Bloggers who Inspire Me

Many thanks to Vanda at Overkill who gave me the Inspiration Award. I've slightly modified the image she handed on but I guess that is the way with memes.

Part of this Inspiration Award is that you hand it on to other bloggers who inspire you and whose blogs add that sparkle to your day. In fact there are rules :

1. Please put the logo of the award on your blog.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 7 or more blogs.
4. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them.

So don't cringe when you see me coming with yet another meme in hand folks!

My bloggers I watch list has expanded to 100 people over the last few months, so I've looked carefully at the people who have helped me on my journey in the last 12 months by consistently visiting, leaving comments, handing on good advice, giving me ideas, and providing avenues through which my blog has become known to a wider audience.

Choosing my 7 Victims wasn't easy because there are many more who have inspired me in others ways. My victims are not listed in any order of preference. They all people to whom I feel very grateful for the fact that they have gone out of their way for me.

• Patti Abbott at Pattinase who invited me to contribute to Friday's Forgotten Books and provided a weekly pleasure in researching ever since.

• Peter at Detectives beyond Borders who kept insisting I look at what he was writing on his blog even before I appreciated what blogging actually was.

• Bernadette who now has a book blog of her own at Reactions to Reading, but in the early days last year told me about BookMooch and other pleasures

• Debra at Sunday Salon who has brought 320 bloggers together and provided a venue for me to reach a wider audience.

• Marg at Reading Adventures who seems to read my every post and inpsires me with all her activities.

• Maxine at Petrona who has helped me in so many ways and feels like the calm voice of sensibility, with advice on so many aspects of crime fiction reading and blogging.
  
  
• Martin at Do You Write Under Your Own Name whose blog I have been reading now for well over a year. I enjoy his books and I enjoy his posts.
  

So I hope you will accept this award everyone, and take some of the credit in helping me along in the blogging world.

Review: ARCTIC CHILL, Arnaldur Indridason

Harvill Secker, 2008, ISBN 978-1-846-55065-2, 344 pages. Translated from Icelandic by Bernard Scudder and Victoria Cribb.

Set in Reyjavik, Iceland. A young boy of Asiatic appearance is discovered dead near the flats where he lives. He is frozen to the ground in a pool of his own blood, with a stab wound to the stomach. A theme that runs through the story is the tensions between native Icelanders and incomers, particularly those who are noticeably different.

A teacher of Icelandic language at the boy's school believes such incomers have no place in Iceland. Erlendur has to decide whether the boy has been the victim of racial bigotry, perhaps perpetrated by another student at the school, or is the recent sighting of a possible paedophile in the neighbourhood significant?

Reyjavik is a relatively warm oasis in the harsh Icelandic landscape. Icelandic men go off to warm places like Thailand, have a good time, and then bring back with them new wives. You can almost hear Indridason thinking about this dilution of the Icelandic genetic pool. You may like to read Indridason's first novel translated into English JAR CITY (aka TAINTED BLOOD) to see the full significance of that.

For Erlendur though the boy's death stirs once again memories of the death of another little boy, his own brother, also the victim of the harsh Icelandic climate. There are questions about Bergur's death that were never answered.

ARCTIC CHILL develops and expands Erlendur's own character for Indridason's readers, as well as those who have made appearances as part of Erlendur's investigative team throughout the series. This novel will cement his following.

My rating: 4.8

ARCTIC CHILL is the 5th of Indridason's novels translated into English.
During this translation Bernard Scudder, the translator, died suddenly at the age of 53. Bernard has I think been the translator of all the books.

In 2005 Indridason won the CWA Gold Dagger for SILENCE OF THE GRAVE
However ARCTIC CHILL has emblazoned across both front and back covers (see the image on the top right of this page) - WINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER.
In my book that's misleading advertising, even though ARCTIC CHILL did appear in many "tops" lists in 2008.

My earlier reviews

TAINTED BLOOD (JAR CITY)
A man is found murdered in his Reykjavik flat, a cryptic note left on his body. Erlendur, Detective Inspector with the Reykjavik police investigates. The investigation of the dead man's past reveals 40 year old accusations of rape and the murder begins to reach out like an octopus into Iceland's past and its present. We learn much about Icelandic society, and about how police investigations are carried out. There are some interesting side plots such as Erlendur's relationship with his drug-addicted daughter Eva Lind, his son Sindri Snaer, and his retired colleague Marion Briem. The investigation moves at a good pace and raises some interesting ethical questions. My rating 4.9

SILENCE OF THE GRAVE by Arnaldur Indridason
Building work on the outskirts of Reykajavik (Iceland) uncovers a body possibly buried alive during World War Two. Erlendur and his team are called in to investigate and try to uncover the truth while a team of archaeologists slowly and painstaking exhume the skeleton. Those who still live in the area tell of a young pregnant woman who disappeared in the war, but is it her? An elderly dying man talks of the green woman who was crooked. At the same time Erlendur is re-living his past - his daughter Eva Lind lies in a coma in the local hospital after a miscarriage and an old woman asks him why he is carrying a young boy around with him. The construction of this novel is intricate and it is almost impossible to solve the mysteries until the very end. Indridason draws into it a fascinating local legend about an orgy at the local gasworks on the night Halley's comet nearly struck the earth in 1910. Translated into English from Icelandic in 2005.
My rating: 5

VOICES, Arnaldur Indridason, rating 5.0
The doorman at a Reykjavik hotel who doubles every year as Santa at Christmas parties in the hotel is found dead by one of the hotel maids, stabbed to death, in his squalid basement room. Christmas is fast approaching and the detective Erlendur is confronted by the problem of how or even if he is going to celebrate Christmas. Is there anything to celebrate? Strangely he moves into the hotel while the investigation of the murder is carried out just feeling he can't go back to his flat. This is Indridason's 3rd novel to be translated into English. It was originally published in 2003 and made it into English in 2006. Erlendur of course eventually solves the murder mystery but along the way we learn a lot about the ghosts of his own past, and gain insight into his relationship with his drug-addicted daughter Eva Lind. And even in the last 10 pages we are still juggling candidates for the killer.

THE DRAINING LAKE by Arnaldur Indridason
After an earth tremor, the water level in an Icelandic lake begins to drop as water drains out through fissures in the lakes bed. Eventually it drops low enough to reveal the skeleton of a murder victim, probably there for a number of years and anchored to a piece of Russian radio equipment. The search for the identity of this person is a fairly lengthy and tedious process but murders and missing persons are pretty rare in Iceland where everybody knows everybody. Woven into the murder investigation is the story of idealistic young Icelandic socialists, party members chosen to be educated at university in Leipzig in East Germany, and then also more about Erlendur's own family and his children who flit in and out of his life. Originally published in Icelandic in 2004, the 4th of Indridason's books to be translated into English.
My rating: 4.7

Other Reviews:

• Arctic Chill (reviewed by Maxine Clarke)
• The Draining Lake (reviewed by Laura Root)
• The Draining Lake (reviewed by Maxine Clarke)
• Silence of the Grave (reviewed by Karen Chisholm)
• Voices
• Voices (reviewed by Maxine Clarke)
• Voices (reviewed by Norman Price)

The Edgar Nominees have been announced

Mystery Writers of America have announced the 2009 Edgar Nominees.
The winners will be announced on April 29 in New York City.
I must confess at the outset that I have read very few of them.

BEST NOVEL

Missing by Karin Alvtegen (Felony & Mayhem Press)
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
The Night Following by Morag Joss (Random House - Delacorte Press)
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Kind One by Tom Epperson (Five Star, div of Cengage)
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (Hyperion)
The Foreigner by Francie Lin (Picador)
Calumet City by Charlie Newton (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone)
A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock (Random House - Doubleday)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Prince of Bagram by Alex Carr (Random House Trade)
Money Shot by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)
Enemy Combatant by Ed Gaffney (Random House - Dell)
China Lake by Meg Gardiner (New American Library - Obsidian Mysteries)
The Cold Spot by Tom Piccirilli (Random House - Bantam)

BEST FACT CRIME

For The Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago by
Simon Baatz (HarperCollins)
American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of
the Century by Howard Blum (Crown Publishers)
Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It To The Revolution by
T.J. English (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Hans van
Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez (Harcourt)
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Walker & Company)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie
Y. Bailey (McFarland & Company)
Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories by
Leonard Cassuto (Columbia University Press)
Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction by
David Geherin (McFarland & Company)
The Rise of True Crime by Jean Murley (Greenwood Publishing - Praeger)
Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories
by Dr. Harry Lee Poe (Sterling Publishing - Metro Books)

BEST SHORT STORY

"A Sleep Not Unlike Death" - Hardcore Hardboiled by Sean Chercover (Kensington
Publishing)
"Skin and Bones" - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by David Edgerley Gates
(Dell Magazines)
"Scratch of a Woman" - Hardly Knew Her by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins -
William Morrow)
"La Vie en Rose" - Paris Noir by Dominique Mainard (Akashic Books
"Skinhead Central" - The Blue Religion by T. Jefferson Parker (Hachette Book
Group - Little, Brown and Company)

BEST JUVENILE

The Postcard by Tony Abbott (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Enigma: A Magical Mystery by Graeme Base (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff (Random House Children's Books - Wendy Lamb
Books)
The Witches of Dredmoore Hollow by Riford McKenzie (Marshall Cavendish
Children's Books)
Cemetary Street by Brenda Seabrooke (Holiday House)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd (Random House Children's Books - David Fickling
Books)
The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Harry N. Abrams Books - Amulet Books)
Paper Towns by John Green
(Penguin Young Readers Group - Dutton Children's Books)
Getting the Girl by Susan Juby (HarperCollins Children's Books - HarperTeen)
Torn to Pieces by Margo McDonnell
(Random House Children's Books - Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

BEST PLAY

The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza (Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, based on the story by
Robert Lewis Stevenson (Arizona Theatre Company)
Cell by Judy Klass (International Mystery Writers' Festival)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

"Streetwise" - Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Paul Grellong (Wolf Films/NBC
Universal)
"Prayer of the Bone" - Wire in the Blood, Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (BBC
America)
"Signature" - Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Judith McCreary (Wolf Films/NBC
Universal)
"You May Now Kill the Bride" - CSI: Miami, Teleplay by Barry O'Brien (CBS)
"Burn Card" - Law & Order, Teleplay by David Wilcox (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY

The Bank Job, Screenplay by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais (Lionsgate)
Burn After Reading, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (Focus Features)
In Bruges, Screenplay by Martin McDonagh (Focus Features)
Tell No One, Screenplay by Guillaume Canet, based on the book by Harlan Coben
(Music Box Films)
Transsiberian, Screenplay by Brad Anderson & Will Conroy (First Look
International)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"Buckner's Error" - Queens Noir by Joseph Guglielmelli (Akashic Books)

GRAND MASTER
James Lee Burke
Sue Grafton

RAVEN AWARDS
Edgar Allan Poe Society, Baltimore, Maryland
Poe House, Baltimore, Maryland

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINSCLARK AWARD

Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton (St. Martin's Minotaur)- I have a copy of this one
The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer (Random House - Doubleday)
A Song for You by Betsy Thornton (St. Martin's Minotaur)
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Oz_Mystery_Readers Announce top reads for 2008

The oz_mystery_readers Yahoo group has announced it's top crime fiction reads for 2008.

15 members suggested 140 titles

How we voted:

47% (7) - SHATTER, Michael Robotham
25% (4) - FAN MAIL, P. D. Martin
20% (3) - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Stieg Larsson
20% (3) - VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE, Leah Giarratano

then all the following were chosen by 2 readers
A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES, Reginald Hill
A SUPERIOR DEATH, Nevada Barr
BODY COUNT, P.D. Martin
FRANTIC, Katherine Howell
GUILTY PLEASURES, Laurell K. Hamilton
MY ENEMY'S CRADLE, Sara Young
THE DARKEST HOUR, Katherine Howell
THE DRAINING LAKE, Arnaldur Indridason
THE PRIVATE PATIENT, P.D. James
VOODOO DOLL, Leah Giarratano

If we sort it by author here is what we get (*** Aussie writers surface)

50% (8) - ***Michael Robotham: SHATTER, BOMBPROOF
47% (7) - ***P.D. Martin: BODY COUNT, FAN MAIL, THE MURDERER'S CLUB
40% (6) - ***Leah Giarratano: VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE, VOODOO DOLL
25% (4) - ***Katherine Howell: FRANTIC, THE DARKEST HOUR
20% (3) - Stieg Larsson: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
20% (3) - Nevada Barr: A SUPERIOR DEATH, TRACK OF THE CAT

then each of the following authors got 2 mentions
Val McDermid: A DARKER DOMAIN, BENEATH THE BLEEDING
Stephanie Meyer: NEW MOON, TWILIGHT
Sara Young: MY ENEMY'S CRADLE
Reginald Hill: A CURE FOR ALL DISEASES
Peter Robinson: FRIEND OF THE DEVIL
Nicci French: LOSING YOU, THE MEMORY GAME
Lynda la Plante: ABOVE SUSPICION, CLEAN CUT
Linwood Barclay: NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, TOO CLOSE TO HOME
***Leigh Redhead: CHERRY PIE, RUBDOWN
Ken Bruen: CROSS, PRIEST
Jo Nesbo: NEMESIS, THE REDBREAST
Fred Vargas: SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR, WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND
***Felicity Young: A CERTAIN MALICE, AN EASEFUL DEATH
Arnaldur Indridason: THE DRAINING LAKE
Ann Cleeves: RAVEN BLACK, WHITE NIGHTS
Adrian McKinty: DEAD I WELL MAY BE, THE DEAD YARD

Authors and their characters face to face

My last two posts have set me wondering if many crime fiction authors have ever met actors who have played their characters in TV series, and if so, what did they think of them?

You may need to help me out here.

Pictures tell their own story don't they? Ellis Peters it seems met Sir Derek Jacobi.


We know that Colin Dexter met John Thaw, even counted him as friend.

In an interview Dexter said "I had good fortune with John, who fitted in exactly. He never influenced my subsequent writing of Morse because I did not have to change the character, he was actually what he was in the books."

And yes, Agatha Christie met Joan Hickson, even before she portayed Miss Marple. I am sure I have seen a photo of them together, on Agatha Christie's 80th birthday or similar, but haven't been able to find it today.

However there is this from the Agatha Christie site:

Joan’s connections with Agatha Christie go back to 1937, when she appeared as Emmy in Love from a Stranger. Then in 1962, she played Mrs Kidder in Murder She Said which starred Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple. It was on the set of this film that Joan first met Agatha Christie: Agatha did not see Margaret Rutherford as the ideal Miss Marple. She said to me, ‘Some day I would like you to play my Miss Marple.’ I was quite taken aback, as I was young at the time.”

As far as I can work out there are no pictures of Agatha Christie with Margaret Rutherford, and David Suchet did not begin playing Poirot until well after her death in 1976.

And yes, Val McDermid has met Robson Green:
It was great fun to meet the actors who are bringing Patrick Harbinson's dynamic script to life. Robson Green is excelling himself in the role of Tony Hill, and Hermione Norris (the blonde one in Cold Feet) is the perfect foil as Detective Inspector Carol Jordan, bringing real intelligence and strength to it. The supporting actors are a great team, playing off each other to give the adaptation tremendous energy. I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing it on screen, which is not something authors can often say.

So over to you! What other duos can you think of?
Give me some other links to check!

Forgotten Book: LAST BUS TO WOODSTOCK, Colin Dexter

Another contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books theme.

Colin Dexter(1930 - ) is best known for his Inspector Morse series published over a period of 25 years, and made memorable for us on television by John Thaw. He is another crime fiction writer who contributed immeasurably to the crime fiction genre.

Blurb of THE LAST BUS TO WOODSTOCK courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.
The death of Sylvia Kaye featured dramatically in the "Oxford Mail". By Friday evening Inspector Morse had informed the nation that the police were looking for a dangerous man - facing charges of wilful murder, sexual assault and rape.

As one book followed another the Morse character developed: an educated man who loved classical music, cryptic crosswords, a bachelor not averse to the company of women but shy of commitment, a homicide detective who hated the sight of blood.

Like Ellis Peters, who had the pleasure of meeting Derek Jacobi who brought Cadfael to life, Colin Dexter had the pleasure of meeting "Morse".
In fact if you watch the TV series carefully you will find Dexter, who often acted as adviser, also managed to get a little spot, in true Hitchcock style, in the film.

The Morse series
1. Last Bus to Woodstock (1975)
2. Last Seen Wearing (1976)
3. The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1977)
4. Service of All the Dead (1979)
5. The Dead of Jericho (1981)
6. The Riddle of the Third Mile (1983)
7. The Secret of Annexe 3 (1986)
8. The Wench Is Dead (1989)
9. The Jewel That Was Ours (1989)
10. The Way Through the Woods (1992)
11. The Daughters of Cain (1994)
12. Death Is Now My Neighbour (1996)
13. The Remorseful Day (1999)

Look also for a set of short stories: Morse's Greatest Mystery (1993)

Other blogs
Books to the Ceiling

Here's little taste of Morse from YouTube

Dexter has been the recipient of several Crime Writers' Association awards: two Silver Daggers for Service of All the Dead in 1979 and The Dead of Jericho in 1981; two Gold Daggers for The Wench is Dead in 1989 and The Way Through the Woods in 1992; and a Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 1997. In 1996 Dexter received a Macavity Award for his short story Evans Tries an O-Level.

In 2000 Dexter was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.

Review: AGATHA RAISIN and the WELLSPRING of DEATH, M.C. Beaton

Robinson, 1998, ISBN 978-1-84529-319-2, 250 pages.

Agatha Raisin is finding life in the small village of Carsley just a bit boring. The current village gossip concerns the spring of water in the neighbouring village of Ancombe. In the past water from the spring was thought to have restorative properties, but now public opinion is divided on whether a bid by a water company to buy and bottle the water will be a good thing for the village. Those who have lived in the villages all their lives make their feelings about commercialiastion and "incomers" very clear.

Feelings are running high, the local council is divided, and then Agatha finds the body of the Chairman of the Parish Council in the spring. Perverse as always Agatha decides to take a job as public relations for the water company.

Part of Agatha's misery concerns her relationship with her next door neighbour James Lacey, and so when the younger partner of the water company courts her, she is ripe for the picking.

I must admit the Agatha Raisin novels are growing on me. She is still a silly woman, and the situations she gets into are nearly all of her own making. But there are characters such as Agatha's loyal friends Roy Silver and the rector's wife Mrs Bloxby who sustain my interest. If you are looking for a light cozy then this may suit.

My rating: 3.5

My previous reviews of Agatha Raisin titles.

From Fantastic Fiction:
1. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death (1992)
2. Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet (1993)
3. Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener (1994)
4. Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley (1995)
5. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage (1996)
6. Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist (1997)
7. Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death (1998)
8. Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (1999)
9. Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden (1999)
10. Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam (2000)
11. Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell (2001)
12. Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came (2002)
13. Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate (2003)
14. Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House (2003)
15. The Deadly Dance (2004)
16. Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon (2005)
17. Love, Lies and Liquor (2006)
18. Kissing Christmas Goodbye (2007)
19. Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison (2008)
Introducing Agatha Raisin: Vicious Vet / Quiche of Death (omnibus) (2008)