A Teeny Tiny Thursday Post

Crime Time Preview has all the news on police dramas and thrillers on UK TV

A lovely article on Chris Ewan. Two of my favourite comedy crime characters - John Dortmunder and Charlie Howard.

Stuart MacBride has his first ever Bookseller Number 1. Congratulations Stuart!

Taggart goes international. Subtitles may be required.

Three new books about Sherlock Holmes.

More from Aly Monroe about the inspiration for Peter Cotton.

A couple of reviews for M C Beaton. First of all, The Book Nut enjoyed A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS, and Books are Like Candy Corn on BUSY BODY.

Stella Rimington celebrates John Buchan's Richard Hannay.

Apologies for the uncustomary brevity - it's been a bit of a hectic week. More on Sunday(ish).

Officially Weird

I think I have mentioned before that my Mum lent ...GO TO HELENA HANDBASKET to a neighbour of hers and that he thought I must be weird. Today I met him.

"Ah, so you're the one who thinks I'm weird?"

"Yes, I do."

"And why is that then?" Do you really want to know the answer to this question Donna?

"Because you are."

"Oh, OK, fair enough."

"Your book was really weird."

"Did you like it?"

"No."

"Righty-ho then."

I then threatened to let him have a copy of OLD DOGS which he seemed strangely happy about. And then he said "You don't look like I imagined you would." Uh-oh.

"And how did you think I'd look then?" Why did I ask this? Did I really want to know the answer?

"I thought you'd be a stout lady." Check. "Dressed in black." Check. This wasn't looking good - so far I was living up to my weird stereotype. "Wearing a black hat and green tights." Phew - saved by the lack of accessories. "No, you look almost normal, if you don't mind me saying."

"Not at all."

A very nice man. I promised to send him down some books he might actually like (political thrillers, out of interest).

And now, back to the regularly scheduled links.

The Age, with a humourous piece on cute books.

I missed this originally - the lovely Maddy Van Hertbruggen with an enthusiastic review of Iain Levison's HOW TO ROB AN ARMORED CAR. And a review of THE LINEUP which has authors talking about their famous characters.

The Telegraph with the 100 bestselling authors of the decade. Katie Price at number 59? Great British public, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Quintin Jardine appearing at Musselburgh Library on January 12th.

What would Sherlock Holmes have thought about the new film? Several more thoughts and an article on several books about Conan Doyle.

Taggart - 100 episodes and 251 murrrrrderrrrs.

It's expensive to get a pie and a pint in Edinburgh these days. Particularly if they come with company of top author.

And thanks again for your entries for a copy of OLD DOGS. The lovely David at Busted Flush is sending more copies, so I may even have two copies to get rid of...errrr...give away.

A Slew of Reviews

Denise Mina's STILL MIDNIGHT is reviewed by The Hamilton Spectator, The Scotsman reviews Aly Monroe's WASHINGTON SHADOW, Ken McClure's WHITE DEATH in The Independent, while the FT reviews Catriona MacPherson's latest Dandy Gilver novel.

An interesting post comparing Guy Ritchie's Holmes to the original. Plus Robert Downey Jr on playing "the first superhero".

A special Christmas "boady in thuh rivuh" Taggart.

I don't know how close you have to live to Tennessee, but if you want to review for the Decatur Daily...

And finally, a very tough books quiz in the Telegraph. I got one right. Thicko.

Deep Frying The Evidence

Digital pirates now moving in to the high seas of the book world.

A report on the Genomics Forum's forensic science and crime fiction event with Lin Anderson and Ian Rankin. And one on The Edinburgh Bookshop's event with Aly Monroe.

Taggart v Rebus on Friday night's Children In Need. "I'll keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't deep fry the evidence." Good stuff.

Scotland's most prestigious book award shunning crime fiction writers?

Val McDermid in the Irish Independent, talking about that spat, crime writing, and football.

Irvine Welsh backs minimum alcohol pricing.

And, finally, this is the reason I don't write sex scenes (plus, my Mum would never speak to me again.) Serendipitously, a reminder in an interesting column in the Sunday Independent by D J Taylor that Scottish crime fiction author Philip Kerr won the award in 1995 for a passage in his science fiction novel GRIDIRON and slagged off the judges in his acceptance speech (I particularly like the reaction of the Frenchwoman to Philip Hook's telling her that he had won the Bad Sex Award).

There's Been A Murrrrrrrrrderrrrrrrrrrrrrr

What fun this will be - Edinburgh's Rebus and Glasgow's Taggart will investigate a murder at Harthill (on the border between West Lothian and North Lanarkshire, half way between Glasgow and Edinburgh) in a one-off spoof for Children In Need on 20th November.

As Botswana becomes a tourist destination thanks to the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, British Columbia's Tri-City news looks at fictional Africa, including Alexander McCall Smith. And McCall Smith talks about the inspiration for Mma Ramotswe in Otto Penzler's THE LINEUP, in which "the world's greatest crime writers tell the inside story of their greatest detectives."

Carol Anne Davis on anti-social behaviour.

I've mentioned this before but if you like crime fiction and forensic science this is the event for you.