Summer Reads
Phillip Gwynne Jones’s series set in Venice is a new import from the UK. As sometimes happens we received the first three titles over the course of three months, May to July, rather than as they were released 2017-2019. If you like books about Venice you will like these, lighter in tone than Donna Leon they are an enjoyable read. [The Venetian Game, Vengeance in Venice and The Venetian Masquerade are available in trade paper at $16.99-17.70] A fourth title Venetian Gothic will be released in time for next Summer.
Rachel Rhys’ Fatal Inheritance takes place in 1948. The heroine Eva Forrester’s life, in post WWII Britain, seems to be one of unremitting greyness when out of the blue she is left a mysterious legacy in the South of France. Needless to say life on the Mediterranean coast is very different from gloomy post WWII Britain.
Faith Martin has written a number of mysteries under a number of names, most of which are not available in North America. She has embarked on a new series set in Oxford in the 1960s. The two main characters are Dr. Clement Ryder, former heart surgeon now Oxford’s coroner and Trudy Loveday a young woman police constable. The first two titles A Fatal Obsession and A Fatal Mistake are in stock, the third A Fatal Flaw was released in the UK in April but we have not as yet received our ordered copies.
TV News
Many of you will have picked up a Freeman Wills Croft title which has been republished in the British Library Crime Classic series, now Inspector French is coming to the small screen. Set in the 1920s, Inspector French was a Scotland Yard detective who was sent to many places in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to solve the crime.
Lovejoy is coming back to the television screen. A new updated version of the long running (1986-94) comedy drama series which was based on the novels of Jonathan Gash is in the works. For those of you who have never seen the series, Lovejoy, played by Ian McShane, was an antiques dealer who operated just inside the letter of the law. Blue Sky Pictures has acquired the rights to the original novels with plans to "update it for the 21st century for both the millions who followed the original and a whole new generation of viewers". It will be interesting to see if the new interpretation presents Lovejoy as the harder edged character of the novels rather than the softer loveable rogue of the original BBC series.
The Dead Good Reader Awards 2019
These awards are handed out at the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival which is held in Harrogate, England every July. The Festival has become a very important feature of the mystery writer’s circuit and always features a star studded and eclectic programme. Guests this year included Harlan Coben, Ian Rankin, Belinda Bauer, Jo Nesbo, M.C. Beaton and James Patterson. The awards this year were as follows:
The Nosy Parker Award for Best Amateur Detective:
Winner: The Suspect by Fiona Barton
The Jury’s Out Award for Most Gripping Courtroom Drama:
Winner: Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh
The Dish Served Cold Award for Best Revenge Thriller:
Winner: My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
The Cancel All Plans Award for the Book You Can’t Put Down:
Winner: Skin Deep by Liz Nugent
The Cat and Mouse Award for Most Elusive Villain:
Winner: Last of the Magpies by Mark Edwards
The Dead Good Recommends Award for Most Recommended Book:
Winner: The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths