RWC Semifinal 1: France vs Wales (Manotti vs Bauer)

After four tremendously exciting real-life quarterfinals in the Rugby World Cup 2011 last weeked, we now move on to the final four. While I would have picked McGilloway's BORDERLANDS over Belinda Bauer's BLACKLANDS, in a close call, crime fiction wise, the Welsh overcame the Irish on the field. And likewise French flair overcame English pragmatism, rugby-wise, meaning we've said goodbye to Mark Billingham as well. So this week we find ourselves with an intriguing France vs Wales match-up in the first quarterfinal.

As neither rugby team has made much of a change to their sides, and both will be looking to play a similar game tonight as took them to victory last week, I've decided to keep the crime fiction match-up the same as well (I was almost tempted to substitute in a Fred Vargas book that I purchased this year as France's representative, but decided to stick with Manotti).

So here we go for semifinal numero uno:

Representing France: THE LORRAINE CONNECTION by Dominique Manotti
In all honesty, I haven't yet read any French crime fiction - which is a travesty considering I go out of my way to source, purchase, and read plenty of translated crime fiction, and crime fiction from a variety of countries. I do have some French crime fiction that I have bought, but not yet read, however, including THE LORRAINE CONNECTION by Dominique Manotti, which I purchased earlier this year.

When a cathode ray tube factory in a small French town is hit first by a strike and then by a suspicious fire, the battle for the takeover of the plant’s beleaguered parent company heats up. The Lorraine factory is at the center of a strategic battle being played out in Paris, Brussels, and Asia for the takeover of the ailing state-owned electronics giant Thomson. Accusations of foul play fly, and rival contender Alcatel calls in its intrepid head of security Charles Montoya to investigate. He soon uncovers explosive revelations and a trail of murders, dirty tricks, blackmail, and corporate malfeasance.

Representing Wales: BLACKLANDS by Belinda Bauer
Another debutant on the crime fiction scene, Welsh author Bauer certainly hit the ground running with BLACKLANDS, which won the CWA Gold Dagger last year - a rare feat for a first novel. I read BLACKLANDS late last year, and enjoyed it. The novel centres on 12-year-old Steven Lamb, who spends his free time searching the windswept moors outside his small town, hoping to find trace of his uncle Billy whose disappearance two decades ago fractured the impoverished family in such a way that even though Steven wasn't born when it happened, he experiences the ongoing effects of the tragedy.

Desperate for closure, Steven turns to an imprisoned paedophile, writing him a letter that he hopes might garner some much-needed clues - but instead opening Pandora's Box to an even worse nightmare. I liked the way that even though Bauer's debut was seemingly simple in storyline terms and the way she writes, there was plenty going on underneath. BLACKLANDS delves deeply into character and human frailties, gives convincing “voice” to both child and child killer, and ably depicts the dark underbelly of English village life.

Result: Well, since I haven't read the Manotti book yet, it's probably a little tough to judge (although that does fit with not really knowing what France is going to offer tonight on the rugby field, to be fair - which France will indeed turn up). All in all, I'm probably in a similar place as rugby fans - I'm impressed by Bauer (and the Welsh team), and they're operating at a high level, but the French (Manotti) are an unknown quanitity that could swoop in, be brilliant (to read, or on the field), or fall far short. Coin toss territory.

RWC Quarterfinal 1: Ireland vs Wales (McGilloway vs Bauer)

Currently, one of the biggest sporting events on the planet (some say the third biggest after the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics) is being held right here in New Zealand; the Rugby World Cup 2011. As you can imagine, all sorts of rugby-themed and linked things are happening up and down the country, and plenty of the the world's sporting media have their lens and pens (laptops) turned this way.

Given this weekend marks the kick-off of the knock-out stages of the tournament, I thought I would use this opportunity to have a little fun, and create crime fiction posts that mirror the games being played (ie the quarterfinal line-up). So for the next eight games over the next three weekends (four quarterfinals, two semifinals, one 3rd/4th playoff, one final) I will highlight a crime, mystery, or thriller novel from each of the countries playing the game, that I have either read or purchased in the past year or so.

First up, it's the Celts in the Ireland vs Wales quarterfinal, later this afternoon/evening in New Zealand:

Representing Ireland: BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway
I'd heard some good things about Irish writer Brian McGilloway before I bought a copy of BORDERLANDS and read it in January this year. McGilloway's debut novel introduces Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin, and involves a murder case where the body of a local teenager is found on the 'borderlands' that span Ireland and Northern Ireland. The only clues are a gold ring placed on the girl's finger and an old photograph, left where she died. Then another teenager is murdered, and things become further complicated when Devlin unearths a link between the recent killings and the disappearance of a prostitute twenty-five years earlier a case in which he believes one of his own colleagues is implicated.

I really, really enjoyed BORDERLANDS, and I'm very much looking forward to reading more of McGilloway's writing (I already have BLEED A RIVER DEEP on my TBR bookshelf at home). He has a nice writing style, and a great touch for weaving plot, theme, setting, and character together into something polished yet still distinctive. It's certainly one of the better debut crime novels I've read in the past few years, and a worthy initial representative of Ireland in my little RWC-themed blog series here.

Representing Wales: BLACKLANDS by Belinda Bauer
Another debutant on the crime fiction scene, Welsh author Bauer certainly hit the ground running with BLACKLANDS, which won the CWA Gold Dagger last year - a rare feat for a first novel. I read BLACKLANDS late last year, and enjoyed it. The novel centres on 12-year-old Steven Lamb, who spends his free time searching the windswept moors outside his small town, hoping to find trace of his uncle Billy whose disappearance two decades ago fractured the impoverished family in such a way that even though Steven wasn't born when it happened, he experiences the ongoing effects of the tragedy.

Desperate for closure, Steven turns to an imprisoned paedophile, writing him a letter that he hopes might garner some much-needed clues - but instead opening Pandora's Box to an even worse nightmare. I liked the way that even though Bauer's debut was seemingly simple in storyline terms and the way she writes, there was plenty going on underneath. BLACKLANDS delves deeply into character and human frailties, gives convincing “voice” to both child and child killer, and ably depicts the dark underbelly of English village life.

Result: for me, although I'm picking Wales to beat Ireland in the rugby, I think I'd have to go with BORDERLANDS over BLACKLANDS in the crime fiction match-up, in a close call. Both are very good books, and worthy representatives of their respective crime writing and rugby playing nations, but I'd probably rush back to read more McGilloway before more Bauer, just.

UPDATE: In the real-life result, the Bauers took down the McGilloways 22-10, deservedly moving ahead to the semifinals of RWC 2011. One of the form teams of the entire competition, the boyos from the valleys are certainly playing some scintillating rugby, and it will be a great game between them and France next weekend.

I enjoyed the Celtic tussle down at 'party central' in Auckland, where the game was displayed on huge screens and thousands of fans gathered, dressed up in their teams' colours. Here's a pic of me and a friend with a very happy Welshman, now living in New Zealand, following the final whistle (see left).

So, what do you think of Irish and Welsh rugby, and crime fiction? Comments welcome.

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

There have 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. Of course several of the blog posts and stories from early in the week related to the terrific Bouchercon by the Bay crime writing festival held in San Francisco last weeked. It sure looked like a fantastic time, and I hope to make it to a Bouchercon one day myself.

Onto the round-up.

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

• John Barber of the Globe and Mail looks at the strengthening crime fiction cohort at the upcoming Toronto Festival of Authors (where IFOA Noir has become something of the 'centrepoint'), asking if this is the year when 'murder got respectable', after Canadian crime writers suffered blatant snobbery by other authors in years past.
• The Hollywood Reporter takes a look at the TV retelling of the classic Sherlock Holmes character, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a modern-day Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson, calling it "superior sleuth TV".
• In an interesting interview with BBC News, Welsh author and Gold Dagger recipient Belinda Bauer (the first person to win the top award with a debut novel in 40 years) talks about enjoying horror fiction before writing crime (like our own rising star Paul Cleave), unexpected success, and the writing of BLACKLANDS.
• The Sowetan has an article on South African crime writer Diale Tlholwe, who will be appearing for the Miriam Tlali Reading and Book Club session at the African Literary Bookshop in Johannesburg today (Saturday).
• In good news for the crime fiction world, The Bookseller reports that Titan Books has acquired worldwide distribution rights to paperback series Hard Case Crime, whose former publisher Dorchester Publishing ceased mass market paperback publishing in August.
• Bob Patterson of OpEdNews.com gives one fan's perspective of the happenings at the recent Bouchercon festival. You can also read some other thoughts on Bouchercon from Ruth Jordan of Crimespree magazine here, from J.Kingston Pierce of The Rap Sheet here, from Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts here, and from Peter Rozovsky of Detectives Beyond Borders here.
• In an interesting interview with a new author, The Anchorage Daily News takes a look at a new crime novel written by Juneau Fisheries Biologist Scott Kelley.
• In a long-ish article, Peter Craven in The Australian takes a broader look at crime fiction, particularly Scandinavian crime fiction, on TV and in books, including comments about art and trash, popularity and quality, as he examines the second Swedish-language film instalment in Stieg Larsson's trilogy, which is now showing in Australian cinemas.

Have you (or will you) read Bauer's Gold Dagger-winning debut BLACKLANDS? Do you think the literary world is starting to respect crime fiction more? What do you think of the modern-day Sherlock Holmes? Have you been to Bouchercon? Thoughts and comments welcome.

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.