IT'S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY...)For crime & thriller fiction (mainly UK); new & emerging authors; authors who deserve more attention; crime on screen; literary festivals; author & other events; the odd amusing thing; the odd rant and some politics creeping through.Guest Blog: BLEEDING HEART SQUARE. Where the novel came from, by Andrew Taylor- August 26, 2008 Like a river, a book must start somewhere. Like a river, it sometimes has more than one source. Bleeding Heart Square had three. The sources didnt appear at the same time but slowly and coyly. But I couldnt start writing until they flowed together, mingling so quickly and thoroughly that I find it hard to know when and where one idea ends and the others begin. One was the Moat Farm Murder of 1899, a real-life case with which my grandmother had a remote connection - Ive blogged about this...http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/guest-blog-bleeding-heart-sq... Bleeding Heart Square - Andrew Taylor- August 26, 2008 Andrew Taylor's latest novel Bleeding Heart Square is another standalone and another of his historical novels that, on this occasion is mainly set around the time of the rise of fascism, with another linked story taking place four years before in 1930. The cover carries words from a previous review in The Times: "One of Britain's best writers of psychological suspense". And in Bleeding Heart Square, psychological suspense it is, at its best, with the very clever writing you come to...http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/bleeding-heart-square---andr... You can now pick up at Penguin...- August 22, 2008 I thought I'd seen it all. When I read this article on The Bookseller's site yesterday, I wondered if I had the date wrong. April 1st Nope. Yes, it was 210808 and the link actually worked. UK publisher Penguin has teamed up with Match.com to launch PenguinDating Where Book Lovers Meet. Reported The Bookseller: 'Penguin said the site would offer readers a place to meet and indulge in the age-old art of writing love letters. Members will be asked to write in their profile about the last book they.http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/you-can-now-pick-up-at-pengu... BBC Sport Mastermind- August 22, 2008 The first BBC Sport Mastermind was crowned in the final earlier this week. Well, he received a rather nice glass bowl, truth be told. You can see the final on BBC iPlayer here (only a few days left). In his heat, civil servant Mr Chris Bell shot to the top of the leader board with a very assured performance. In the final, he won with a convincing margin. Many congratulations to Chris! As pointed out by Des Lynam, Chris was in the studio for the final on the day of his first wedding anniversary..http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/bbc-sport-mastermind.html Novels Listed for the ITV3 Crime Awards- August 15, 2008 From The Bookseller, in addition to the ITV3 Writers Award for Classic TV Drama (shortlist of P.D.James, Ruth Rendell, Colin Dexter, Lynda La Plante, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid), the following awards and their shortlists are now announced: Breakthrough Author Award Chelsea Cain Heartsick (Pan) Stuart MacBride Broken Skin (Harper) Michael Robotham Shatter (Sphere) Anne Zouroudi The Messenger of Athens (Bloomsbury)International Author of the Year Jeffery Deaver The Sleeping Doll (Hodder &...http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/novels-listed-for-the-itv3-c... For those who must miss David Tennant as Hamlet...- August 11, 2008 ... cos it's sold out. I missed this when it was first screened, but just caught up. Tennant & Tate & Shakespeare: what more could you want A laugh Oh yes, you get it here, multiple times. Perfect comic timing. Enjoy!http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/for-those-who-must-miss-davi... Echoes From The Dead - Johan Theorin- August 11, 2008 There's been quite a bit of word-of-mouth buzz about Swedish Johan Theorin's debut novel Echoes From The Dead and all I can add is that it's certainly worth it. How refreshing it is to read a novel that feels different in its structure, mainly because the two interwoven stories have tenuous links, possibly and just simply from the imagination of the characters we meet, until the race to the dnouement makes a final connection that shocks and surprises, but does not cheat the reader. The...http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/echoes-from-the-dead---johan... Before you say anything in the comments....- August 11, 2008 ... yes, we've had a design re-vamp that returns to a previous incarnation. When compiling a list of links for an email on Sunday, I noticed that the text of a few posts were disasterously queer and disconcerting (now corrected with the re-vamp). Hence a return to something that resembles consistency! (Only a small few of posts have uncertain characters now.) Plus, I always believed in the Georgia font of a certain size for ease of reading. Shoot me down, if you will, but Typepad restraints and.http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/before-you-say-anything-in-t... A Dog Among Diplomats - J. F. Englert (Randolph's second outing...)- August 10, 2008 Thoughts on J .F. Englert's first Randolph novel are here. It's called A Dog About Town. It was fun; it was different; for an animal protagonist book, it was a significant cut above anything I'd read before (not that I'd read that many). Far less suspension of disbelief was required; it was possible to really believe in this black Labrador Retriever Randolph and to enter his mind, and enjoy! (I suggest you put that down to wonderful creativity, supreme knowledge of dogs and great writing skills.http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/a-dog-among-diplomats---j-f-... The Cheltenham Literature Festival 2008- August 9, 2008 Cheltenham's Literary Festival programme and booking is now up and running (October 10-19). This year Kate Adie and Ian Rankin are "Festival Guest Directors" and they get to "curate" a weekend each, by the looks of it. With Rankin involved, there are no surprises that a decent cache of crime writers are involved and more on that later. But let's start with the writing workshops that Cheltenham runs every year. Andrew Taylor has been there for a few years now and this year...http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2008/08/the-cheltenham-literature-fe... |