Some Well-Deserved Good Words

A rather spiffing review of Helen FitzGerald's BLOODY WOMEN which says, in part "So this novel has it all – thriller, drama, whodunit, comedy, great characters and good humour."

And Brian over at BSC Review reviews Allan Guthrie's SLAMMER, saying "When we speak of those on the forefront of dark fiction; those whose work scares people at a fundamental level; and those whose work we are hard pressed to try to define and pigeon hole, but can’t, Guthrie’s name is near the top of the list, and Slammer proves why." Niiiiiiiiiiiice.

And more reviews - Alexander McCall Smith's THE LOST ART OF GRATITUDE in the Winston-Salem Journal and Iain Banks TRANSITION at Cultural Pilgrim.

In other news - Tony Black - one of my favourite authors - on one of his big influences, (another favourite of mine) Ken Bruen over at the always excellent blog of Paul Brazill. "It wasn't, for me, the story, - not the story alone, anyway - but the sheer power of the writing. It was like being engulfed by a tsunami of talent - a writer with so many skills that the pages, every one of them, contained moments of breathtaking beauty, flights of linguistic gymnastics and...real heart." Totally agree Tony old fruit.

Ian Rankin chooses his 'best books'.

Russel McLean and GJ Moffatt in pictures.

Dodgy Tummies and Saucy Slippers

Well, what a lovely weekend. First of all Friday spent with the gorgeous (on all levels) Christa Faust. The day included a bus tour on an open-topped bus (Glasgow, November - need I say more?), a trip to Glasgow's wonderful Necropolis, the weirdest and least scary horror exhibition in the world (I am probably the only person who has ever screamed there, and that's only because Christa came up behind me when I wasn't expecting it). The scariest thing about it was that it was located in a street the taxi driver didn't want to go down - we practically had to jump out of the taxi while he was still driving.

And I really wasn't trying to get my own back on Christa for making me walk 40 miles in Indianapolis in high heels. There was also an evening of good friends (big hugs to Christa, Charles, Kieran and Ewan), great chat, and good food.

Christa, sadly, was not able to appreciate the food as she was feeling slightly dodgy following a vegetarian meal the night before with the World's Most Dangerous Vegetarian, Allan Guthrie.

I always knew lettuce was bad for you. Christa should have stuck to deep fried pizza and haggis. As the pharmacist said when we went into Boots The Chemist to get her some medicine "Remember, Edinburgh made you sick, Glasgow made you better." Ah, Scotland's east/west rivalry is a marvellous thing.

Christa was a real trouper. She was great company and great fun despite feeling really rough.

And Christa knows me too well. This was her gift to me. Delicious.

Then last night we went to see the film Up which was wonderful. Funny, touching and totally delightful.

And now, a wee round up of some Scottish crime fiction news.

First of all, the Telegraph rounds up the 100 books which have defined the noughties (for better or worse), including a fair smattering of crime fiction and a couple of Scots.

Sherlock Holmes movie blog launched.

A review of Sue Walker's THE BURNING in Bookmunch.

A catch up of Alexander McCall Smith's 44 SCOTLAND STREET in The Scotsman (for Barbara).

Iain Banks on the question of legalising drugs.

And finally, to celebrate Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday, an online archive of all his works, plus "extracts of little-known poetry, letters, rarely seen family photographs and his observations on friends, family and favourite authors."

Review - BLOODY WOMEN - Helen FitzGerald

BLOODY WOMEN - Helen FitzGerald
Publisher: Polygon
Published: October 2009

First Lines: "I just need you to say if this is him," the man in the white coat said, lifting the sheet that covered the lump beneath.

I looked down at the metal bench.

"Take your time," the man said, which I was already doing. I looked long and hard, holding back the tears, moving my head left to right, closer, further away, and then said, "Yes, that's Ahmed."

When Catriona Marsden is called in to identify an ex-boyfriend's severed penis, her reaction is to giggle. Needless to say, that does not look good, and she's promptly arrested for the murder of not one, but three ex-boyfriends. As she puts it "I was no longer viewed as the bereaved ex-lover of three men, but was accused of shagging, mutilating and murdering them, not necessarily in that order." And that takes us to the top of page two of this very dark, very funny book.

Cat is getting married and, like most brides, she has the pre-wedding jitters. However, unlike most brides, she decides that the way to put those jitters to bed is to meet up with each of her ex-boyfriends, and sleep with them. So now she's in jail, and the woman who is writing her biography has...well...she's put her own particular spin on things. And that looks as though it could send Cat over the edge.

BLOODY WOMEN is delicious, ingenious, inventive and mordantly funny. Helen FitzGerald has a real skill for making the totally absurd and goofy, thoroughly logical and reasonable. She serves up plot twists and severed penises (penii?) alike with the same relish and glee as Bette Davis serving Joan Crawford a rat on a silver salver in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.

This is a book where at any given moment you think you know what's happening, but do you really? Helen FitzGerald amuses, entertains, enthralls and shocks in equal measure. She manages to make the reader care about characters who are, on the surface, pretty unlikeable. Excellent stuff. Warped, funny, and very well told.

Having now read a couple of her books, Helen Fitzgerald has firmly claimed a place on my list of favourite authors.

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.

Reviews, Interviews and Bad News

Off out to a gig tonight to see The Enemy so here, hopefully, is an automatically posting...errrr...post.

Frederic Lindsay and Ken McClure visit East Lothian's libraries.

Audio reviews of Ian Rankin and Stuart MacBride, with downloadable audio clips. And, talking of Stuart MacBride, the lovely Russel McLean reviews the SF/crime concoction HALFHEAD and finds it most excellent.

Amongst many other books, PW reviews M C Beaton and Alexander McCall Smith.

An interview with Val McDermid on Women and Hollywood. And one with Sherlock Holmes aficionado and all round top bloke Rafe McGregor on The Tainted Archive.

And finally, he's not Scottish, but he's the inspiration for this blog because of all the great stuff he does on Irish crime fiction, he's a mate, he's an all round top bloke, and he's one of my favourite writers. So I am very saddened to see Declan Burke post this. I understand and respect his decision, and his little daughter is one hell of a lucky girl to have such a great Dad, but I hope that Dec keeps writing fiction - because he's brilliant at it and his books brighten my days. I read his first book EIGHT BALL BOOGIE back when it first came out in 2003 and absolutely loved it. I kept checking for more books by him so it was marvellous to get to know him a few years later and find out that he had a new book coming out. I have multiple copies of THE BIG O, and I've been lucky enough to read both manuscripts he currently has out in the market. He has great talent and his fiction is funny, thrilling, smart and touching with great characters and full of life. All the best Dec, whatever you do, but I'm crossing everything that fiction plays a big part - if not right now, then in the (near) future.

Authors Talking - Here, There and Everywhere

Aly Monroe on answering questions, publishing and reviews.

Advance warning of Ian Rankin at The Edinburgh Bookshop on 11 January 2010, talking about "the books that made me."

M C Beaton in...errrrr...somewhere they publish The Southern Daily Echo on November 24th (probably Winchester, having done a bit of Miss Marpl-ish sleuthing).

Philip Kerr recycles a speech from better times.

A very interesting article on Waterstone's, and the future of publishing, including this bit:
"Hamilton cites the example of the crime novelist Ian Rankin: "Rankin was selling nothing at all for the first few novels he wrote, but publishers knew he would take off and so they kept with him. The opportunity isn't there to do that any more because sales are so low that you lose too much money initially, even if you make money later. That old, very successful business model doesn't make sense any more. Thanks to the prevailing way in which books are sold there would be no new Rankin."

Yum Yum, What A Haul

Isn't it a lovely feeling when you get a whole new book haul? So here's my latest. Some bought, some ARCs, some given.

BLOODY WOMEN - Helen Fitzgerald
Published: October 2009 - Polygon
Yippee - I've been looking forward to this one for a while.
Cover/online copy: Returning to Scotland to organise her wedding, Catriona is overcome with the jitters. She decides to tie up loose ends before settling permanently in Tuscany, and seeks out her ex-boyfriends. Only problem is, they're all dead.
First Lines: '"I just need you to say if this is him," the man in the white coat said, lifting the sheet that covered the lump beneath.'

CROSS COUNTRY MURDER SONG - Philip Wilding
Published: February 2010 - Jonathan Cape
Oooooh this one looks dark and brilliant.
Cover/online copy: On a journey from the Jersey Shore to the Pacific Ocean the driver crosses an America twisted beyond all recognition, as if in a fevered dream. He is pursued by ghosts of his traumatic past and the police, who have discovered the disturbing secret in his basement.
First Lines:'Tell me about the box they kept you in, he said.'

BURIAL - Neil Cross
Published: August 2009 - Pocket Books
Cover/online copy: Can your guiltiest secret ever be buried? Nathan has never been able to forget the worst night of his life: the party that led to the sudden, shocking death of a young woman. Only he and Bob, an untrustworthy old acquaintance, know what really happened and they have resolved to keep it that way. But one rainy night, years later, Bob appears at Nathan's door with terrifying news, and old wounds are suddenly reopened, threatening to tear Nathan's whole world apart. Because Nathan has his own secrets now. Secrets that could destroy everything he has fought to build. And maybe Bob doesn't realise just how far Nathan will go to protect them...
First Lines: 'The doorbell rang. Nathan had a feeling - but he dismissed it, muted the TV and went to the door. There stood Bob; hunched over, grinning in the darkness and rain. Saying:'Hello, mate."'

LUSH LIFE - Richard Price
Published: July 2009 - Bloomsbury Publishing
Cover/online copy: Whenever people asked him what he was planning to do with his life, Eric Cash used to have a dozen answers. Now he's thirty-five, still in the restaurant business and still serving the people he wanted to be. Not like Ike Marcus. Ike is young, good-looking, charismatic. He's going places - until two street kids step up to him and Eric one night and pull a gun. At least, that's Eric's version...
First Lines: 'The Quality of Life Task Force: four sweatshirts in a bogus taxi set up on the corner of Clinton Street alongside the Williamsburg Bridge off-ramp to profile the incoming salmon run; their mantra: Dope, guns, overtime; their motto: Everyone's got something to lose.'

THE CORONER - M R Hall
Published: September 2009 - Pan
Cover/online copy: Perhaps she had been too swift to imagine a conspiracy, too easily swept up in the emotion of a teenager's shocking death. Snapping her briefcase shut, she made a decision to go about her investigation in as detached and professional a manner as she could. She was the coroner, an impartial, clear-headed, determined investigator of the truth...
First Lines: 'The first dead body Jenny ever saw was her grandfather's.'

THE DAY OF THE JACK RUSSELL - Bateman
Published: November 2009 - Headline
Cover/online copy: The Small Shop Keeper With No Name is back. Hired to find the vandals responsible for spraying graffiti on an aspiring insurance magnate's advertising hoarding, he soon finds himself up to his ears in intrigue and battling to solve murders which echo in the corridors of power. With MI5 getting involved and everyone on the hunt for a missing Jack Russell, can Our Man Behind the Counter stay alive as well as keep his world renowned but criminally ignored No Alibis mystery bookshop afloat?
First Lines: 'It was the Tuesday before Christmas Day when the Case of the Cock-Headed Man walked into No Alibis, the finest mystery bookstore in all of, um, Belfast.'

THE TWELVE - Stuart Neville
Published: July 2009 - Harvill Secker
Cover/online copy:Former paramilitary killer Gerry Fegan is haunted by his victims, twelve souls who shadow his every waking day and scream through every drunken night. Just as he reaches the edge of sanity they reveal their desire: vengeance on those who engineered their deaths. From the greedy politicians to the corrupt security forces, the street thugs to the complacent bystanders who let it happen, all must pay the price. When Fegan's vendetta threatens to derail Northern Ireland's peace process and destabilise its fledgling government, old comrades and enemies alike want him gone. David Campbell, a double agent lost between the forces of law and terror, takes the job. But he has his own reasons for eliminating Fegan; the secrets of a dirty war should stay buried, even if its ghosts do not.
First Lines:'Maybe if he had one more drink they'd leave him alone.'

THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD - Adrian McKinty
Published: July 2009 - Serpent's Tail
Cover/online copy:Michael Forsythe might be, as one of his assailants puts it, 'un-fucking-killable', but that doesn't seem to deter people from trying. He's living in Lima, reasonably well-hidden by the FBI's Witness Protection Program, but Bridget Callaghan, whose fiance he murdered twelve years ago, has an enduring wish to see him dead. So when her two goon assassins pass him the phone to speak to her before they kill him, Michael thinks she just wants to relish the moment. In fact, out of desperation, she is giving him a chance to redeem himself. All he has to do is return to Ireland and find her missing daughter. Before midnight. Tenacious and brutal, with the hunted man's instinct for trouble, Forsythe leaves a trail of mayhem as he tries to end the bloody feud once and for all. The Bloomsday Dead pulsates with break-neck action and wry literary references; McKinty's distinctly Irish voice packs a ferocious punch.
First Lines:'"State LY Plum P Buck Mulligan." Hector handed me this message on the cliffs at Miraflores.'

DAISY CHAIN - G J Moffat
Published: March 2009 - Hachette Scotland
Cover/online copy:Logan Finch has just about everything he ever wanted, including a penthouse apartment and a shot at making partner in one of Scotland's largest law firms. But there's something missing from his life: he still pines for the woman he thought was 'the one' and who left him without a word of explanation over twelve years ago. Alex Cahill is one of Logan's clients, and probably his best friend. The profane, gregarious American owns a successful security business but has a shadowy past and a capacity for violence. Detective Constable Rebecca Irvine, newly promoted to Strathclyde Police's CID, is stuck in a failing marriage. On her first day in the new job she is called to a murder scene in the affluent Southside of Glasgow. The victim is Penny Grant, Logan's former girlfriend. And her eleven-year-old daughter is missing. Against the backdrop of Glasgow city and its surroundings, GJ Moffat creates a taut thriller, a group of characters you would want to meet again and a gang of characters you most definitely wouldn't.
First Lines:'Her vision blurred red. He hit her again.'

THE LIE - Petra Hammesfahr
Published: October 2009 - Bitter Lemon Press
Cover/online copy:Nadia and Susanne have just met. They look uncannily alike, but one is filthy rich and has both a husband and a lover while the other is dirt poor and single. So, when Nadia asks Susanne to spend a weekend with her husband, how can she refuse the outrageous fee on offer? So Susanne changes her hairstyle and clothes and, one Friday afternoon, drives Nadia's wine-red Alfa to her beautiful suburban villa. However, what appears at first to be a harmless game quickly turns into a deadly web of lies.
First Lines:'It was a horrible sight, even for the boy who, at fourteen, had already witnessed much barbarity, though not in this country.'

Now, which one to read first?