maXcrime; or... How Lucky Am I?

I've received a catalogue for Maxim Jakubowski's new crime imprint maXcrime (of which I am very, very chuffed and excited to be a part). It looks wonderful, so I hope you will allow me a little bit of glee and self-indulgence as I post about it. You can click on each of the pages for a bigger version.

First of all, Maxim on the new imprint: "As well as being wonderfully good reads and page turners, the books we are publishing in 2010 also provide a fascinating glimpse into the sheer diversity of crime and mystery writing today. Here you will find gritty London family sagas, hardboiled serial killer tales, dark and violent comedy, erotic thrillers, gothic Hitchcockian mysteries from Italy, historical enigmas going back to Nazi Germany, sinister conspiracies, fast and slick female private eyes from Down Under and old ladies that give conmen a bad name." Woohoo! That's me, that last one :o) Maxim also says "Amongst our first class team we have Australia's leading crime writer and also in all likelihood the most glamorous author in the business (that one's not me by the way), the legendary film director of Get Carter with his debut novel, one of the UK's best horror writers with his first visit to the crime genre, and leading Italian, Canadian, American, Scottish and English authors."

In March 2010 is Tara Moss with HIT - "She's streetwise, stunning, and hoping to leave her troubled past behind her." Woman's Day magazine called it "A thriller packed with sex, suspense and suspicion. Hold on tight!"

Also in March 2010 WATCHING THE WHEELS COME OFF by Mike Hodges who directed Get Carter, Croupier and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, amongst others. I'm really looking forward to this one - it's described as "a delicious dark slice of black crime comedy" and is a day in the life of a failed conman when everything goes from bad to worse.

In April 2010, another one I'm really looking forward to - Mark Timlin's GUNS OF BRIXTON. Apart from the fact that it's got the same title as one of my favourite songs by The Clash, how can I resist this: "Once upon a time is south London, three young men without a future decided to invent their own. The Sixties are starting to swing and Jimmy, John and Billy want it all: the clothes, the pills, the music and the women. Through drugs, protection and armed robbery, they start building their crime empire, everything they've always dreamed about is within their grasp. But then Billy changes sides and becomes a cop..."

And the other one for April is this OLD DOGS. Am I lucky or what?

For May, two excellent looking ones. THE GIRL WITH THE CRYSTAL EYES by Barbara Baraldi "an unforgettable gothic journey through the dark streets of Bologna." A serial killer novel with a femme fatale. And what a gorgeous cover that is.

The second one for May is HITLER'S ANGEL by Kris Rusch. It's about a young American doctoral student who visits Munich in 1972 to research her dissertation. But the police detective she is interviewing insists on discussing the supposed 1931 suicide of Geli Raubal, the teenage niece and alleged lover of Adolf Hitler. Through a series of flashbacks, the detective tells the tale of his investigation, which is hindered by forces outside the police right from the start.

And, for the future, a dark crime novel by horror writer Conrad Williams, called BLONDE ON A STICK - "a gritty, hardboiled and memorable book", I WAS WAITING FOR YOU - the "harrowing story of a writer in search of a missing daughter" by Maxim Jakubowski, and THE WOMEN'S CLUB - a sinister urban thriller by Canadians Michael Crawley and Laurie Clayton.

Wonderful stuff. I'm sort of excited to bursting...