Three little treats on this lovely sunny day in the UK.
1. For fans of Swedish crime and of Wallander actor Rolf Lassgård: the ‘police thriller’ Sebastian Bergman begins tonight on BBC4 at 9pm. See the second half of this earlier post for an overview and trailer.
Photo from BBC/ZDF
2. CRIMEFEST 2012 – the annual International Crime Fiction Convention – is in full swing in Bristol this weekend. While extremely sad to be missing the party, I’m enjoying tweets on the various panels from @Eurocrime and @NicciPrasa amongst others. The hashtag for the event is #crimefest12.
Thrillingly, the CWA (Crime Writers’ Association) shortlists for the following ‘Daggers’ were announced there last night: International, Historical, Non-Fiction, Library, Short Story and Debut. Thanks to Rhian over at ‘It’s a Crime! (Or a Mystery…)’ for a comprehensive listing of all the works shortlisted.
There are 6 works listed for the International Dagger (‘crime, thriller, suspense or spy fiction novels which have been translated into English from their original language, for UK publication’):
The Potter’s Field by Andrea Camilleri, trans. by Stephen Sartarelli (Mantle)
I will have Vengeance by Maurizio de Giovanni, trans. by Anne Milano Appel (Hersilia Press)
Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson, trans. by Laurie Thompson (Quercus/Maclehose)
Trackers by Deon Meyer, trans. by T K L Seegers (Hodder & Stoughton)
Phantom by Jo Nesbø, trans. by Don Bartlett (Harvill Secker)
The Dark Valley by Valerio Varesi, trans. by Joseph Farrell (Quercus/Maclehose)
Further details about the novels are available via the CWA website here.
And over at Petrona, you’ll find a list of all International Dagger winners since 2006, along with a wealth of links to reviews and CWA webpages (thanks, Maxine, for this excellent resource).
3. A guest post on Israeli crime fiction by Uri Kenan at the ‘Detectives Beyond Borders’ blog caught my eye this week. For someone like me, who knew nothing about the history of crime fiction in Israel, it was a very illuminating read. I’m already looking forward to part 2, which I imagine will look at more contemporary offerings.
Peter Rozovsky, who runs the blog, is also at CrimeFest at the moment, and has already posted three reports, which are well worth a read.
I hope the sun is shining for all of you wherever you are: have a lovely weekend.
Mrs. Peabody Investigates 
Unfortunately I am being kicked out of the house tonight but my recorder is set! It is an interesting shortlist – I liked four of the books more than the other two – any of those 4 would be a fine winner in my opinion.
I haven’t managed to see SB yet either: combination of England vs Norway and Eurovision…
The one on the CWA shortlist I haven’t read, and that’s loitered for far too long in the TBR pile, is Larsson’s Wrath. Time to make amends!
PS. thanks for the kind mention of my Int Dagger page. Very much appreciated. Hope it is useful (though it does slightly serve to emphasise the oddities of the selected novels taken as a whole….)
You’re very welcome – it’s a great resource! Will have a look in more detail once I’ve escaped from marking 🙂 Oddities sound intriguing.
Thanks for the mention. CrimeFest was fab by the way! Hope you had a good weekend too.
You’re welcome, Rhian, and glad you had a great time. Really looking forward to Harrogate!
Thanks for the kind words. Crimefest is indeed worth attending. Sign up early for 2013!
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
Thanks, Peter. My treat this year is Harrogate, which I’m very much looking forward to attending!
I’d like to make Harrogate one year. My plan in 2009 was to attend Harrogate or Crimefest, then attend each in alternating years. That year’s Harrogate was similar to the previous year’s Bouchercon, so I decided on Crimefest as a change of pace. I had such a good time that I kept going back.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
I was at Harrogate in 2006 and had a cracking time, not least because that’s where I met Rhian 🙂
Part 2 of that guest post is now up!
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Thanks very much for the link, Peter, and sorry that you got spammed! It’s very odd that the site wouldn’t accept your comments, and I’m very glad that I thought to check my spam before deleting!
Will pop over to yours in a second to have a proper read.
Is this WordPress site? WordPress does not handle comments well. It will reject a comment, but not offer an explanatory message (This site only accepts cerain HTML, etc.). It’s one reason I balked at switching to WordPress when I had trouble with Blogger.
Thanks.
Very frustrating, Peter. I’ll pass your comment on to the WordPress engineers (I had a couple of minor problems recently and they got back to me very quickly).
I left a comment on the second Israeli crime fiction post on your blog earlier tonight. Great post and am about to check out some of the authors online. Thanks!
I’ve replied to your comment!
I think WordPress does not accept certain HTML coding, but I’ve found that out by trial and error.
Thanks, Peter.