TIM BAKER AND DEON MEYER SHORTLISTED FOR JOHN CREASEY AND INTERNATIONAL CWA AWARDS

The Crime Writers’ Association have announced the 2016 Dagger Award shortlists, and two Blake Friedmann crime writers feature on the lists: Tim Baker's FEVER CITY has been shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, for the best UK-published crime novel by a debut author of any nationality. ICARUS by Deon Meyer has been shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger for crime novels in translation, alongside his translator K.L. Seegers. This is Deon Meyer’s third appearance on the International Dagger list – THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted in 2011 and COBRA was shortlisted in 2015.

The Crime Writers’ Association Daggers have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over fifty years. These prestigious awards started in 1955, with the Crossed Red Herring Award going to Winston Graham for THE LITTLE WALLS. Currently ten Daggers are awarded annually by the CWA.

The other shortlisted authors are Bill Dodgers, Jax Miller, Nicholas Searle and Ottessa Moshfegh for the John Creasey Dagger and Sascha Arango, Cay Rademacher, Hideo Yokoyama, and Pierre Lemaitre for the International Dagger. The full shortlist for the John Creasey is here, and the list for the International Dagger is here. 

FEVER CITY is a searing counter-factual conspiracy thriller with three intertwining narratives. Los Angeles private investigator Nick Alston is hired to find the kidnapped son of America's richest and most hated man; Hastings, a gun-for-hire in search of redemption, is also linked to the case. But both men soon become ensnared by a sinister cabal that spreads from the White House all the way to Dealey Plaza and the assassination of JFK. Decades later in Dallas, Alston's son stumbles across evidence from JFK conspiracy buffs that just might link his father to the shot heard round the world. FEVER CITY is a high-octane, nightmare journey through a Mad Men-era America of dark powers, corruption and conspiracy. FEVER CITY is published by Faber in the UK and Europa in the US.

ICARUS witnesses the return of Meyer’s popular police detective character Benny Griessel, struggling to stay sober, and bruised by a colleague’s terrible suicide. Yet the discovery of a body buried beneath the sand dunes north of Cape Town will test his willpower even further. Why was notorious Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech startup, Alibi targeted? How exactly is a service that creates false appointments, documents and phone calls to enable people to cheat on their partners, linked to this high profile murder? With all eyes on Benny’s pursuit to uncover the truth, he will battle not just to track down the killer, but against the siren call of the whiskey bottle as well. ICARUS is published by Tafelberg in South Africa, Hodder in the UK and Grove Atlantic in the US, along with numerous translation markets.

Deon Meyer joined the conversation on South African’s crime scene at the ‘Murder Out of Africa’ panel last Saturday at the Harrogate Crime Festival, and has also recently been announced as the author of the Crime and Thriller Book Weeks 2017 in the Netherlands.  

Deon’s new novel KOORS (FEVER in English) will be published in South Africa in Afrikaans in August 2016 by Tafelberg, with a major press campaign. It will be published in English and translation elsewhere in translation from 2017. You can read a short extract on Deon’s website.

Praise for FEVER CITY:

‘Dense and complicated thriller with a fictional crime at its heart delves into the JFK assassination with walk-on parts for real-life figures from Marilyn Monroe to Richard Nixon. Half a century on from Dallas, the son of a 1960s LA private detective tries to piece it all together. An inventive take on the great American conspiracy theory...’ – The Sunday Times, Crime Club Newsletter January Picks 2016

'Tim Baker paints a lurid, sinister portrait of mid-century America, skilfully layering fact and fiction in a way that will forever change the way you think about the Kennedy assassination. An impressive debut.' – Peter Swanson

Praise for ICARUS and Deon Meyer:

‘Deon Meyer is not just South Africa’s greatest crime writer, he’s up there with the best in the world.’ —Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘Excellent … The richness of the characters, especially the multifaceted Benny, elevates this above most contemporary police procedurals.’ – Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

Deon Meyer’s Benny Griessel series is one of the high points of contemporary crime fiction, and the fifth title, ICARUS is his best yet….an expertly engineered tale of sex, lies and fraud.’ Laura Wilson, The Guardian, Crime Fiction Roundup 2015

Follow Tim on Twitter. 

Visit Deon's website here.

Follow Deon on Twitter.

DEON MEYER’S ICARUS PUBLISHED IN PAPERBACK TODAY

ICARUS by bestselling South African author Deon Meyer is published in the UK in paperback today by Hodder & Stoughton. Published in Afrikaans in 2015 by Human & Rousseau, ICARUS immediately shot to Number 1 in South Africa, and has just been shortlisted for the Nielsen Bookseller’s Choice Award.

Published in the US by Grove Atlantic, the novel is also sold to Le Seuil in France, Aufbau in Germany, Edizioni E/O in Italy, Tiden Norsk in Norway, Sonia Draga in Poland, Salamandra in Spain and Bruna in Holland, where Deon has also recently been announced as the author of the Crime and Thriller Book Weeks 2017.  Meyer, who has been described by the Times as “One of the sharpest thriller writers around”, broke through in the Netherlands in 2012 with THIRTEEN HOURS, which was awarded the VN Thriller of the Year award.

Deon Meyer has been in Poland for the premiere of the TV series CAPE TOWN, based on his DEAD BEFORE DYING and its character Mat Joubert, and will visit the UK for the Harrogate Crime Festival from the 21st to the 24th of July, where he will be appearing at the Murder Out of Africa event on Saturday 23rd. Deon has also been invited to attend Mantova’s Festivaletteratura, one of the biggest Italian literary festivals, in September.

ICARUS witnesses the return of Benny Griessel, struggling to stay sober, and bruised by a policeman friend’s terrible suicide. Yet the discovery of a body buried beneath the sand dunes north of Cape Town will test his willpower even further. Why was notorious Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech start-up, Alibi targeted? How exactly is a service that creates false appointments, documents and phone calls to enable people to cheat on their partners, linked to this high profile murder? With all eyes on Benny’s pursuit to uncover the truth, he will battle not just to track down the killer, but against the siren call of the whiskey bottle as well.

Deon’s new novel KOORS (FEVER in English) will be published in South Africa in Afrikaans in August 2016 by Tafelberg, with a major press campaign. It will be published in English and translation elsewhere in translation from 2017. You can read a short extract on Deon’s website.

Deon Meyer lives in Cape Town. His books are published in 27 countries, and have been awarded many prizes around the world: the Deutsche Krimi Prize in Germany, the ATKV Prize in South Africa, and Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. His novel THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA International Dagger, and HEART OF THE HUNTER, was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Prize and selected as one of Chicago Tribune's '10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004'. Most recently, the spectacular COBRA was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger.

 Praise for ICARUS:                      

‘Excellent … The richness of the characters, especially the multifaceted Benny, elevates this above most contemporary police procedurals.’ – Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

‘Deon Meyer’s South Africa is laid bare in ICARUS […] it is as glittering and hard as the diamonds his country is famous for. […] Meyer utilises the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country.’ – The Independent

‘Deon Meyer’s Benny Griessel series is one of the high points of contemporary crime fiction, and the fifth title, ICARUS is his best yet….[an] expertly engineered tale of sex, lies and fraud.’ – Laura Wilson, The Guardian, Crime Fiction Roundup 2015

‘Deon Meyer is not just South Africa’s greatest crime writer, he’s up there with the best in the world,as ICARUS shows.’ — Marcel Berlins, The Times

 Visit Deon's website here.

Follow Deon on Twitter.

TIM BAKER AND DEON MEYER LONGLISTED FOR TWO CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION AWARDS

Two Blake Friedmann crime writers feature on the CWA’s Dagger prize longlists, announced at Crimefest this month. Tim Baker's FEVER CITY has been longlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, for the best UK-published crime novel by a debut author of any nationality. ICARUS by Deon Meyer, has been longlisted for the CWA International Dagger for crime novels, in translation, alongside his translator K.L. Seegers. This is Deon Meyer’s third appearance on the International Dagger list – THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted in 2011 and COBRA was shortlisted in 2015.

The winners of the prize will be announced at Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate this July. Other longlisted authors include Otessa Moshfegh, Jax Miller and Matt Johson on the John Creasey Dagger and Hideo Yokoyama, Johann Theorin and Pierre Lemaitre on the International Dagger. The full longlist for the John Creasey is here, and the International Dagger here. 

FEVER CITY is a searing counter-factual conspiracy thriller with three intertwining narratives. Nick Alston, a Los Angeles private investigator, is hired to find the kidnapped son of America's richest and most hated man; Hastings, a gun-for-hire in search of redemption, is also linked to the case. But both men soon become ensnared by a sinister cabal that spreads from the White House all the way to Dealey Plaza and the assassination on JFK. Decades later in Dallas, Alston's son stumbles across evidence from JFK conspiracy buffs that just might link his father to the shot heard round the world. FEVER CITY is a high-octane, nightmare journey through a Mad Men-era America of dark powers, corruption and conspiracy.

ICARUS witnesses the return of Meyer’s popular police detective character Benny Griessel, struggling to stay sober, and bruised by a colleague’s terrible suicide. Yet the discovery of a body buried beneath the sand dunes north of Cape Town will test his willpower even further. Why was notorious Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech startup, Alibi targeted? How exactly is a service that creates false appointments, documents and phone calls to enable people to cheat on their partners, linked to this high profile murder? With all eyes on Benny’s pursuit to uncover the truth, he will battle not just to track down the killer, but against the siren call of the whiskey bottle as well.

Praise for FEVER CITY:

‘Dense and complicated thriller with a fictional crime at its heart delves into the JFK assassination with walk-on parts for real-life figures from Marilyn Monroe to Richard Nixon. Half a century on from Dallas, the son of a 1960s LA private detective tries to piece it all together. An inventive take on the great American conspiracy theory...’ – The Sunday Times, Crime Club Newsletter January Picks 2016

'Tim Baker paints a lurid, sinister portrait of mid-century America, skilfully layering fact and fiction in a way that will forever change the way you think about the Kennedy assassination. An impressive debut.' – Peter Swanson

Praise for ICARUS and Deon Meyer:

‘Deon Meyer is not just South Africa’s greatest crime writer, he’s up there with the best in the world.’ —Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘Excellent … The richness of the characters, especially the multifaceted Benny, elevates this above most contemporary police procedurals.’ – Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review

Deon Meyer’s Benny Griessel series is one of the high points of contemporary crime fiction, and the fifth title, ICARUS is his best yet….an expertly engineered tale of sex, lies and fraud.’ Laura Wilson, The Guardian, Crime Fiction Roundup 2015

Follow Tim on Twitter. 

Visit Deon's website here.

Follow Deon on Twitter.

BFLA Authors in best of 2015 lists

It’s that time of year again when everyone's sharing their ‘Best of’ lists, and we’re extremely proud that our authors have been included in many of them. Below is a summary of the great places they were included and the great quotes that accompanied their pick.

RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER by Sally Andrew

Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2015:
"A delightful debut, tender and funny. The mystery takes on the worldwide problem of abused women while revealing both the beauties and problems of South Africa. And the recipes will make you want to drop everything and start cooking."

Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book of 2015:
“The exotic locale, the lovely patois and the heroine’s unique sensibility make Ms. Andrew’s “Recipes” a blue-ribbon winner.”

Samantha Gibb, Sunday Times SA Best book of 2015:
“The quintessential feel-good SA whodunit, complete with recipes and advice. A must read.”

LUNGDON by Edward Carey

NPR Guide to 2015’s Great Reads:
“A magnificently engrossing indictment of our late capitalist modernity.”

THE FETCH by Finuala Dowling

Margaret von Klemperer, Fiona Snyckers & Helené Prinsloo, Sunday Times SA Best book of 2015:
‘A sparkling comedy of manners, but under the froth there are serious issues, and it is Dowling’s sensitive handling of them that makes this such a lovely book’ – Margaret von Klemperer

‘Comparisons with Jane Austen are not misplaced.’ – Fiona Snyckers

‘The characters from THE FETCH by Finuala Dowling haunted my dreams. The story led me to a garden cottage in the deep south where I kept waiting to happen upon someone like William.’ – Helené Prinsloo

THE DARKEST HOUR by Barbara Erskine

Books Covered, Favourite Book Covers of 2015:
‘Tender, romantic, and earnest, just like the brilliant story within. The gold foil adds a luxuriousness without being flashy and the whole designs speaks of the era so perfectly. This is a standout cover in this area of the market.’

JELLYFISH by Janice Galloway

Zoe Strachan, The Herald:
‘Janice Galloway prefaces her new collection of stories, JELLYFISH (Freight, £12.99), with a quote from David Lodge: “Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children; life’s the other way round.” In fact she gives us plenty of both, but it’s the stories about mothers and children that really cut to the quick.’

Sara Crowley and Kaite Welsh, Bristol Prize Best Short Story Reads of 2015:
‘My most eagerly awaited publication of 2015 was Janice Galloway’s JELLYFISH (Freight) which I am reading very slowly so as to savour each brilliant word.’ – Sara Crowley

‘Galloway has hit a rich seam of imagination as she returns to the short story as a form. It’s perfect for her style – wry, slightly off-kilter and always returning to the theme of parent and child, the kind of subject matter that offers Galloway the chance to delve once more into the murky depths of human relationships.’ – Kaite Welsh

Scots Whay Hae! Best Books of 2015:
‘Janice Galloway has always been an innovative and playful writer, but never to the detriment of her prose… JELLYFISH is a timely reminder that she is one of the finest writers around. Each story, each sentence, is beautifully crafted by someone who cares enough to take such care… If you read a better book than Jellyfish this year you are a very lucky person indeed.’

THE NEED FOR BETTER REGULATION OF OUTER SPACE by Pippa Goldschmidt

Alice Thompson, The Herald:
‘In these stories, the powerful juxtaposition of scientific intellect and emotional frailty is played out engagingly. The stories also imply no matter how objective scientific genius is, the scientists themselves, like the rest of us, are subject to moral failings.’

YOU ARE DEAD by Peter James

Guardian Best Crime and Thriller books of 2015:
‘Peter James showed that a diversion this year into ghost stories with THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL had not diverted energy from his consistently impressive sequence of DS Roy Grace policiers, the 11th of which, YOU ARE DEAD (Macmillan), confidently combines a cold case with a very hot one.’

THE LAST PILOT by Benjamin Johncock

Isabella Costello Literary Sofa ‘My Year in Books’:
‘Ben Johncock’s debut has all the things I love about American fiction and he’s not even American. Gorgeous spare prose, authentic sense of time and place, a poignant story told with sensitivity and restraint – I have raved about this book so much it’s embarrassing.’

Reading Groups’ Staff Picks for 2015:
‘With echoes of Tom Wolfe’s THE RIGHT STUFF and Richard Yates’ REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, THE LAST PILOT re-ignites the thrill and excitement of the space race through the story of one man’s courage in the face of unthinkable loss.’

Ian Rankin’s End of Year Roundup

Utter Biblio, Top 10 of 2015

ICARUS by Deon Meyer

Financial Times’ Crime Books of the Year

Boston Globe's Best Mystery Books of 2015:
‘An ashleymadison.com-style website-related murder and a parallel plot that delves into the dregs of South Africa’s wine industry keep Benny Griessel and his cadre of Cape Town coppers on their toes.’

GREEN LION by Henrietta Rose-Innes

Ben Williams, Fiona Snyckers & Jennifer Malec, Sunday Times SA Best book of 2015:
‘And if readers missed Henrietta Rose-Innes’s GREEN LION (Umuzi) … they’d best not let 2015 expire without acquainting themselves’ – Ben Williams

‘Rose-Innes goes from strength to strength, refining her craft with each new book.’ – Fiona Snyckers

‘Masterful’ – Jennifer Malec

THE FOLLY by Ivan Vladislavic

Flavorwire’s 15 Worthwhile Books You Might Have Missed in 2015:
‘Praised by the likes of Coetzee and others — it’s not hard to see why…’

101 DETECTIVES by Ivan Vladislavic

Michelle Magwood, Jennifer Malec & Sophie Kohler Sunday Times SA Best book of 2015:
‘Mordantly funny, acutely perceptive and exquisitely styled, this collection of short stories is a definitive showcase of Vladislavic’s talents.’ – Michelle Magwood

‘Witty, enthralling and pleasurably disorientating.’ – Jennifer Malec

‘The stories are bewildering in their refusal to provide a clear resolution, but this is to their credit, in that each leaves a mystery to be solved.’ – Sophie Kohler

THE A WONG COOKBOOK by Andrew Wong

 Rose Prince, Spectator Best New Cookery Books 2015:
‘There is food in A Wong: The Cookbook (Mitchell Beazley, £25) for home cooks, but it is also a chef’s book. May every aspiring one buy it. If they did, Chinese food in Britain would go through a true revolution.’

Observer 25 best food books 2015:
‘At his Pimlico restaurant, Wong is keen to prove that Chinese food can be just as considered as other, more revered cuisines.’

DEON MEYER’S ICARUS – US PUBLICATION, INTERNATIONAL DEALS

In the week of the US publication of ICARUS by Grove Atlantic, we’re celebrating a plethora of new deals for international bestselling author Deon Meyer, with translation rights sold to Le Seuil in France, Aufbau in Germany, Bruna in Holland, Edizioni E/O in Italy and Tiden Norsk in Norway.  ICARUS has already been published in SA, by NB books (where it earned widespread recognition by holding on to the top spot of charts for several weeks and selling over 40,000 copies) and Hodder in the UK, with amazing reviews including those listed below.  

Deon Meyer will be attending the Frankfurt Book Fair before embarking on a 10-city European tour throughout Germany (where several events have already sold out) and then on to Prague, Cracow and Warsaw. He was also in Italy at the Salerno Crime Festival this summer, where he was warmly received. You can check details of Deon’s events on his website. 

This novel witnesses the return of Benny Griessel, struggling to stay sober, and bruised by a policeman friend’s terrible suicide. Yet the discovery of a body buried beneath the sand dunes north of Cape Town will test his willpower even further. Why was notorious Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech startup, Alibi targeted? How exactly is a service that creates false appointments, documents and phone calls to enable people to cheat on their partners, linked to this high profile murder? With all eyes on Benny’s pursuit to uncover the truth, he will battle not just to track down the killer, but against the siren call of the whiskey bottle as well.

Deon Meyer lives in Cape Town. His books are published in 27 countries, and have been awarded many prizes around the world: the Deutsche Krimi Prize in Germany, the ATKV Prize in South Africa, and Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. His novel THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA International Dagger, and HEART OF THE HUNTER, was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Prize and selected as one of Chicago Tribune's '10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004'. Most recently, COBRA was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger.

 Praise for ICARUS:

‘Deon Meyer, who writes in Afrikaans, has long been hailed as South Africa's greatest crime writer. ICARUS places him firmly in the top international league. It's the fifth, and best, of the Benny Griessel series... One of Meyer's strengths is his ability to portray lesser characters with as much attention as he pays to central ones... Meyer scores also in his sensitive portrayals of the social and racial elements of a South Africa still struggling to find its equilibrium.’ – Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘Deon Meyer’s South Africa is laid bare in ICARUS […] it is as glittering and hard as the diamonds his country is famous for. […] Meyer utilises the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country.’ – The Independent

‘Excellent … The richness of the characters, especially the multifaceted Benny, elevates this above most contemporary police procedurals.’ – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Visit Deon's website here.

Follow Deon on Twitter.