I’m flattered to tell you that the sixth Nic Costa novel, The Garden of Evil, has been shortlisted for the UK’s most prestigious crime award, the Theakston prize for crime novel of the year. It’s in classy company too as you can see from the announcement page here.

The Theakston is pretty much unique as far as I know in that it is awarded on the basis of online votes by the public. So if you’d like to cast a vote for the author of your choice just do so on the page. Of course I’d love it if that was for me, but with such a great selection of writers to choose from I fully understand if you want to pick someone else.

The winner will be announced at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival on Thursday July 23 – and I will be there for the event.

{ 2 comments }

Unavailable in the United Kingdom for several years, David Hewson’s highly-praised first Italian novel will soon be back in print in a  revised edition, with a new title, The Cemetery of Secrets.

First published in 2000 as Lucifer’s Shadow, the book tells the twin related stories of two sets of young people, in contemporary Venice and the same city in the early eighteenth century. With real historical figures such as Vivaldi and Canaletto flitting through the book is a twisting tale of music, passion and murder.

The book gained the ‘highest possible recommendation’ from Bookreporter.com and was hailed as ‘one of the best of 2004? by Deadly Pleasures. The Sunday Times described it as ‘richly enjoyable, sophisticated and beguiling entertainment’ while The Times declared, ‘Venice is painted beautifully, both then and now, and this would be a splendid book to read after you have taken the evening air in the Piazza San Marco, or when gliding down the Grand Canal.’

The book will be available in the UK on October 3 and serves as a companion piece to the fourth Nic Costa novel, The Lizard’s Bite, which features some of the same Venetian characters.

{ 0 comments }

The state of the book nation

July 11, 2009
Thumbnail image for The state of the book nation

Here are a few snippets of information gleaned from the floor and panels of Thrillerfest over the last few days. They give some insight into the uncertain state of publishing in the US, and a pointer about how rapidly things are changing.
First, the market. There seems to be a genuine belief that the days of [...]

Read the full article →

A short visit to Thailand

July 6, 2009
Thumbnail image for A short visit to Thailand

I’ll be in the beautiful Thai capital briefly at the beginning of August for the launch of the Thai version of the fourth Nic Costa book, The Lizard’s Bite. Most of the events are private but there are two public signings, open to all if you’re around.
I’ll be in the BE-Trend zone of the giant [...]

Read the full article →

Mysterious Bookshop, New York

July 4, 2009
Thumbnail image for Mysterious Bookshop, New York

Along with a bunch of other names I will be at the Mysterious Bookshop, New York, on Friday July 10 around 5.30, signing and talking. A bunch of authors are in town for Thrillerfest so we’re taking time out to head off over to Tribeca. The current list looks like this… Kathryn Fox, Glenn Cooper, [...]

Read the full article →

What real Roman food looks like

July 4, 2009
Thumbnail image for What real Roman food looks like

Back briefly from Rome after an eventful trip for the new Nic Costa in Italian, here’s a quick look at something that gets mangled and misrepresented all around the world: Roman food. For some reason people always want to take me to ‘Italian’ restaurants wherever I am in the world. Some are good. Some not [...]

Read the full article →