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

National Crime Fiction Week 14-20 June 2010 – An Auction!

You can find details of all the events at the CWA’s dedicated site, but here’s further advance notice of what’s coming up on It’s a Crime!

I am pleased to announce that the Bodleian Library has kindly donated a signed and slipcased edition of P D James’s Talking Detective Fiction for an auction during that week (RRP £30).  The auction will raise money for The Book Trade Charity, which holds its Action Week from 7 to 11 June.

My thanks to the Bodleian for their donation.

If you fancy a copy of this rare edition, do drop by to make your bid in June.  Thank you.

Penguin Crime Drinks and 2010 Titles

I am grateful for the hospitality extended by Penguin Books earlier in March.  The people were lovely, the white wine was wonderfully cool and the canapés were delicious.  It was good to meet up again with the British crime crew and to meet new people.  Here’s a list of books from their Crime & Thriller Hotlist 2010 catalogue:

Daisychain - G J Moffat

Logan Finch is putting his all into the capitalist and corporate dream of affluence through hard work.  As a lawyer with Glasgow’s largest law firm Kennedy Boyd, he now has the penthouse and hankers after a partnership.  He has a cat, but is yet to find a partner as he still pines for Penny, the one he thought was ‘the one’, but who left him, with no explanation, over twelve years ago.

As Finch prepares to close a deal with his boss Bob Crawford, DC Becky Irvine is called out to her first crime scene with Strathclyde Police CID, where she has been recently promoted.  She is faced with the dead body of Penny Grant – Finch’s former girlfriend – and soon discovers that the woman’s eleven year old daughter Ellie is missing.

Moffat, with his début Daisychain, can certainly tell a story, for this is a page-turner.  He quickly draws you in with emotion where the second chapter, told from Ellie’s point of view, outlines the eleven year old’s experience in a very realistic way.  Later chapters focusing on Ellie also serve to connect and contract the reader with poor Ellie’s plight, stoking the tension.

Chasing the Dead - Tim Weaver

The cover says it all and it delivers what it says: ‘Death is not the end. But he’ll make you wish it was.’

Chasing the Dead is the first in a series for missing persons’ investigator, David Raker, from début author Tim Weaver, with Penguin.  With Raker, we see one man’s life thrown into turmoil within hours, with a life that simply cannot continue as normal.

Raker’s wife Derryn had encouraged her husband to set himself him up in business as a missing person’s investigator before she died.  One year later, to the day, he is sitting in his office when an old friend walks in.  Mary used to work in A&E with Derryn and now she wants him to take on a case.  Her son Alex had left home some six years ago and eventually turned up dead just over a year ago, in a car crash, where evidence supported the fact he had been drunk at the wheel.  But Mary claims that she saw her son three months ago and now she wants Raker to investigate.

Motivated by his own sense of loss, Raker reluctantly takes on the case and soon, if he ever imagined that he might be able to walk away from it, he finds he simply can’t.  As he uncovers evidence exposing facts that Alex’s life may not have been as innocent as his mother assumed, Raker also finds himself on the run.

This is a page-turning thriller with some rather heavy and dark content, for those who appreciate the style of Simon Kernick’s novels.  Indeed, if compared to the Tesco supermarket model, Weaver is serving up Simone Kernick Extra here.  Not for the faint of heart.

Find out more about the author here.

With thanks to Penguin for the review copy.

The Lady and the Revamp (Cutting Edge Documentary, Channel 4): to be taken with a large dose of salt & a dollop of syrup

Last Wednesday evening I was at a party in London and during that party I spent some time talking to someone in publishing about this keenly anticipated documentary.  Love it or hate it, read it or not read it, recent changes at The Lady have caused quite a stir.  A documentary on this would be an insight and enlightenment, yes?  Sadly, not quite.

The Lady is the longest established women’s weekly magazine in the UK, said to be the Queen’s favourite read.  But for proprietor/publisher Ben Budworth and his family, it’s haemorrhaging cash and needs an update to bring it kicking it and screaming into the 21st century.  So, Mr Budworth employs Rachel Johnson as the new editor and the documentary follows her progress – and the magazine’s – from her first day into her first few months.

GUEST BLOG: S J Parris, author of Heresy

It’s a Crime is pleased to welcome author S J Parris with a guest blog on publication of her novel Heresy.  This is the author’s first outing into historical crime fiction which introduces the monk Giodarno Bruno, magician, scientist, and heretic in a new series.  You may have read other work from this author for she is Stephanie Merritt, previously published in literary fiction and non-fiction, as well as a critic and feature writer in the media, currently writing for the Observer.  What led her to the historical world of crime?  Over to Stephanie, with many thanks for the article…

Hearts and Minds - Amanda Craig

Widely known for her literary writing, broadsheet columns and reviews, Amanda Craig crosses boundaries with her most recent novel, Hearts and Minds.  It is a story of contemporary London life and one that examines the support systems many rely upon.  As such, it is never far away from illegality and crime.  But the novel’s tendrils extend further, and firmly into the underbelly of the seething corruption of fellow humankind that lies beneath the veneer of London’s affluence.  Craig acknowledges that one part of the economy has come to depend on the other.  Where the pretty and the ugly sit alongside, she takes off the lid and invites the reader to re-examine their perceptions.  For in that ugly mass may lie true beauty or the simple desperation for a decent life.

Crime Fiction Week 14-20 June 2010

The UK's Crime Writers' Assocation is holding a Crime Fiction Week during 14-20 June and has set up a dedicated site for it.  The site lists all the events taking place during the week, by date schedule and by location so you can see what's going on.  Whether author, an aspiring writer, in publishing, a bookseller, a blogger or anything else, you can also load up your contribution to the week.  To date, I have two contributions on there:

1. Along with Roger (R.N.) Morris, I have agreed to judge the Meldrum Writers' Group's Short Story Competition.
2. During the week, I am planning to run an auction on this blog for a collectible book.  As Crime Fiction Week immediately follows The Book Trade Charity's Action Week, the purpose of the auction is to raise money for The Book Trade Charity.  I am working on getting a real beauty for the auction right now, so please return for more information.

How good to have a Crime Fiction Week to celebrate the best in crime fiction in the UK.  There are already plenty of events posted up the site, so do take a look!

An apprenticeship in crime fiction?

The Arts Council England sponsored "Adventures in Fiction" apprenticeships are one year professional development programmes.  For 2010, one is offered specifically for crime fiction.  See here for further detail and how to apply.  The deadline is 31 May 2010.

You've got to hand it to Sandra Bullock...

...for the best acceptance speech on receiving an embarrassing award.  She had me in stitches.