Time to curl up with a good book.....

Now that the days have a hint of Autumn/Winter about them, it's time to curl up with a good book, and what better place to start, than the host of recent Irish Crime Fiction releases and upcoming delights....

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? by Karen Perry (August)

RAVENHILL by John Steele (August)

THE RELUCTANT CONTACT by Stephen Burke (September)

SLEEPING BEAUTIES by Jo Spain (September)

THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN by Cat Hogan (September)

THE WELL OF ICE by Andrea Carter (October 5)

THE GHOSTS OF GALWAY by Ken Bruen (November 2)

BLOOD TIDE by Claire McGowan (November 9)

UNDERTOW by Anthony J. Quinn (December 14) 

Crimefest Award Shortlist 2017!

CRIMEFEST AWARDS SHORTLISTS

Congrats to Ken Bruen for his shortlisting with Jason Starr!!!

Audible Sounds Of Crime
The Audible Sounds of Crime Award is for the best unabridged crime audiobook first published in the UK in 2016 in both printed and audio formats, and available for download from audible.co.uk, Britain’s largest provider of downloadable audiobooks. Courtesy of sponsor Audible UK, the winning author and audiobook reader(s) share the £1,000 prize equally and each receives a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.

The nominees are:
– Rachel Abbott for Kill Me Again, read by Lisa Coleman (Audible / Bolinda)
– Ben Aaronovitch for The Hanging Tree, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Orion Publishing Group)
– Fiona Barton for The Widow, read by Clare Corbett (Audible / Bolinda)
– Lee Child for Night School, read by Jeff Harding (Transworld Digital / Soundings)
– Anthony Horowitz for Magpie Murders, read by Allan Corduner & Samantha Bond (Orion Publishing Group)
– Clare Mackintosh for I See You, read by Rachel Atkins (Hachette Audio / Isis)
– Peter May for Coffin Road, read by Peter Forbes (Riverrun / Jammer)
– Holly Seddon for Try Not to Breathe, read by Jot Davies, Lucy Middleweek & Katy Sobey (Bolinda)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and Audible UK listeners established the shortlist and the winning title.

eDunnit Award
The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2016. The winning author receives a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.

The nominees are:
– Linwood Barclay for The Twenty-Three (Orion Publishing Group)
– Steph Broadribb for Deep Down Dead (Orenda Books)
– Michael Connelly for The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Orion Publishing Group)
– Ragnar Jonasson for Blackout (Orenda Books)
– Laura Lippman for Wilde Lake (Faber & Faber)
– Ian Rankin for Rather Be the Devil (Orion Publishing Group)
– Andrew Taylor for The Ashes of London (HarperFiction)
– L.C. Tyler for Cat Among the Herrings (Allison & Busby)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

H.R.F. Keating Award
The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the British Isles in 2016. H.R.F. ‘Harry’ Keating was one of Britain’s most esteemed crime novelists, and a renowned reviewer and writer of books about crime fiction. The winning author receives a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass award.

The nominees are:
– Mark Aldridge for Agatha Christie on Screen (Palgrave Macmillan)
– J.C. Berthnal for Queering Agatha Christie (Palgrave Macmillan)
– Barry Forshaw for Brit Noir (No Exit Press)
– Rachel Franks & Alistair Rolls for Crime Uncovered: Private Investigator (Intellect)
– Katharina Hall for Crime Fiction in German: Der Krimi (University of Wales Press)
– Megan Hoffman for Gender and Representation in British ‘Golden Age’ Crime Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan)
– Elizabeth Mannion for The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel (Palgrave Macmillan.

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

Last Laugh Award
The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the British Isles in 2016. The winner receives a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.

The nominees are:
– Ken Bruen & Jason Starr for PIMP (Hardcase Crime)
– John Dufresne for I Don’t Like Where This Is Going (Serpent’s Tail)
– Judith Flanders for A Cast of Vultures (Allison & Busby)
– Mick Herron for Real Tigers (John Murray)
– Carl Hiaasen for Razor Girl (Little, Brown Book Group)
– Vaseem Khan for The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown (Hodder & Stoughton)
– L.C. Tyler for Cat Among the Herrings (Allison & Busby)
– Chris Whitaker for Tall Oaks (Twenty7)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

Best Crime Novel For Children (Aged 8–12)
CRIMEFEST is pleased to introduce a new award recognising the outstanding contribution that crime novels for children make to the genre, as well as celebrating the burgeoning interest of children in fiction as a whole. The winning author receives a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass award.

The nominees are:
– Lyn Gardner for Rose Campion and The Stolen Secret (Nosy Crow)
– Fleur Hitchcock for Murder In Midwinter (Nosy Crow)
– Gareth P. Jones for The Thornthwaite Betrayal (Piccadilly Press)
– Tom McLaughlin for The Accidental Secret Agent (Oxford University Press)
– Robin Stevens for Murder Most Unladylike: Jolly Foul Play (Puffin)
– Robin Stevens for Murder Most Unladylike: Mistletoe and Murder (Puffin)
– Harriet Whitehorn for Violet and the Smugglers (Simon & Schuster)
– Katherine Woodfine for The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth (Egmont)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British reviewers of children’s fiction voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

Best Crime Novel For Young Adults (12 – 16)
CRIMEFEST is pleased to introduce a new award recognising the outstanding contribution that crime novels for young adults make to the genre, as
well as celebrating the burgeoning interest of young adults in fiction as a whole. The winning author receives a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass award.

The nominees are:
– Leigh Bardugo for Crooked Kingdom (Hachette Children’s Group)
– Kerry Drewery for Cell 7 (Hot Key Books)
– John Grisham for Theodore Boone: The Scandal (Hodder & Stoughton)
– Erin Lange for Rebel, Bully, Geek, Pariah (Faber & Faber)
– Patrice Lawrence for Orangeboy (Hachette Children’s Group)
– Simon Mason for Kid Got Shot (David Fickling Books)
– Simon Mayo for Blame (Penguin)
– Eliza Wass for In The Dark, In The Woods (Hachette Children’s Group)

Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British reviewers of young adult fiction voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

Also presented at CRIMEFEST will be:

– CRIMEFEST’s Flashbang Award
for best original short crime story in 150 words. The long and shortlisted entries can be viewed on the website.

and

– the Petrona Award
CRIMEFEST is honoured to host the presentation of the Petrona Award which was created in the memory of Maxine Clarke by her friends and colleagues. The award celebrates the best of translated Scandinavian crime fiction.

GALA AWARDS DINNER

TICKETS to the three-course Gala Awards Dinner, with our Featured Guests, Toastmaster and awards presentations are still available.

CRIME WRITING DAY

As in previous years, tickets to Pitch an Agent and 1-on-1 Assessments have sold out, but a few places are still available for Crime Writing Day. The daylong event is made up out of the following sessions: How To Self Publish In eBook And Print, with Joanna Penn; Agents And Editors—Who Does What For Authors?, with representatives from the Darley Anderson and DHH Literary agencies, and editors from Bonnier and Quercus; and the writing workshop Constructing Character and Plot presented by the Professional Writing Academy, with Tom Bromley and Julia Crouch. Go to TICKETS to register for one of the few remaining spaces.

PETER JAMES COMPETITION

To celebrate the publication of Peter James’ latest Roy Grace novel, Need You Dead (18 May), we have five signed copies to give away. All you need to do to win a copy is email us with the name of the seaside location that Roy is most associated with. The deadline to do so is this coming Friday, 12 May.

March is a busy month for Irish Crime Fiction....

Well March is another busy month for Irish Crime Fiction, and here are some of the publications due out soon….

A SAVAGE HUNGER by Claire McGowan

The fourth in the crime series featuring forensic psychologist Paula Maguire by Claire McGowan acclaimed as ‘Ireland’s answer to Ruth Rendell’ by Ken Bruen.

Alice Morgan’s disappearance raises immediate questions for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire. Alice, the daughter of a life peer in the Home Office, has vanished along with a holy relic – the bones of a saint – and the only trace is the bloodstains on the altar.

With no body to confirm death, the pressure in this high-profile case is all-consuming, and Paula knows that she will have to put her own life, including her imminent marriage, on hold, if they are to find the truth. A connection to a decades-old murder immediately indicates that all may not be as it seems; as the summer heat rises and tempers fray, can Alice be found or will they learn that those that are hungry for vengeance may be the most savage of all?

PENANCE by Kate O’Riordan

The lives of Rosalie Douglas and her teenage daughter, Maddie, are changed forever when they meet Jed, a beautiful, charismatic young man at Bereavement Counselling. Inexplicably and self-destructively, Maddie holds herself accountable for her brother’s drowning accident in Thailand. Jed moves into their lives and their home. Calming the tensions between mother and daughter. He understands the twisted wilderness of grief. Lover and confidante to a besotted Maddie, gentle surrogate son to a grateful Rosalie – on the surface their lives are transformed. But underneath a deadly and morally corrupt triangle is taking shape…Rosalie commits an unspeakable act which forces her to unravel the truth behind the beautiful stranger in their midst. The truth behind the death of her son. And the true extent of just how far she’s prepared to go – to save what remains of her family.

WHAT SHE NEVER TOLD ME by Kate McQuaile

What do you do when you find out that your whole life could be a lie?

What She Never Told Me pulls you in from the first page in its exploration of love and identity, and the complicated bonds that tie families together. An absorbing read (Karen Perry, bestselling author of The Boy That Never Was)
McQuaile displays great empathy for her characters in this tale of an Ireland where the past can never be left behind (Sinéad Crowley, author of Can Anybody Help Me?

SIREN by Annemarie Neary

HE STOLE HER LIFE. AND NOW SHE WANTS IT BACK.

Róisín Burns has spent the past twenty years becoming someone else; her life in New York is built on lies. A figure from her Belfast childhood flashes up on the news: Brian Lonergan has also reinvented himself. He is now a rising politician in a sharp suit. But scandal is brewing in Ireland and Róisín knows the truth. Armed with the evidence that could ruin Lonergan, she travels back across the Atlantic to the remote Lamb Island to hunt him down. But Lonergan is one step ahead; when Róisín arrives on the island, someone else is waiting for her…

SISTERS AND LIES by Bernice Barrington

One hot August night, Rachel Darcy gets the call everyone fears. It’s the police. Her younger sister Evie’s had a car crash, she’s in a coma. Can Rachel fly to London right away?With Evie injured and comatose, Rachel is left to pick up the pieces of her sister’s life. But it’s hard fitting them together, especially when she really doesn’t like what she sees.Why was Evie driving when she doesn’t even own a licence? Who is the man living in her flat and claiming Evie is his girlfriend? How come she has never heard of him?The more mysteries Rachel uncovers the more she starts asking herself how well she ever really knew her sister. And then she begins to wonder if the crash was really the accident everybody says it is. Back in hospital, Evie, trapped inside an unresponsive body, is desperately trying to wake up. Because she’s got an urgent message for Rachel – a warning which could just save both their lives . . 

PIMP by Ken Bruen & Jason Starr

DEALING… PRODUCING…
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK FOR A DRUGLORD.
OR IN HOLLYWOOD.

Ruined and on the lam, former drug kingpin Max Fisher stumbles upon the
biggest discovery of his crooked life: a designer drug called PIMP that could put him back on top. Meanwhile, a certain femme fatale from his past is pursuing a comeback dream of her own, setting herself up in Hollywood as producer of a series based on her and Max’s life story. But even in La-La Land, happy endings are hard to come by, especially with both the cops and your enemies in the drug trade coming after you…

Irish Crime Novels - July 2015!

2nd July – Sinead Crowley ‘Are you Watching Me?’

7th July – Ken Bruen ‘Green Hell’

26th July – John Mc Allister ‘Barlow by The Book’

30th July – Jax Miller ‘Freedom’s Child’

30th July – Jane Casey ‘Hide & Seek’