Of Charing Cross Road by John Lawton (Corvus) from Agents Of Treachery edited by Otto Penzler.

Judges’ comments – Funny and enjoyable tale with a sense of mischief that is set against the solid historical background of the Cold War and the slow crumbling of the Empire

Third place

The Dead Club by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer (Corvus) from First Thrills edited by Lee Child.

Judges’ comments – An inventive game of chance with a medical background, which is not as it seems and proving that what goes on in Las Vegas does not always stay in Las Vegas.

Shortlisted

The Princess of Felony Flats - by Bill Cameron - First Thrills - Ed. Lee Child - (Atlantic Books)
Wednesday’s Child by Ken Bruen - First Thrills - Ed. Lee Child (Atlantic Books)

CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Sponsored by The Random House Group.

Nominated and judged by librarians and awarded to an author for a body of work, not one single title. Prize money £1,500 plus £300 to a participating library readers’ group.

Winner

Mo Hayder

Judges’ comments

Twisting, hard-hitting crime novels with a haunting emotional pull on the reader. Damaged detective Jack Caffery and police diver Flea Marley are one of the best pairings in current crime writing with each story leaving fans clamouring for more.

Shortlisted

SJ Bolton

RJ Ellory

Jason Goodwin

Susan Hill

Philip Kerr

CWA DEBUT DAGGER

Sponsored by Orion

The Debut Dagger is a new-writing competition open to anyone writing in the English language who has not yet had a novel published commercially. First prize is £700 plus two free tickets to the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards. All shortlisted entrants receive a generous selection of crime novels and professional assessments of their entries, and have also been invited to the Dagger Awards presentations.

Winner

What Hidden Lies – Michele Rowe (South Africa)

A tense psychological mystery set on the spectacular Cape Town coast.

Michele is a scriptwriter for television and film. Projects she has researched, originated, written or directed have been nominated for, or won, various International awards. This is her first novel.

Judges comments: Fluid and descriptive writing with an attractive setting.

Highly commended

The Outrageous Behaviour of Left-Handed Dwarves – Graham Brack (UK)

Sunderland born Graham Brack works as a pharmacist. He has produced plenty of technical writing but this is his first work of fiction (unless you count the answer to question 4 in his final paper in pharmacology)

Judges comments: Appealing lead character and a fresh and interesting setting.

Shortlist

A Burial Place for Strangers – Sharon Hunt (Canada)

A Quiet Night in Entebbe – Peter Wynn Norris (UK)

A Vicious Indulgence – Annie Hauxwell (Australia)

Biographies of a Victim – Gunnar Lange-Nielsen (Norway)

Hide and Seek – Sarah Darby (UK)

Men of the Rose – Jessica Ramage (UK)

The Boy Who Loved Penguins – SWC Webb (UK)

The Greengrocers and Fruiterers’ Convention – Martin Ungless (UK)

The Temp – Luke Melia (UK)

Unveiled Threats – Stephanie Light (UK)

At the ceremony the Short list for the John Creasey Award was also announced. The shortlisted authors are –

The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald

The Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken

The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly

Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson

Sister by Rosalind Lupton

Or The Bull Kills You by Jason Webster

Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller

Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

The Shortlist for the Steel Dagger was also announced and the nominated authors are –

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)

The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth (Bantam)

The Good Son by Michael Gruber (Atlantic Books)

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)

An Agent of Deceit by Chris Morgan-Jones (Mantle)

Cold Rain by Craig Smith (Myrmidon)

Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson (Transworld)

Savages by Don Winslow (Heinemann)

The nominated authors for the Gold Dagger –

The Gold Dagger nominations are

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Thomas Franklin

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

Snowdrops by Andy Miller

The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina

The Hanging Hill by Mo Hayder

Cypress House by Michael Koryta

The Lost Daughter by Lucretia Grindle

White Heat by MJ McGrath

Other panels took place and I rather sadly managed to miss Linwood Barclay in Conversation with Lisa Gardner as I ended up going out to dinner with the lovely people at Constable and Robinson. I did however get the opportunity to chat to debut author Danny Miller who has been shortlisted for the John Creasey Award. I also later on in the evening spoke to Conor FitzGerald who has also be shortlisted for the same award. Conor arrived on time to hear the announcement from his home in Rome where he has lived for 20 years.

The big draw for the evening was however Howard Marks. There was an extremely long queue of people who turned up to listen to the former drug dealer talk about his former life and his debut novel. His autobiography Mr Nice was recently adapted for film.

As can be expected lots of us stayed up until really late catching up and chatting. There were a lot of people who were there for the long haul and it was nearly 2am when I wandered back to my hotel. It was clearly evident and I am in no doubt that the mingling and drinking would be going on for quite some time.