Little Girl Lost Finds A New Home

News arrived during the week, via the very fine Euro Crime blog, that Brian McGilloway will be publishing two new Lucy Black novels. To wit:

Constable & Robinson has acquired two new novels from crime writer Brian McGilloway, with the author moving from Pan Macmillan, where he was published by Macmillan New Writing, for the new titles.
  Publisher James Gurbutt bought two novels featuring series character DS Lucy Black.
  The first novel will be the sequel to LITTLE GIRL LOST, which sold more than 180,000 in its e-book edition.

  180,000 copies? Holy moly.
  I reviewed LITTLE GIRL LOST for the Irish Times when it appeared in 20011, suggesting that it was / is “an impressive statement of intent from an author whose reputation grows with each successive release.”
  For the rest, clickety-click here …

One Of These Kids Is Doing His Own Thing …

There’s no good reason for republishing this pic from Bristol Crime Fest (l-r: Maxine, Rhian, Karen, El Cheesalero – with Ms Witch lurking with intent, no doubt, just out of picture) except to say that three of the four crime fiction bloggers are superb exponents of what they do, which is to let the world at large know about quality crime fiction writing for no reward but the joy of doing so, while the fourth is only in it for the money. If you’re in the market for insightful, illuminating conversations about contemporary crime writing, click on Petrona, It’s A Crime! and Euro Crime. Oh, and while you’re about it, click on Crime Scraps, whose host – the inimitable Norm – was behind the camera for this epoch-defining snap. He reckons he’s shy, but your secret is safe with us, Salman. Now, the Big Question: can we persuade Peter Rozovsky and Gerard Brennan to make it to Crime Fest 2009? Only time, that notorious tittle-tattler, will tell …

Books Of The Year # 2: THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR by Gene Kerrigan

Being the continuing stooooooory of our ‘2007 Round-Up Of Books Wot My Friends Wrote’ compilation to fill a gap between some interesting stuff. To wit:

THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR, by Gene Kerrigan.
This is a wonderful book, superbly well written. The promise of Kerrigan’s previous book, LITTLE CRIMINALS, is more than fulfilled in this elegiac novel of corruption in Ireland. The book begins by describing various apparently unconnected events; one in Galway, where Garda Joe Mills is called on to try to stop a desperate man jumping from a pub roof; and a couple of others in Dublin, where Detective Inspector Harry Synnott investigates a rape accusation made against the son of a rich local lawyer, where a desperate woman threatens to stab a tourist with a syringe full of blood for cash, and where businessman Joshua Boyce is planning a raid on a jeweller’s shop. As these stories play out, weaving in and out of each other, corruption small and large is all-pervasive. Whether trapped in poverty, addicted to drugs, desperate to keep a family together or wanting to preserve a pleasant lifestyle, everyone is on the take, selling each other out, hiding unsavoury truths or aiming to stay on top of the organised crime heap. Almost the only character with integrity is Harry, who has been moved from several police stations previously because he has blown the whistle on past cases of police “stitch-ups”, much to the disgust of many of his erstwhile and present colleagues. But is all what it seems? Is Harry really a hero, or is he part of the tapestry of deceit that threads through the narrative? The answers to these questions become clearer after he meets up with John Grace, a main character in Kerrigan’s previous book, LITTLE CRIMINALS. Grace is taking early retirement and goes through his files of old cases with Harry. In this scene, we begin to get the true picture of Harry’s moral perspective. Remembering his old friend, a priest, one night, “Synnott listened to the city sounds, the chugging noise of traffic mixed in with occasional catcalls and burst of laughter. As he drifted towards sleep, individual voices, each with its own energy and purpose, blended into a muffled chorus, a refrain both solemn and threatening.” I loved everything about this book. THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR is truly bleak, at times violent and disturbing, but always brilliant. The way in which the plots overlap and sometimes merge in a horridly inevitable cause and effect is masterly. Although I applaud the lack of sentimentality, I was glad that the reader is left with a spark of optimism in the shape of at least two police officers who know how to do the right thing.- Maxine Clarke

This review was first published on Euro Crime. Maxine Clarke blogs at Petrona.

Better The Devlin You Know

A hat-tip to Karen Meek at Euro Crime, via whom comes the news that Brian McGilloway’s short story, THE LOST CHILD, featuring BORDERLANDS’ Inspector Devlin, will be featured on BBC 4’s Afternoon Reading Programme this afternoon, at 3.30pm (GMT). The pitch runneth thusly:

A couple hear a baby crying on their child monitor. Unfortunately, it’s not their baby. A cry for help or a call from beyond the grave? Inspector Devlin investigates.

Ooooh, spooky. Meanwhile, the good folk at Macmillan have promised us an early copy of BORDERLANDS’ follow-up, GALLOWS LANE, which should be with us in a couple of weeks. If you’re good, we might even feature an excerpt …

Et Tu, Brute

A hat-tip to Euro Crime for pointing us in the direction of a smashing interview with Gerard Donovan over at The Book Depository, during which the author of JULIUS WINSOME discourses at length on practically every subject under the sun bar his preferred grassy knoll theory. Our favourite snippet, regarding the brutal reality into which the human ‘moral compass’ is set, runneth thusly:

MT: Your character Julius lives in cabin in the Maine woods with only his dog for company: is that an existence that part of you envies?
GD: “I do lead an existence similar to the lead character’s, on a farm in the woods with a dog and books, though not nearly as many. What interests me thematically in the novel is what kind of moral compass we have as humans, or more directly, what kind of moral compass I have. What would people really do if a beloved dog or indeed companion of any kind were shot and they could exact revenge without legal consequences? This is a question that haunts me. The answer is that I don’t have a moral compass aside from the basic agreements regarding normal behaviour I hold with other humans, but, as I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t quite trust fiction that showcases characters who in the end demonstrate what good people they are. Where is the border between grief and revenge? And who stops at that border, and who continues beyond? Julius Winsome continues, using increasingly archaic English as the violence continues. I envy him that, I envy his ability to pursue, I envy his complete preparation to bring violence ruthlessly to those who have practiced it themselves.”

We’re thinking Vin Diesel for the movie. Any other suggestions?

The Embiggened O # 962: Laugh? We Almost Emigrated

Happy days are here again, particularly for Maxine Clarke over at Euro Crime, who – it would seem – had a good strong quaff of giggle juice before she read our humble offering, THE BIG O. The gist of the review runneth thusly:

“THE BIG O is a fast-paced and very funny book … I don’t often laugh out loud when reading, but I found this book hilarious … Comedy capers are hard to pull off. Most of them spiral out of control or lose their freshness after a few chapters. That isn’t the case here: Burke effortlessly ratchets up the tension, rings the changes of the perceptions of reality between the characters, provides an element of farce, a few choice set-pieces, some neat observations of domestic minutiae, and keeps the laughs coming.”

All of which is entirely lovely, although if we’re honest we’ll point out at this stage that we were actually aiming to write a bleak tale of perversely life-affirming existential deprivation, a la Sam Beckett. Ah well, maybe we’ll get it right next time …

The Embiggened O # 497: Yep, It’s The All-Important Euro Crime Hup-Ya

And there was us thinking all the, erm, fuss had died down. But lo! Euro Crime has taken it upon itself to review our humble offering, The Big O, in the process flabbering our gast thusly:

The Big O has a wonderfully tight and convoluted plot that plays out like a movie … It’s very cleverly done. The action is fast paced and leaves the reader breathless – partly because the book is split into short scenes, each told from the point of view of a different character. Each character has a totally different voice and they are all completely believable. The bad guys are endearing, the good guys are wicked. All of them made me smile. The writing sparkles and some of the dialogue is hilarious. A kidnap caper that is very funny, exhilarating, violent and snappy. A cheeky little feel-good book that will make me smile for months to come whenever I think of it. A hell of a lot of fun.

Which is nice. If you’re wondering what all the, erm, fuss is about, jump over to the Hag’s Head Press interweb thingy for Chapter One. And then tell us via the comment box exactly why Euro Crime got it wrong …