Friday, January 12, 2007

Crime in the news

I think I've posted about this before, but it's worth posting about again. Euro Crime news is an interesting list of links to recent newspaper articles about crime fiction and its authors.

6 Comments:

Blogger Karen (Euro Crime) said...

Hi Peter, many thanks for mentioning this link. I've just updated the reviews bit of Euro Crime and there's a new competition. Unfortunately it's only open to the UK, but I did try for global... If any US publishers want me to run a competition for just US residents then I'd be more than willing!! Karen (karen at eurocrime dot co.uk)

January 14, 2007  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

It's a useful way to keep track of what the "press" is saying about crime fiction. And I'm happy to give the competition a bit of publicity here even if I am ineligible for it!

January 15, 2007  
Blogger Karen (Euro Crime) said...

It seems translated crime is 'in' at the moment with the Vargas/Jungstedt/Leoni triumverate being reviewed by all and sundry. Thanks for the publicity !!

January 16, 2007  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

You're right; translated crime is in. In fact, it's so in that seeds for a backlash against it may already have been planted. I recently read some critic's passing remark to the effect that "Just as a few years ago, readers and reviewers thought the only worthwhile crime fiction was American, now they think that nothing is worthwhile unless it's from overseas."

January 16, 2007  
Blogger Karen (Euro Crime) said...

Is translated crime as big in the US as it's become in the UK?

January 17, 2007  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I'm not sure quite how big it is in the U.K. I suspect it may be bigger there. We in the U.S. like to think we are world-beaters when it comes to parochialism. But Bitter Lemon, for example, distributes its books here, as do Soho and Serpent's Tail.

And don't forget that the taste for foreign, if not translated, crime fiction covers Ian Rankin in this country. His books like the shelves of the cursed, damn-them-to-eternity chain bookshops. (They're cursed and damned because they're chains, not because they sell Ian Rankin.) And one would have to account for a novel such as Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games, which, while written in English, is decidedly a product of its Bombay setting.

And one has to define "big." "Foreign" crime fiction is going through a definite surge in popularity, but I don't think the best-selling titles sell nearly as many copies as Thomas Harris or Michael Connelly or Dennis Lehane or, say, Janet Evanovich.

Who are the best-selling overseas authors in the U.K.? How do their sales compare to those of domestic authors?

January 17, 2007  

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