Aly Monroe's Blog, page 15

The Maze of Cadiz, Paperback Now Available

The paperback of The Maze of Cadiz , official publication date 17th September, is now available on amazon.co.uk

You can read an extract from the book, and a Q&A on my website -

http://www.alymonroe.com/

Broad from Badsville

If you haven't come across Donna Moore's blog, dedicated to Scottish crime fiction, take a look. It's much more than that - entertaining and well written. Good fun. I like her tales of the 62 bus!
Here is the link:

http://bigbeatfrombadsville.blogspot.com/

Apart from her blog, Donna is the author of Go To Helena Handbasket and Old Dogs, due out in June 2010.

Audiobook of The Maze of Cadiz now available

The Audiobook of The Maze of Cadiz read by Johnathan Keeble
is now available for purchase direct from Isis Publishing

Cotton's Tastes of Cadiz: Poor Man's Lobster - or Gato por Liebre

I first ate monkfish in Cadiz over twenty years ago, long before it was a desirable dish in fine restaurants. At the time, this was not a typically 'gaditano' dish - the cook was actually from Asturias. The Spanish name for monkfish is rape (pronounced 'rappay') but it was popularly known as Langosta de Pobre - Poor Man's Lobster.

This put me in mind of the Spanish picaresque tradition prevalent during the Golden Age of Spanish literature (sixteenth and early seventeenth century). The...

Gothic Science

I am reading an excellent book called A Natural History of Seeing by Simon Ings. His website http://www.simonings.net/ is similarly amenable and wide-ranging and includes, for example his astute review of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.

In Simon Ings's book - which is subtitled The Art & Science of Vision - there is, in Chapter Two, a delightful account of the fantastic combination of two nineteenth century inventions – photography and the ophthalmoscope - for fictional (and ...

Linda Fairstein

I was delighted to have it drawn to my attention recently that Linda Fairstein, best-selling author of the Alex Cooper novels had mentioned in an interview that The Maze of Cadiz was the last book she had read:

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a10569.asp

Apart from her lovely comment, this article makes fascinating reading for all those interested in this writer and her books. Particularly interesting is her advice on how writers can take an active role and use the web for spreading aw...

Ratiocination and Other Horrors or The Art of Playing Ball.

At the recent Crimefest, I was surprised to hear an attack on Edgar Allan Poe for using a word like 'ratiocination'. I was surprised, first because Poe died 160 years ago in 1849, and second because the poor man pioneered a genre without knowing it would come to be called 'detective fiction'.

Undoubtedly Poe's 'Tales of Ratiocination' would now be re-named by the marketing department. This is partly because the word is difficult to pronounce – "rashio-sin-ayshun" – and partly because its meani...

Post CrimeFest

I've been busy editing recently, but I'm delighted to say that Washington Shadow, the second in the Peter Cotton series has now gone off to the copy editor. It is due out on November 5th this year. More information about this and the Peter Cotton series will be gradually added to the website over the next few weeks, so keep a look out for the new additions.

I got back from CrimeFest four weeks ago now. It was the first time I had taken part in one of these events and I found it very interestin...