It's all about the Edinburgh Book Festival

A lovely, enthusiastic, funny article about the joys of the Edinburgh Book Festival, and of books in general.

If you're at a loose end during the Book Festival, you could do worse than to get yourself along to Underword, where there is a free spoken word event each evening. Two events look particularly interesting - Newbie Night on Wednesday 19th - I don't know whether any of the performances are crime fiction related, I only know that Andy Jamieson who is reading from his recently completed fantasy/SF novel aimed at teens upwards. None of them have read their work in public before - should be nervewracking. The other event is Word Dogs (which is normally based in Glasgow) on Friday 21st where Alastair Sim (whose Victorian detective novel THE UNBELIEVERS is set in Edinburgh) is performing.

Ian Rankin is twittering (tweeting?) the Edinburgh Festival - @Beathhigh. Excellent stuff.

A round-up of several book festival events including Kate Atkinson.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon Round-Up

William McIlvanney's son, Liam, publishes his debut novel ALL THE COLOURS OF THE TOWN - a thriller about sectarianism, set in Glasgow and Belfast. Looks interesting

The List asks Helen Fitzgerald Five Questions, and also reminds me that she and Karen Campbell are appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival on 22nd August. Hmmmmm...I might actually make that event, assuming it's not sold out. And for those of a gentler disposition than me, The Mulgray Twins and Alanna Knight are appearing the next day. This article will tell you everything you need to know about the Mulgray Twins brand of crime fiction.

And, talking of the Edinburgh Book Festival, it seems that Scottish authors are a big draw. While the BBC reports that more than a third of the 700 events are sold out.

A new Scotland on Sunday anthology called HEADSHOOK, which challenged 24 Scottish writers to write stories on the theme of Scotland's future.

Edinburgh band St Jude's Infirmary release their second album This Has Been The Death Of Us on August 22nd, and it features vocals from Ian Rankin. I'm excited to hear the new one as I really loved their first album Happy Healthy Lucky Month. I usually like faster, punkier stuff, but they are an excellent band. Check this one out. Or this one, which is slightly more upbeat.

And, finally, the whole 'a family that reviews together, stays together' thing might be oot the windae - my Mum rang me earlier to tell me off for 'making' her read all of two pages of one of the books I sent her for review. Whoops.

Friday's Forgotten Books - WALK THE DARK STREETS - William Krasner

Here's my second offering for the Friday's Forgotten Books series masterminded by Patti Abbott and The Rap Sheet.

I have a little pile of ancient Gold Medal and Bantam books with titles like SWAMP BRAT, THE CORPSE THAT REFUSED TO STAY DEAD, and SWING THE BIG EYED RABBIT. They have great back cover copy, such as "...Then one fine morning someone smothered the soprano, and a red-headed old lady who was as batty as a bird sang some fantastic lyrics for the cops...She called the tune on another killing - which happened to be her own." Irresistible. And they all have that wonderful fusty, musty, dusty old book smell when you crack them open. And some of them even have squashed spiders between pages 94 and 95. That's one's strangely resistible.

So here's one of them - a great little book which feels as though you're reading the script of a noir film.

WALK THE DARK STREETS - William Krasner - first published in 1949

Captain Sam Birge is a dedicated and overworked homicide detective. His latest case is the brutal murder of night club hostess Janice Morel - or, as the front of the book describes her "blackmailer, hostess-entertainer, a lady of no virtue. Somebody wanted her dead." Janice lived in a sleazy residential hotel and when Birge and his partner, Lieutenant Charley Hagen, start their investigations, they interview a number of colourful characters, including Janice's co-workers and friends, an embittered blind musician, the frosty and dried-up manageress of the hotel, an elderly housemaid who seems to care about the guests, Janice's corrupt 'agent', and the dodgy owner of the club where Janice worked. Most of the characters have mysterious pasts, or tortured presents, and Krasner brings them all to life with a few deft touches. I really loved the character of one of the suspects and his story touched me. We get to know Janice herself through fragments of diaries she has left which chart her downward spiral from hopeful, naive small town girl with ambitions of fame and fortune, to used-up, old before her time good time girl.

This is an excellent, noir-feeling book. I could really picture Birge walking the dark streets in his fedora and raincoat, going above and beyond the call of duty to solve the crime. The book has a wonderfully seedy atmosphere. Highly recommended for lovers of noir or hard-boiled or TV series like Dragnet.

Here's an excellent article on Krasner from Ed Gorman's blog.

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

I've added a few new authors to the list of links recently. Some of them - Frank Muir , C David Ingram, Clio Gray were added too late to be featured in my alphabet posts (of which I have posted up to M - the rest to follow).

My mum has been getting grumpy about my dad's new reviewing gig (I believe her exact words were "Patrick, anyone would think you've been asked to review for The Times. It's only our Donna's daft Blob (sic), you know"), so, in order to promote marital bliss - 50 years in September (assuming my dad makes it) - I'm going to do a new occasional feature - tentatively called Keeping It In The Family - where Mum, Dad and I will all review the same book. This should be fun. My mum likes cosies, historicals and a few police procedurals where there is not a lot of gore, no sex and definitely no swearing; my dad likes thrillers, spy novels and books with elves in (the elves can swear their heads off as far as he's concerned); and I like noir, warped and funny books. I think the chances of us all enjoying the same book are slim-to-youmustbekidding.

Our first book is going to be Frank Muir's AN EYE FOR AN EYE. Since the premise is that six wife abusers have been stabbed to death through the left eye, I'm assuming it's not a cosy. I had a quick look and found an empty eye socket on page 4, some pretty close to the bone sexual references (double entendre intentional) on pages 7 and 8, and some Really Bad Words on pages 11, 12 and 14. And no elves. I think it will go down well...

In the meantime...

Irvine Welsh blamed for rise in Scottish drug deaths...sort of.

Ian Rankin talks about Fred "The Shred" Goodwin as well as his new book, THE COMPLAINTS. And, talking of Ian Rankin, he and Ian Banks will be appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival as part of Amnesty International's Imprisoned Writers programme.

An interview with debut author Grant McKenzie.

Good news for fans of Val McDermid's WIRE IN THE BLOOD series, which was cancelled by ITV this year.

We Are Family - A Duet of Reviews

My Dad is fairly getting into this reviewing lark, although I'm slightly concerned that he's soon going to be demanding payment. So, while I still have his services free of charge, here is my Dad's review of Ken McClure's WHITE DEATH, and my review of Karen Campbell's THE TWILIGHT TIME (just to prove that I'm not a lazy blogger).

Ken McClure - WHITE DEATH
Publisher: Polygon
Published: 2009

This book should come with a government health warning. Do not read if you are a hypochondriac or are of a nervous disposition. For someone who can count the number of times he has visited the doctor on one hand, and still have enough fingers left to give a victory sign, the first few chapters were way above my head. When the investigation started I felt the book got going, however, and I could see that the medical terms and background were necessary for the development of the story.

WHITE DEATH tells the story of Dr Steven Dunbar - an ex-special forces soldier and Sci-Med investigator - following through an investigation into the reasons why a group of schoolchildren were vaccinated with a modified drug, and the subsequent deaths of two of the people involved with them. The story was chilling and believable, and kept me enthralled to the end which was in part surprise, and in part predictable. I will certainly look out for more of Ken McClure's novels.

Reviewed by: Donna's Dad.

Karen Campbell - THE TWILIGHT TIME
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Published: 2008

Karen Campbell is an ex-police officer, and that definitely shows in THE TWILIGHT TIME, her first novel. When Sergeant Anna Cameron arrives at Glasgow's Stewart Street police station to take charge of the Flexi Unit she shows a very confident front - composed, successful, and more than a little frosty. Her personal life, however, is anything but composed and successful. She's having an affair with a married senior officer, she has few friends, and she discovers that a member of her new squad is an ex-lover who dumped her unceremoniously back in police training college. It's a small squad, and the team are assigned to deal with street offences, car crime, shoplifting, and policing the prostitutes along The Drag - a stretch of Glasgow a few blocks long. Prostitutes are being viciously attacked and Anna's team is tasked with solving the crimes - a task made much more difficult by the often suspicious and sometimes downright unhelpful nature of the victims. And, in a lot of ways, the prostitutes are right to be suspicious of the police. Several are insensitive, boorish and uncaring. And not only to the prostitutes. In addition, Anna gets involved in the case of an elderly Polish man who is the target of racial abuse. He gets under her skin and the reader is shown the softer, more caring side to her character.

One of the strengths of the book for me is Anna's relationships - with her ex-lover, her police colleagues, the working girls and the elderly Polish man. The reader is shown several facets of Anna - not all of which sit comfortably together. She's a really interesting character - sometimes frustrating, sometimes cold, often very likeable, but above all, never dull. All the characters are very well drawn and some of them are surprisingly touching, without being cloying and melodramatic. In places the book is very dark and not for the squeamis..There are some warts-and-all examples of police procedure and after one such example I gained a new respect for the boys and girls in blue and decided that I never wanted to shake hands with one, let alone be one! Along with the darkness there are also some great touches of black humour which mean that it's not a depressing read.

The setting is one of the best depictions of Glasgow I've read, and it's shown as the schizophrenic, gritty, in-your-face, characterful city it is. On top of all that, there's a gripping plot that is full of twists and turns. But this is not a bog standard police procedural. It's an insight into real peoples' lives - police, victims and criminals - who all come across in shades of grey.

Reviewed by: Your humble blogger.

Holy Mortarbards, Batman!

Glasgow crime writer Alex Gray does some detective work to uncover the 'bible of Scottish cuisine'. "Though controversial recipes such as sheep's head broth have been relegated to the introduction because of changes to health and safety laws, and shifting public taste, the editors promise that fans of the original will not be disappointed." Presumably that means that sheep's head broth has been replaced by deep fried Mars Bar.

Iain Banks TRANSITION will be serialised internationally on iTunes as a free podcast, starting on September 3rd. *UPDATE* (the comments section at the link to the Bookseller article talks about TRANSITION not being the first - thanks to Mack for the link).

An interview with Robert Downey Jr, Rachel McAdams, Joel Silver and Susan Downey about the new Sherlock Holmes film.

Tom Morton's SERPENTINE reviewed in the Highland News.

An audio interview with Denise Mina.

I don't know how close this is to completion but Johnny Borrell of Razorlight, Robert Carlyle and somebody called Colin (reports vary as to whether it's Firth or Farrell - which makes me even more dubious about the whole thing) will apparently star in Irvine Welsh's film THE MEAT TRADE. I won't hold my breath.

Edinburgh Napier University is to include graphic novels in its Masters Degree, and the University of Dundee will teach comics as part of its English degree. Guest lecturers will include Ian Rankin.

Hey Ho, Let's Go...

In a previous post I mentioned Shetland's Wordplay Book Festival. The full line-up and schedule is now available. Two events from Messrs Allan Guthrie and Stuart MacBride (and no, I'm not talking about 'The Gruffalo' and 'The Grumpy Sailor').

And more news of the Off The Page festival.

Denise Mina on how real events inspire her.

A review of Christopher Brookmyre's new book PANDAEMONIUM and Craig Russell's THE VALKYRIE SONG

An Edinburgh Festival production of Irvine Welsh's TRAINSPOTTING.

And finally, I'm very chuffed to hear that Busted Flush Press will be bringing out a sequel to DAMN NEAR DEAD. I loved being part of the first one, but, more importantly, all the stories were excellent and the anthology was obviously a labour of love and great fun. Busted Flush do great anthologies and this new one will be no exception, with Bill Crider at the helm. I'm looking forward to finding out who the contributors are and reading the stories.

I enjoy themed anthologies a lot - I'm still hoping for that Ramones themed one. So, what about you? Any themed anthologies you'd like to see?