IT'S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY...)

Iceberg Slim - Pimp: The Story of My Life

Thanks to Canongate, I have one copy of this book to give away.  You can find out how you can claim it below.

Iceberg Slim was the moniker adopted by Robert Beck, a major-league pimp during the 1940s and 1950s.  After a third stretch in jail, he decided to leave pimping, moved to Los Angeles, straightened out and started a writing career.  Pimp was originally published in 1967.  This edition includes an introduction by Irvine Welsh.

The back cover says "The ultimate anti-hero, Iceberg Slim takes you into the secret inner world of the pimp, and the smells, sounds, fears and petty triumphs of his world.  A legendary figure of the Chicago underworld, this is his riveting story: from defending his mother against the evil men she brought into their lives to becoming a kingpin of the streets.  A seething tale of brutality, cunning and greed, Pimp is a harrowing portrait of life on the wrong side of the tracks, and a rich warning from a true survivor."

For UK readers only, you have until midnight on Sunday night 08/02/09 to tell me (in the comments) why you'd like to have this book.  Please ensure you use a valid email address.  I will then select the best answer (looking for the most appreciative home for this book).  Reviews on Amazon.co.uk are 10 at 5 stars and 2 at 4 stars.

Simone van der Vlugt, The Reunion - five book giveaway COMPETITION (now closed)...

 

Courtesy of her UK publisher HarperCollins, I have five copies of Simone van der Vlugt's debut adult crime thriller novel The Reunion to offer.  All you have to do is be "quick on the hoof" on this one and adhere to a few small rules; it's a first come, first served basis.

1. Leave a comment here that says you'd like a copy with a VALID  & correctly spelled email address that you use frequently.  (I will use this to contact you for your postal address, if you are successful.  Your postal address will then be forwarded to HC to enable the novel to be dispatched and will not be used for any other reason.)

Simone van der Vlugt: first time in English in the UK & competition to follow

2009 sees the Dutch reaching our UK shores in translated crime fiction with Esther Verhoef's Close-Up from Quercus, Saskia Noort's second novel Back to the Coast from Bitter Lemon Press and, for the purposes of this post, Simone van der Vlugt from HarperCollins with her UK English-translated debut The Reunion.  The novel has already been translated into English for a release in Australia.  The Reunion sold more than 200,000 in the author's native Netherlands, so who is the author and why might we want to take notice?

Simone van der Vlugt has been writing for some twenty years as a now very well-established author of historical children's and young adult novels in the Netherlands.  She then chose to diversify and apply her craft to the adult thriller market and the result was The Reunion.  Of the transition, she has said