Its been a long time...

Its been a while since the site has been updated... so lots of things have happened... here's just a few...

ITEM: ED EST MORT 
The wonderful Robert Pepin of Calman Levy brought Ed's Dead to the French market this year... with a striking cover, and a superb translation, I'm excited to see how the French take to Jen, the world's deadliest bookseller.

I was also in attendance at FIRN, a French crime festival, where I talked (via translator!) about Ed's Dead and sold a few copies to the wonderful French readers. Its a great little festival in the South of France, and definitely a joy to attend. Here's hoping they ask me back...

ITEM: ED IST TOT 
Not content to let the French have all the fun, Europa Verlag bought the German Rights to Ed's Dead, and the book will be released in August. The Jen on the German cover is very very different to the Jen on the French cover, which made me laugh a lot, but since I don't really say what she looks like, both approaches are very valid. Very excited to see how the Germans take this book, and I've already written a letter to booksellers over there explaining why they will take to this tale of one of their own making some very bad decisions...

ITEM: Back to Dundee!
Yes, I've returned to Dundee (briefly) in the role of running a series of Masterclasses for the university's new crime writing degree. Its been a real honour to work with some very talented students, and I hope I get to make a return visit next year!

ITEM: EIBF
I will be chairing some incredible writers at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival. While not there "as myself" I will be talking to and asking daft questions of these wonderful people:

Özgür Mumcu & Jan Vantoortelboom
18-Aug 17:00 - Writers' Retreat

Activist Özgür Mumcu is one of Turkey’s brightest young writers. The Peace Machine imagines a Jules Verne-esque scenario, with a writer on a quest to find a machine capable of saving humanity on the brink of the First World War. Jan Vantoortelboom’s His Name Is David also takes place in 1914 and explores the complex moral labyrinth that led to a Belgian teacher facing the firing squad.

Lin Anderson & Antti Tuomainen
20-Aug 17:15 - The Spiegeltent

It looks like Rhona MacLeod’s luck may be running out in Lin Anderson’s 13th novel about the forensic scientist, as she becomes victim of a nasty stalker in Sins of the Dead. Fargo meets Baywatch in Antti Tuomainen's Palm Beach Finland, the blackly comic bestselling Finnish novel of 2017, in which detective Jan Nyman is sent to a sleepy seaside town to dig up clues on a mysterious fatality. A nourishing hour of noir awaits.

Charles Cumming & Nadia Dalbuono
24-Aug 16:30 - The Spiegeltent

Charles Cumming is back with The Man Between, a thriller featuring Kit Carradine, a successful author who’s commissioned to silence an anti right-wing campaigner. In Nadia Dalbuono’s The Extremist, Islamic terrorists carry out attacks in Rome and will only negotiate with Detective Leone Scamarcio. Given just 24 hours to meet their demands, his efforts only throw up further questions as we hurtle to a nail-biting conclusion.

David Mark & Gunnar Staalesen
26-Aug 15:15 - The Spiegeltent

Creating a long-running crime fiction series is not an easy job. David Mark and Gunnar Staalesen offer their reasons behind such longevity with the former having penned Scorched Earth, his seventh DS McAvoy title, and Staalesen continuing the Varg Veum series which began in 1977. Join us for an hour in the company of two firmly established crime fiction talents.

I hope to see you at one - or more! - of these sure to be excellent events.