Iain Cameron's Blog, page 4

Newsletter May 2016

Hunting for Crows

My new book was published 18th March and it’s doing really well. It’s been in the Top Twenty of the British Detectives category on Amazon almost since its release. I’m not giving anything away when I tell you that at the start of the book, a man drowns trying to save his dog. The death of this animal incensed an American reader into giving me three stars, yet the same reader probably doesn’t bat an eyelid about all the men, women and children being murdered in every other crime novel you care to name. In my defence, be assured, no animals were harmed in the writing of this novel. To find out more about Hunting for Crows, click here.

 

Literary Festivals

The sun is occasionally making an appearance here in the UK, signalling the start of the literary festival season. The main ones you might want to take a look at are:

Brighton Festival, Brighton, East Sussex 7th-29th May. It’s more an arts festival than a book festival with a host of plays, poetry readings and art exhibitions. Authors include: Pam Shriver, Tracy Chevalier and Howard Jacobsen. www.brightonfestival.org

Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye, Wales 26th May-5th June. ‘Woodstock of the mind’ as it is affectionately known, will feature everything from Hilary Mantel to David Gilmour (with his wife, Polly Samson). It has an international side too with similar festivals are taking place at various times of the year in Mexico, Ireland, Spain, Peru and Columbia.  See the website www.hayfestival.com for more information.

Crimefest, Bristol 19th-22th May. This is one of the biggest crime festivals in Europe and to prove it, they’ve lined up two fantastic guests, Peter James and Ian Rankin. www.crimefest.com/programme-cf/

 

In all, 43 literary festivals will be staged in the UK in May. Is it the same where you live? Drop me a line with what goes on in your part of the world.

 

Deceased Celebrities

A large number of celebrities have died this year and we are only a third of the way through. These have included: Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Glen Frey, Harper Lee and now Prince. A crude survey for the Radio 4 Programme More or Less and covering all BBC platforms (radio, tv, web etc) found that the BBC reported on 5 celebrity deaths from Jan-Mar in 2012, but this leapt to 24 for the same period in 2016.

Is there a single cause? It seems the growth in TV, radio, and music in the 1960s and 70s is to blame. Before then, the only celebrities we were familiar with came from cinema, but with the explosion in the number of pop and rock bands and a steady increase in the number of television and radio channels, celebrity numbers have expanded exponentially, but now the young stars of that era are heading into old age.

Developments in Crime Writing

A subtle change has been taking place in crime writing over the last two to three years. In the days when Ian Rankin was still writing his fourth or fifth novel, women crime writers were thin on the ground with only the likes of Agatha Christie, Martina Cole, PD James and Val McDermid flying the flag.

Women now dominate the bestseller lists and they have written some of the biggest books of recent years, including Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train and The Widow. As a result, we are seeing a change in writing style as women writers ignore the developing trend by male writers of pursuing grittier and gorier novels, and are writing books with intimate details about characters and relationships, including the same for the lead detective.

This is leading to new and interesting variations in the genre, including lesbian detectives, rogue women detectives and all-women detection teams. In the Denise Mina novel I read recently, the main detective was 7 months pregnant with twins, and in the novel I’m reading at the moment by Mel Sherratt, I’m a third of the way through and there still hasn’t been any police investigation. As women are the main buyers of crime fiction, this change was almost inevitable. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

Game of Thrones

If you are fan of GOT as I am, you might be pleased to learn that George RR Martin is alive and well. When the Beatles record producer died, Twitter was awash with George RR Martin tributes. The author only planned to write 7 books (with 5 already written), but he told Entertainment Weekly recently that there were millions of stories he could develop from the series if HBO was interested in filming them. This is good news for die-hard fans and if you’ve come to GOT through the television series, I recommend reading the books; they’re excellent.



What’s Next?

The next book, in which I assure you there will be no dead dogs, is currently in progress. It will be published later this year. That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.

Iain

P.S. If you’ve read any of my books, please post a review on Amazon. I’m always interested to hear your views and it helps we authors to get noticed.

Any comments, issues or questions, feel free to contact me:

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Top Books This Spring

The following top reads are coming out this spring, as selected by Amazon editors.

Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

When two women end up dead in the local river a town’s dark past comes rushing back. Fans of “The Girl on the Train” have another twisty ride to look forward to in Hawkins’ new novel of psychological suspense.

Startup: A Novel by Doree Shafrir

This fun and funny debut novel by a writer for Buzzfeed combines ambition, youth, love, and the tech world. No pun intended, but this one is getting a lot of buzz.

The Trials of Apollo Book Two The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan

The second book in Rick Riordan’s “Trials of Apollo” series promises to be as much fun as the first. Mighty Apollo, now an awkward mortal teenager, continues his quest for redemption with plenty of hilarity and humiliation along the way.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Grann’s compelling work of narrative nonfiction delves into chilling conspiracies and prejudice surrounding one of the FBI’s first homicide investigations — the systematic murder of members of the wealthy Osage Indian nation.

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

Science fiction fans are eagerly awaiting this space opera involving human colonies scattered across the universe. When the connections between those colonies are threatened by a change in physics, three individuals are thrust into a race against time to save humanity.

One of the Boys by Daniel Magariel

“One of the Boys” is a powerful novel about two brothers who turn against their mother during a bitter divorce only to have their father spiral quickly into unpredictable and violent behavior. An intense depiction of familial bonds and brotherhood that makes every page count.

Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked by Adam Alter

Where is your mobile phone right now? Chances are, it’s within your reach (if not in your hand). With temptation never far away, we all run the risk of addiction. Adam Alter explores how addiction works, focusing on the explosion of technology and its role in keeping us hooked.

Testimony by Scott Turow

This spring Scott Turow delivers a taut new legal thriller. Former Kindle County prosecutor Bill Boom is drawn into a case he can’t refuse when a lone witness comes forward with chilling information about the mass disappearance of an entire Gypsy refugee camp.

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Olive Kitteridge” and “My Name is Lucy Barton” introduces a large cast of small-town characters (including a grown-up Lucy Barton) and plumbs their emotional and psychological depths with masterful skill.

 

Although these books are all due out in the next couple of months, most are available on Amazon pre-order – just click on the book title for more information.

 

Are Waterstone’s Being Sneaky?

Waterstone’s, a large chain of bookshops in the UK, is accused of being underhand by opening a number of bookshops without their normal branding. The shops are smaller than their regular stores and are decorated to look like small independent bookshops. So far, they’ve opened three; Rye, Harpenden and Southwold. James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, denied the company was using subterfuge to attract customers.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he said: “The vast majority have welcomed them greatly. They are very small shops in towns that had independents and very much wish they still had independents but don’t. We can’t open up great big Waterstones here but we can open up small ones. We are coming into quite sensitive high streets with predominantly independent retailers on them and we wish to behave as they do.”

The owner of a book, card and gift shop in Southwold told the Mail on Sunday: “To call themselves Southwold Books is a bit naughty. Locals know what the shop is, but visitors don’t.”

Judge for yourself.

      

Technology in Crime Novels

I recently read an article by Stav Sherez about technology in crime books (you can read it here) but I didn’t feel it went far enough. However, I did like the points he made about mobile phones, how we can’t ignore them or say they’ve run out of battery or there isn’t a signal, that is, if we don’t wish to stretch the patience of readers.

Where I believe the article didn’t go far enough was it didn’t explore what technologists and designers are calling the ‘internet of things’. At the last count, our household has at least 12 devices connected to the wi-fi router. Under scenarios discussed at CES 2017, the annual Las Vegas technology show, soon all electronic devices in your home will be connected, including fridges, ovens and burglar alarms.

If this sounds too much like science-fiction to you, detectives investigating a recent murder case in the US asked Amazon for details recorded by the victim’s Echo device on the day of the murder. The Amazon Echo is an always-on, a voice-activated piece of equipment which after issuing the command, ‘Alexa’, will play music from your phone, switch lights on and off or order you a takeaway meal.

Other connected devices you can buy today include the Samsung Family Hub, a fridge that can take pictures of the interior contents even with the door closed, an image you can look at while standing in a supermarket aisle, and burglar alarms and CCTV systems that can alert you to an intrusion and switch CCTV cameras on. A recent case in the UK highlighted the usefulness of this technology when a man spotted burglars breaking into his house on his laptop, whilst on holiday in Spain. He called police in the UK and the criminals were apprehended while still in the house.

The time will come when all this technology is freely available, but how long will it be before detectives in books discover the person responsible for a crime, perhaps from a photograph taken by the fridge of a distinctive hand or ring as it reaches for a beer, or after the victim splutters out with their final breath, ‘Alexa, the name of the killer is…’

New Book Coming Out!

I am extremely pleased to announce the publication date of the new DI Henderson novel, Red Red Wine – Wednesday 4th January 2017. Until that time, the Kindle version will also available on Amazon pre-order.

With such a title, this book just has to be about wine fraud.

The wine won’t kill you – but he will

DI Henderson is settling into new offices and a new house, but the murder of a young man on a cross-Channel ferry diverts his attention. He is soon drawn into the dark world of wine fraud.

The DI isn’t allowed to travel to France where the victim once worked and where he suspects the dodgy wine originates; instead he is assisted by private investigator Harvey Miller. Miller stakes out the vineyard but receives a beating for his trouble.

Henderson believes that Daniel Perry, an east London gangster once acquitted for the murder of his business partner, leads the gang and the DI has been warned to tread carefully. Perry will kill anyone who cheats him or gets in his way – and unknown to Henderson, his name has already been added to this list.

It can be be purchased worldwide from Amazon in Kindle format and paperback. Click on the info tab below for further information:

UK info

US info

Aus info

Can info

 

 

 

Calling All UK Library Users

The award of The Dagger in the Library by the The Crime Writers Association is based on UK Library submissions  – and you can tell your librarian who you want to vote for.

The CWA Dagger in the Library is a prize awarded to an established crime writer for a body of work that appeals to users of libraries and reading groups.

In order to be eligible for nomination for the prize a writer must have had published at least four novels which are available in libraries throughout the British Isles, either in digital, audio or print format. And they mustn’t have won the Dagger in the Library before (see list of winners below).

Nominations for the Dagger in the Library can only be made by library staff, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be involved.

At both the shortlist and longlist stage there will be opportunities for you to vote for your favourite author – and take advantage of some of the reading group material the CWA and The Reading Agency will be providing to you once the lists are announced.

In the meantime, let your local library staff know about the prize and tell them who you’d like them to vote for. Nominations close on 31 December, so be quick!

For more information, and for posters for your library, visit www.daggerreads.co.uk/dagger-in-the-library.

The Dagger in the Library is supported by The Reading Agency and www.readinggroups.org.

The last three winners were:

2016 Elly Griffiths – her latest book can be viewed here

 

Scotland’s Best Writers

Scotland has a long and rich literary tradition, from lyrical fantasies to gritty realism; with world-renowned authors from Robert Louis Stevenson to Muriel Spark and spanning genres from crime to science fiction. In the summer, BBC Scotland viewers were asked to vote for their favourite Scottish book. From an initial longlist of 30 novels, selected by an expert panel curated by the Scottish Book Trust, here are the top ten books.

Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Lanark by Alasdair Gray
The Thirty-Nine Steps
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg

The One Sentence Book

There is a new book out there that not only won the Goldsmiths Prize and £10,000, but it was also shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the BGE Irish Book Awards. To cap it all, some believed it would have won the Booker Prize if it was eligible; it wasn’t as it was published in Ireland. What’s so remarkable about this one, I hear you ask? The book contains only 1 sentence.

To be more precise, Solar Bones by Mike McCormack is 207 pages long, but contains no chapters, capital letters,  commas,  full stops or speech marks, yet it lauded by all who read it.

The Guardian gushed: The magnificent song that is Solar Bones possesses such peculiar depth, such consonances and dissonances that it is a reminder that a writer of talent can seemingly take any place, any set of characters, any situation and create from them a total vision of the reality.

The New Statesman said: McCormack’s writing has a quality of attention that caused Blake Morrison, the chair of the judges, to proclaim this novel “a masterpiece”. 

I haven’t read it so I can’t comment, but if we all wrote like this, why would we need editors? They must be quaking in their boots.

 

The Best Screen Adaption

With the recent release of the film version of The Girl on the Train, it got me thinking about my favourite screen adaptation of a crime novel. The Daily Telegraph recently produced a list of their 15 top adaptions of all time. I’ve seen all the films (and read most of the books) except Headhunters and Capote and I think they’re good choices, particularly, Mystic River, Shawshank Redemption and The Talented Mr Ripley. Missing from the list, I believe are: Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris), Trainspotting (Irvine Welch) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Phillip K Dick), the book behind Blade Runner.

What’s your favourite?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, film directed by David Fincher

LA Confidential by James Elroy, film directed by Curtis Hanson

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, film directed by Robert Mulligan

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

The Godfather by Mario Puzo, film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Jackie Brown by Elmore Leonard (based on the book Rum Punch), film directed by Quentin Tarantino

Headhunters by Jo Nesbo, film directed by Morten Tyldum

Get Carter by Ted Lewis, film directed by Mike Hodges

The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, film directed by Frank Darabont

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, film directed by Anthony Minghella

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, film directed by John Huston

Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane, film, directed by Ben Affleck

Mystic River by Denis Lehane, film directed by Clint Eastwood

Brighton Rock by Graham Green, film directed by John Boulting

Capote by Bennett Miller, directed by Bennett Miller

VAT on eBooks

Here’s a story you might have missed as it had the dreaded ‘tax’ word in the title, but it has implications for authors and readers alike. For years, and for no common-sense reason that anyone can guess, the EC classed ebooks as ‘electronically supplied services.’ As a result, VAT is charged at 15% on ebooks while 0% is charged on paperback books, which are classed, not unreasonably as ‘books’. Yes, I know it sounds stupid but who said EC-wide legislation was ever logical?

The men in Brussels have finally woken up and last Saturday agreed to class ebooks as ‘books’. Therefore, sometime in 2017 I would expect ebooks to come into line with paperbacks and be zero-rated for VAT (the tax effectively scrapped). This could mean lower prices for consumers and more royalty for authors, with the biggest changes taking place at the higher end of the ebook price range. Ah, happy days.