This month: Russel goes travelling, Ian Rankin gets grilled, John Connolly wonders whether its worth writing faster and Tom Rob Smith gets onto another longlist... Oh, and we get temporarily invaded by the American contingent...
The question was asked:
Where were you last month?
The answer is: I was quite ill and subsequently out of circulation for a while. But I'm back on my feet, and that makes Joe Moore, editor supreme round these parts, a happy man, as he doesn't have to cover for me again (although this month's column was handed in at the eleventh hour). So I'm slipping back into my work again, catching up on all I missed the last month or so. And what better way to start that than to make a trip to Harrogate from the Crime Writing Festival?
So let's get on with it:
HURRAH FOR HARROGATE
Coffee and beer - perfect literary prizes!
Yes, July, as ever, saw the usual excitement descend on a small English town as the Harrogate International Crime Festival took off in full swing. Having made a full recovery, I was there, observing everything through unusually sober eyes.The festival grows in strength each year, with new additions to the programming, but one of the standards is by now the opening night party and presentation of the Theakstons Old Peculier Best Crime Novel of the Year Award. It is a title that confuses me slightly because the books have to have been out in paperback for the last year which means that often the titles are backlist by the time awards roll around.
Regardless, it was an unusually long (but very strong) shortlist this year. The eventual winner was Stef Penney for The Tenderness of Wolves which has, if you didn't know, previously also been the recipient of the Costa Award some two years earlier. Ironically, although I was familiar with most of the short list, this is the one book I hadn't read, so just goes to show how up with the zeitgeist I truly am. However, by all accounts (the recommendation of many of my customers and of course the judges of the award), The Tenderness of Wolves is a truly deserving winner.
A thrilling chair
In terms of thriller presence at the festival, this year's chair was the ever charming thriller writer, Simon Kernick. One of the large promotional pieces appeared in Waterstones Books Quarterly, where Kernick talked about the nature of thrillers as well as interrogating key authors from both sides of the Atlantic about the difference between the UK and US styles of thrillers and procedurals.
They're over here
Unusually, and since Kernick brought it up, I can't go without mentioning the three big American names at the festival. I sadly missed Tess Gerritsen - author of medical and other thrillers - as she was speaking on Sunday after I had left. It's a shame because Gerritsen's now-sadly-defunct blog was always literate and intriguing, but luckily she's joined the crew (including Brit thriller writer Zoe Sharp) over at the murderati blog (www.murderati.typepad.com), which is always an intriguing blog to pop by, with a number of smart authors sounding off on a wide variety of topics.
Also, I missed Jeffery Deaver's festival appearance, but caught him later when he gave a magnificent performance the next week for Dundee Book Events, promoting his latest chilling thriller, The Broken Window. Delivering the Vote of Thanks when he was done, I had to mention the fact (and he brought it up) that he really does look like John Malkovich. For years I'd been saying, there's something familiar about that guy...
But I did catch an appearance by Robert Crais, and have to say it was one of the best appearances of the festival (with the possible exception of British author Stuart MacBride resurrecting Edgar Allen Poe as a creepily camp raven-puppet waving psychopath) with an interview that was at once personal and hugely entertaining. And his new book, Chasing Darkness ain't half bad either...
RANKIN FILE
Angie Johnson Schmit's Bloody Scots month over at the superb interview site, In For Questioning (www.inforquestioning.blogspot.com) recently wrapped up in the only way it possibly could. After starting with a nobody (yours truly), she ended with a real somebody: Ian Rankin (http://inforquestioning.blogspot.com/2008/07/ian-rankin-interview.html). It's a wonderful interview, with Angie's relaxed style prompting excellent answers from Rankin, although I still demand to know why someone once asked what his favourite cheese was.
It's also worth noting that Rankin does indeed have a new book coming out. Following the example of Michael Connelly, Doors Open was originally serialised in the New York Times, but presumably as with Connelly's The Overlook, there will be edits and additions in the final version. Certainly, as the first Rebus-less Rankin, I'm intrigued and somewhat excited to read this one.
CHILD 44, MAN '08
Tom Rob Smith's Stalinist Russia thriller, Child 44 seems to be up for more awards than I ever knew were in existence. Fully embraced, it seems, by the literary establishment, Child 44 has made it onto the Man Booker '08 longlist (twelve titles go in, less come out...). If a thriller makes it to the shortlist, that's when things get really interesting.
PAYING FOR IT (actually this documentary's utterly free)
Tony Black's superbly dark and twisted debut, Paying For It paints a portrait of Edinburgh that is truly miles away from the tourist traps and tartan tat. In this documentary (swiped lovingly from Youtube) you can hear the gravel tones of actor Garth Cruickshank reading from the books while the slightly more squeaky Tony talks about writing it.
MORE, MORE, MORE
I heard the writer in question assert in a recent event that if the fans wanted more - if they wanted two books a year - he'd give them that. A grand notion, but John Connolly's worried about the flipside of the equation (http://www.johnconnollybooks.com/2008/07/when-one-is-not-enough.html) and whether suddenly every writer's going to be expected to keep up. Connolly's blog - And Another Thing - is always worth checking out. Infrequent, but always thought provoking, he's always got something intriguing to say.
And there we go - its nice to be back here at The Big Thrill, and barring any more madness up here, I'll see you again next month - same time, same website...
Russel
Contributing editor Russel D McLean is a Scottish bookseller working
for a national chain. He has run webzines, agonized over reviews for
various publications both in print and online, and written several
short stories, several of which have been published in Alfred
Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine as well as various other crime and noir
markets. His debut noir novel, THE GOOD SON, will be available in the
UK in November 2008 published by Five Leaves Press.
In terms of thriller presence at the festival, this year's chair was the ever charming thriller writer, Simon Kernick. One of the large promotional pieces appeared in Waterstones Books Quarterly, where Kernick talked about the nature of thrillers as well as interrogating key authors from both sides of the Atlantic about the difference between the UK and US styles of thrillers and procedurals.They're over here
Unusually, and since Kernick brought it up, I can't go without mentioning the three big American names at the festival. I sadly missed Tess Gerritsen - author of medical and other thrillers - as she was speaking on Sunday after I had left. It's a shame because Gerritsen's now-sadly-defunct blog was always literate and intriguing, but luckily she's joined the crew (including Brit thriller writer Zoe Sharp) over at the murderati blog (www.murderati.typepad.com), which is always an intriguing blog to pop by, with a number of smart authors sounding off on a wide variety of topics.
Also, I missed Jeffery Deaver's festival appearance, but caught him later when he gave a magnificent performance the next week for Dundee Book Events, promoting his latest chilling thriller, The Broken Window. Delivering the Vote of Thanks when he was done, I had to mention the fact (and he brought it up) that he really does look like John Malkovich. For years I'd been saying, there's something familiar about that guy...
But I did catch an appearance by Robert Crais, and have to say it was one of the best appearances of the festival (with the possible exception of British author Stuart MacBride resurrecting Edgar Allen Poe as a creepily camp raven-puppet waving psychopath) with an interview that was at once personal and hugely entertaining. And his new book, Chasing Darkness ain't half bad either...
RANKIN FILE
Angie Johnson Schmit's Bloody Scots month over at the superb interview site, In For Questioning (www.inforquestioning.blogspot.com) recently wrapped up in the only way it possibly could. After starting with a nobody (yours truly), she ended with a real somebody: Ian Rankin (http://inforquestioning.blogspot.com/2008/07/ian-rankin-interview.html). It's a wonderful interview, with Angie's relaxed style prompting excellent answers from Rankin, although I still demand to know why someone once asked what his favourite cheese was. It's also worth noting that Rankin does indeed have a new book coming out. Following the example of Michael Connelly, Doors Open was originally serialised in the New York Times, but presumably as with Connelly's The Overlook, there will be edits and additions in the final version. Certainly, as the first Rebus-less Rankin, I'm intrigued and somewhat excited to read this one.
CHILD 44, MAN '08
Tom Rob Smith's Stalinist Russia thriller, Child 44 seems to be up for more awards than I ever knew were in existence. Fully embraced, it seems, by the literary establishment, Child 44 has made it onto the Man Booker '08 longlist (twelve titles go in, less come out...). If a thriller makes it to the shortlist, that's when things get really interesting.
PAYING FOR IT (actually this documentary's utterly free)
Tony Black's superbly dark and twisted debut, Paying For It paints a portrait of Edinburgh that is truly miles away from the tourist traps and tartan tat. In this documentary (swiped lovingly from Youtube) you can hear the gravel tones of actor Garth Cruickshank reading from the books while the slightly more squeaky Tony talks about writing it.
MORE, MORE, MORE
I heard the writer in question assert in a recent event that if the fans wanted more - if they wanted two books a year - he'd give them that. A grand notion, but John Connolly's worried about the flipside of the equation (http://www.johnconnollybooks.com/2008/07/when-one-is-not-enough.html) and whether suddenly every writer's going to be expected to keep up. Connolly's blog - And Another Thing - is always worth checking out. Infrequent, but always thought provoking, he's always got something intriguing to say.
And there we go - its nice to be back here at The Big Thrill, and barring any more madness up here, I'll see you again next month - same time, same website...
Russel
Contributing editor Russel D McLean is a Scottish bookseller working
for a national chain. He has run webzines, agonized over reviews for
various publications both in print and online, and written several
short stories, several of which have been published in Alfred
Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine as well as various other crime and noir
markets. His debut noir novel, THE GOOD SON, will be available in the
UK in November 2008 published by Five Leaves Press.
