Crime Fiction in the news and on the 'Net: Weekly Round-up

There's been some more great crime fiction stories on the Web this past week - from newspapers, magazines, and fellow bloggers. Hopefully you will all like finding an interesting article or two linked here, that you enjoy reading.

Just before I dive into the latest stories however, I thought I'd note that despite my previous comments about the Weekend Herald rarely putting its books features or reviews online (one of the reasons they have allowed me to republish my stories for them here on Crime Watch), that my feature on Val McDermid from last weekend's edition was also uploaded to the main NZ Herald website early this past week.

You can read that article in full here. I'm not sure if this recent inclusion of such crime fiction reviews and features on the main Herald website will continue (I have a feature on Peter James and Peter Robinson in today's Canvas magazine in the Weekend Herald, so I will keep an eye out for if or when they place that online), but I will let you know. You can also read my recent James Lee Burke feature, "Philosopher of Crime", and my feature/review of Ben Sanders and his (now #1 bestselling) debut THE FALLEN, online on the Herald website.

If you've read and liked my stories, whether here on Crime Watch, in the print version, or online on the Herald website, it would be cool if you went to the Herald website (click on the links above) and hit the 'like' button and/or leave a comment - it might encourage them to put more crime fiction stories online in future. I have upcoming features on Michael Robotham and Michael Connelly as well, in the coming weeks.

Crime Watch Weekly Round-Up: In the News and on the 'Net

• In an interesting article by John McEntee in today's Daily Mail, Baroness PD James shares her recollections from her days at Cambridge High School for Girls, saying that was the inspiration for Ronald Searle's St Trinian's books. There's a lovely photo of a very young PD James with her family in the article too.
• In a short but interesting article, Bangalore-based crime fiction writer Zac O’Yeah takes a look at the relative rarity of the supernatural in the world of crime writing for LiveMint.com (which is associated with the Wall Street Journal).
• Melinda Harvey of The Australian reviews the latest novel from Kiwi author James McNeish, THE CRIME OF HUEY DUNSTAN, a literary crime novel which she says addresses a very contemporary legal issue (the defence of provocation) and upturns some conventions of the genre by revealing much in its early pages.
• Liz Porter of the Sydney Morning Herald interviews crime writer Adrian Hyland, who has written two crime novels set in Outback Australia, has been criticised for making his protagonist an Aboriginal woman, and will be appearing at the Melbourne Writers Festival.
• In an interesting article for the Los Angeles Times, New York writer Michael Giltz revisits a cult TV classic from twenty years ago, taking a "long look back at a truly strange sensation, "Twin Peaks," the eccentric and eerie murder mystery that took network television down a strange path in 1990." I watched the first series of this recently, and quite enjoyed it.
• Jacki Wood of the Nowaday News Leader takes a quick look at the debut crime novel from one of the newspaper's own contributors.
• In the latest in the BBC Meet The Author interviews, crime novelist Mark Billingham talks about FROM THE DEAD, the most recent addition to his best-selling Tom Thorne series.
• In a very interesting article for Wales Online, Matt Thomas talks to newbie crime writer Belinda Bauer about being nominated for the CWA Gold Dagger, the importance of entering the Debut Dagger competition, writing BLACKLANDS, which links a 12-year old boy and an imprisoned serial killer, how the publishing world has rapidly changed in recent years, and much more.

What do you think of the round-up? Which articles do you find interesting? Is there a place for magic and the supernatural in crime fiction? What do you think of crime that leans heavily to the literary, like Temple's TRUTH or McNeish's THE CRIME OF HUEY DUNSTAN? Have you tried Adrian Hyland's Outback crime tales? Did you ever watch Twin Peaks? Have you read BLACKLANDS by Belinda Bauer? Please share your thoughts. I'd love to read what you think.