News dump.

Aaargghh! The problem with neglecting your blog is that all of a sudden there's a ton of news to report.

First off, it seems I narrowly missed making it on to the shortlist for the CWA Ellis Peters Award for historical crime fiction, though I'm pleased to see my fellow North London Historical Crime Writer, and Faber stablemate, Andrew Martin made the cut with his latest Jim Stringer novel, Death on a Branch Line.

The full short list is:
Ariana Franklin, The Death Maze, Bantam Press
Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame, Quercus
Andrew Martin, Death on a Branch Line, faber and faber
C J Sansom, Revelation, Macmillan
Andrew Taylor, Bleeding Heart Square, Michael Joseph
Laura Wilson, Stratton’s War, Orion

If you go to the CWA site and scroll down below the excellent and well-deserving short-listees (see, I'm not bitter), you'll find this little addendum:

Longlisted novels

This year has brought an unprecedented number of excellent historical crime novels. The CWA Ellis Peters judging panel has asked for the following books from their long list to be published in recognition of their merit:

Marjorie Eccles, Last Nocturne, Allison & Busby
Ann Granger, A Mortal Curiosity, Headline
H R F Keating, Inspector Ghote’s First Case, Allison & Busby
R N Morris, A Vengeful Longing, faber and faber

That's me, that is, at the end.

Le Spie del Male



You may be interested to know that two of the short-listed authors, Andrew Taylor and Laura Wilson, will be taking part in a festival of historical noir (hey, what a great idea for a festival!) in Trevi, Umbria (what a great place to hold such a festival!), November 1-2. The festival is called Le Spie del Male, and I will be there too.

I was invited by Michael Jacob and Daniela de Gregorio, a husband and wife writing team, who pen superbly gothic historical mysteries under the name Michael Gregorio. Their series is set in Prussia in Napoleonic times and features the detective Hanno Stifeniis, with two books published so far, The Critique of Criminal Reason and Days of Atonement.




Michael and Daniela are not only great writers, they're lovely people too, so I am very much looking forward to the festival. I'll be in conversation with them on Saturday at 11.30 discussing crime in a historical context.

There's more about the festival on the Michael Gregorio website. "Mister Noir", Maxim Jacubowski, author, editor and owner of London's foremost crime fiction bookshop will be taking part too.