April 29th

Apologies for the late posting of this!

And so to murder once again - or would that be spies!

It’s been quite a busy month - early on the anniversary party celebrating 70 years of 007 - held at the London Library - a glorious occasion with a celebration of the new covers.

These past few days have been at the parental home in Manchester again for a rest, after a pretty hectic time this week, with celebrations for our Crimecrackers reading groups’s 21st birthday party. The evening commenced with a brief discussion of Glyn Daniel’s The Cambridge Murders before the party started, reminiscing on where the name originated (Sally came up with it), who were the first ones to join, and all bar one they’re still participating. Joining us were a few of our favourite authors and publishers, including Jon Gifford, Susan Grossey, Robert Hyde, Christina Koning, Peter Morfoot, Mandy Morton, Jane Phillips, Kate Rhodes, Nicola Upson & Jay Warton. Onwards to the next 21 years - thanks to Pippa Macallister for mastermind it all.

The next day it was down to the London Book Fair, seeing old friends and catching up with what’s new and forthcoming, dropping by many stands, including The British Library, Canelo, Allison & Busby, PGUK distributors and Norton, distributors of Otto Penzler’s wonderful selection of American Mystery Classics, a hand-picked list reissued in hardback and paperback, including authors Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Clayton Rawson, Charlotte Armstrong and Phoebe Atwood Taylor. One of my favourite books, W. Bolingbroke Johnson’s The Widening Stain has a book cataloguer investigating murders in a university library - stacks of fun!

I had the privilege of meeting up and talking with Otto too before finishing an exhausting day at Turnaround Distributors for a small drinks party where I met up with various folk including Cambridge publisher, Robert Hyde of Galileo Publishing, who accepts my advice on his GA list! Subject: Murder by Clifford Witting has just been published.

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I also met up with Maria Vassilopoulos, late of the British Library Publishing, who had been such a support to me when I was at Heffers. She is now Global Sales manager at the University of Wales Press. Her book, An Evening with the Book Society: A Celebration of 100 Years of Dinners, Discussion and Friendship has recently been published by Marble Hill. This short history is a delight to peruse - a treat for all those bibliomaniacs!

Last Friday evening was spent in a Zoom conference with the Gold Dagger panel, deliberating our choice of the top six, to be announced at the ever popular, Bristol’s Crimefest conference (11th-15th) on May 12th.

Here’s the The Long list, announced on the April 22nd.

Tom Benn: Oxblood (Bloomsbury)
William Boyle/Shoot the Moonlight Out (No Exit Press)
Robert Galbraith: The Ink Black Heart (Sphere)
George Dawes Green: The Kingdoms of Savannah (Headline)
Vaseem Khan: The Lost Man of Bombay (Hodder & Stoughton)
S.G. Maclean: The Bookseller of Inverness (Quercus)
Simon Mason: A Killing in November (Riverrun)
Anna Mazzola: The Clockwork Girl (Orion)
W.C. Ryan: The Winter Guest (Zaffre)
Faye Snowdon: A Killing Rain (Flame Tree Press)
N. E. Solomons: The Bone Road (Polygon)
Simon Van der Velde: The Silent Brother (Northodox Press)

Jacket From the Attic - I received an early proof copy, part mystery and part satire, about a bibliophile who builds a house with his books and the perils of doing so!
Sadly this pocket size hardback, published in 2005 by Harvill, written by Carlos Maria Dominguez (translator: Nick Caistor) is out of print though copies can be found for v reasonable prices.

I’ve just more or less finished working on our next book - J. S. Fletcher’s Murder of the Ninth Baronet
Cheerio for now

Richard

Books mentioned:
Glyn Daniel: The Cambridge Murders (9781909619159)
W. Bolingbroke Johnson: The Widening Stain (9781613161715)
Maria Vassilopoulos: An Evening with the Book Society (9781838303686)
Clifford Witting: Subject Murder (9781912916993)


Gold Dagger Long List 2023

Tom Benn: Oxblood (9781526639516)
William Boyle/Shoot the Moonlight Out (9780857304933)
Robert Galbraith: The Ink Black Heart (9780751584202)
George Dawes Green: The Kingdoms of Savannah (9781035401871)
Vaseem Khan: The Lost Man of Bombay (9781529341140)
S.G. Maclean: The Bookseller of Inverness (9781529414219)
Simon Mason: A Killing in November (9781529415704)
Anna Mazzola: The Clockwork Girl (9781398703803)
W.C. Ryan: The Winter Guest (9781838772307)
Faye Snowdon: A Killing Rain (9781787586116)
N. E. Solomons: The Bone Road (9781846976148)
Simon Van der Velde: The Silent Brother (9781915179074)