Newsflash: Ruth Dud In ‘No Dud’ Shocker!

Yesterday’s CWA nominations for best crime writing threw up very few Irish nominees, surprisingly enough, given that 2009 was a particularly fertile year for Irish crime fiction, although the New Blood, Ian Fleming Steel and Gold Dagger nomination lists won’t be published until later in the year, so hopefully we’ll see a nod or two when they appear.
  In the meantime we’ll have to console ourselves with the news that Ruth ‘Cuddly’ Dudley Edwards has received a nod in the Non-Fiction category for her monumental work, AFTERMATH: THE OMAGH BOMBING. The book also made the longlist for this year’s Orwell Prize, but didn’t make the shortlist, so here’s hoping the CWA peeps do the right thing.
  Meanwhile, it’s hearty congratulations to Declan Hughes and Brian McGilloway, who yesterday made the long-list for the Theakstons Old Peculier ‘Crime Novel of the Year’ Award, for THE DYING BREED and GALLOWS LANE, respectively. Strange to say, but these award nominations are a little frustrating, given that both Hughes and McGilloway have published new titles in the last month or so, both of which are - in my rarely humble opinion - superior to their previous offerings. In other words, and fine novels though THE DYING BREED and GALLOWS LANE undoubtedly are, you’d rather see the chaps judged on where they are now rather than where they were then. Anyway, it looks like it’ll be a pretty tough competition: also making the longlist are Val McDermid, Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin, Peter James, Peter Robinson and Simon Kernick, among others. For more, clickety-click here …
  Finally, the paperback release of Gene Kerrigan’s DARK TIMES IN THE CITY gets a nice big-up from Arminta Wallace in today’s Irish Times, with the gist running thusly:

“Gene Kerrigan’s third novel, following LITTLE CRIMINALS and THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR, is another intelligent, highly readable instalment of the kind of urban neo-noir that is fast making Dublin as recognisable to readers of crime fiction worldwide as is Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh.”

  For the rest, clickety-click here …