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

Competition Time – more rollover than a lottery & in time for a crime-packed summer!

It’s that time of the year again.  By next weekend the cows – as well as Charles and Camilla – will have vacated Harrogate and the Great Yorkshire Show will give way to the annual crime writing festival, now in its ninth year.  We’ve had, and are still having, plenty of lottery rollovers so it’s time to offer up a competition taking inspiration from both.  Thanks to those lovely people at both Faber & Faber and Pan Macmillan I have two sets of prizes to offer you from two outstanding crime authors and you can enter for both.  I am particularly pleased with these prizes as both authors have pushed boundaries with their work.

Competition: Win a Full Introduction to Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope Series



Are you watching Vera on ITV and would like to know her better?  Those lovely people at one of the best UK publishing houses, Pan Macmillan, have offered up a full signed set of Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope series.

Competition: Win a Signed Full Introduction to Swedish Crime Author Håkan Nesser’s Van Veeteren

Those lovely people at one of the best UK publishing houses, Pan Macmillan, have offered up a full signed paperback set of Swedish crime author, Håkan Nesser’s Van Veeteren series.

Waterstone's BooksQuarterly Magazine Short Story Competition

In the latest Books Quarterly magazine, Waterstone's has teamed up with Pan Macmillan and the Arvon Foundation to create the Perfectly Formed Short Story Competition.  Entrants need to be unpublished professionally in fiction, over 16 years of age and have their entries of up to 2,000 words submitted by 1 July 2010.  More details here.

The prize includes lunch with Will Atkins, Editorial Director at Pan Macmillan and one of his authors, James McCreet; an Arvon course of the winner's choice; and the winning entry published in the October edition of Book Quarterly.  The three best runners-up will receive concise written feedback on their entries, which will be published online, as well as £50-worth of Pan Macmillan books.

Competition winner for Jenn Ashworth's A Kind of Intimacy

Thank you all for your excellent entries in the competition and please accept my apologies for the late announcement of the winner.  This was a hard decision and I regret that there is only one prize on this occasion.  The winner is... Charles Budd.

Using poetry for the commentary was certainly original, but the words do reflect one dimension in Annie's disordered mind where perception and reality make uneasy partners.

Congratulations Charlie! I will be in touch shortly.

COMPETITION: Jenn Ashworth's A Kind of Intimacy

One of last year’s finds in the début category was Jenn Ashworth’s A Kind of Intimacy, a psychological thriller much in the vein of early Minette Walters.  See this post for more details on this wonderful book.  Now, in 2010, February 25th sees the publication of the paperback and Jenn has kindly offered a signed and dedicated copy.  To win it, leave a comment telling me how you feel you might relate to the protagonist, Annie.  I will pick the one I feel captures her character best.

As usual, a few rules apply (and I draw your attention to the last two in particular):

This is open to residents in the UK only.

Closing date is midnight (British time) on Sunday 14 Feb.

I will pick the winner and contact them for their full name & address and dedication request in the following week.  This will be passed to the author for despatch of the book.

If you win and don’t respond by the same time on Sunday 21 Feb, I will offer the book to the next person.

Your method of leaving a comment below must include easy access to your email address (absence will mean your entry is overlooked).  Please note that using a Typepad log-in for leaving a comment does not provide this.

All that remains to be said is: good luck!

We will have an interview with Jenn on February 25th! (Edit on 23/2: or thereabouts.  Sorry, but other things raised their heads along the way.)

COMPETITIONS: Alibi's Murdoch Mysteries - Exclusive Preview Screening & Short Crime Story

To celebrate the launch of Murdoch Mysteries Season Three on Tuesday 16 February, Alibi is giving you and a friend the chance to win tickets to a special preview screening in London. Hosted by Thomas Craig and Lisa Faulkner and with champagne on arrival you can be sure it’s one mystery that you won’t want to miss out on!

Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) is back on our screens with a thrilling third series of Murdoch Mysteries. Set in Victorian Toronto, the series begins with William running for his life through the streets of Bristol, England where he meets a beautiful bar maid Anna Fulford (Lisa Faulkner).

Your prize includes a pair of tickets for you and a friend to a special preview screening of Murdoch Mysteries on Monday 15 February at the Soho Hotel, London. The lucky winners will arrive at 7pm, and will be offered champagne or a soft drink on arrival. Thomas Craig and Lisa Faulkner will also be there to introduce the episode and afterwards you will get the chance to ask questions to the both of them!

For your chance to win tickets, simply unlock this page by cracking the code. (You will need to register with the site.)

Alibi is also running another competition in conjunction with the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and HarperCollins.  Three finalists will win tickets to the festival in Harrogate (with travel and accommodation included), where they'll get to the chance to rub shoulders with leading authors and agents of the crime writing world. The winner will be announced during the weekend and will win a Sony e-reader, a library of 100 crime books including a signed Stuart MacBride back catalogue and they'll also see their story turned into a special online, downloadable e-edition by HarperCollins.  So, do you have a crime story of between 2,000 and 5,000 words in you?  It will need to start with the following opening line:

In my experience, those who beg for mercy seldom deserve it.

Karin Alvtegen’s Shadow – COMPETITION WINNERS!

It’s hard being a judge; I now know how Arlene Phillips and Simon Cowell feel on times! But there can be only 5 winners, so here they are and why:

For showing an interest and understanding the in the novel: Jo Galloway.
For showing an interest and commitment to new authors: Neil Colquhoun.
For having immediate intrigue and finding a personal angle with the story: Jo Orr.
For being triggered into a new interest in crime reading: Pearl.
For enjoying Scandinavian and psychological crime: Justine.

Congratulations to you all!  An email requesting your full name and address is winging its way to you right now. Thank you to everyone who entered and to Canongate for the books.

Important message: if you didn’t win on this occasion, keep trying with all competitions.  Another book will be coming here later in the year and it’s a beauty: a mystery and coming of age novel with dark undertones, but heart warming and enlightening too.

COMPETITION – Karin Alvtegen’s Shadow

Have you been having a grumpy time of year with all the snow?  Fancy a rather good Scandinavian psychological crime novel for some escapism?  Now’s your chance for a free copy because those nice folks at Canongate Books are offering five of Karin Alvtegen’s Shadow as it goes into a new format in paperback on 4 February in the UK.

I loved this book – you can read my comments here – and I recommended it to someone over Christmas and she loved it too.

A few rules apply:

• This is open to residents in EU countries only.
• Closing date is midnight (British time) on Sunday 24 Jan.
• I will pick the winners and contact them for their full names and addresses in the following week.  These will be passed to Canongate for despatch of the books.
• If you win and don’t respond by the same time on Sunday 31 Jan, I will offer the book to the next person.
• Your method of leaving a comment below must include easy access to your email address (absence will mean your entry is overlooked).

What do you have to do?

• Just tell me why you think you’d enjoy the novel in the comments.  The best five (in my opinion) will win.

Good luck!

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.)