Posted by: Cassandra Sadek - Marketing Manager, Digital Specialist, Random House of Canada

Reading by moonlight while waiting for The Great Pumpkin? Face your fears this Halloween with a bestseller (and a bag of chocolate!).

If you fear… a missing child:
Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay

Seventeen-year-old Sydney Blake’s summer is shaping up to be typical for a teenager: she’s spending it with her father, and she has landed a part-time job at a local hotel. One night, Syd fails to come home from her shift, and her father Tim is a bit alarmed. However, that alarm turns to full-on panic after he visits the Just Inn Time hotel and the manager claims that Syd has never worked there… more

If you fear… a pack of werewolves:
Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns with the tenth installment of the Women of the Otherworld series.

The Alaskan wilderness is a harsh landscape in the best of conditions, but with a pack of rogue werewolves on the loose, it’s downright deadly. Elena Michaels, the Pack’s chief enforcer, knows all too well the havoc “mutts” can wreak. When they hear of a series of gruesome maulings and murders outside Anchorage, she and her husband, Clay, journey to Alaska in the dead of winter in order to hunt down the dangerous werewolves… more

If you fear… a body under water:
The Taken by Inger Ash Wolfe

In the second mystery novel featuring D.I. Hazel Micallef (after The Calling) is still recovering from back surgery when a report comes in that a body has been found in a nearby lake, snagged under several feet of water. But as D.C. Wingate says, the whole thing is way too eerie. The first installment of a story has just been published in the local paper: a passage that describes in detail just such a discovery. Real life is far too close to fiction for coincidence… more

If you fear… an arranged murder:
Breathless by Dean Koontz

In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificent Irish wolfhound Merlin step from shadow into light…and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady’s isolated home, waiting to make their approach… more

If you fear… a ghost story:
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Another brilliant, original and moving novel from the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical “mirror” twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin… more

Discover your next great (spooky) read at BookLounge.ca.

Posted by: Maylin Scott - Asstistant Manger, Library & Academic Sales

Some of the greatest movies ever made have been inspired by mystery and crime novels. One has only to think of Howard Hawks’ adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, John Huston’s take on Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon or Billy Wilder’s rendition of James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity. And I’ll include Carol Reed’s The Third Man in this list, even if Graham Greene’s novella was published after the movie came out (he was writing the screenplay at the same time).  In honour of TIFF, here are some lesser known and foreign films worth checking out (almost all are available on DVD).

If you like film noir, then rent 1948’s The Big Clock, directed by John Farrow, based on the novel by Kenneth Fearing in which our main character is ordered to find the main suspect in a murder case – which turns out to be himself.  Or from the great German director Fritz Lang, there is 1941’s Man Hunt based on the novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household in which a man accused of an attempted assassination on Hitler is hunted down by the Germans in a dark and foggy London. 

Many French directors have played homage to American noir and a favourite is Francois Truffault’s Shoot the Piano Player based on the novel by David Goodis. It’s a stylish spoof on the gangster movie with a great performance from crooner Charles Aznavour. The French are also great at adapting thrillers.  There’s a terrific cast including Kristin Scott Thomas, in Guillame Canet’s adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Tell No One (look for the author to make a tiny cameo in the film). And if you liked Antony Minghella’s version of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, then you must watch René Clément’s 1960 version Plein Soleil (Purple Noon is the English title), starring Alain Delon and Maurice Ronet.  This more closely follows the book and answers the question of what Minghella’s movie might have looked like if Jude Law had played Ripley instead of Matt Damon. Cult favourite Jim Thompson has had many of his novels adapted, but Coup de Torchon, directed by Bertrand Tavernier, and based on the novel Pop. 1280 , takes a small town American sheriff and transports him to French West Africa.

And finally for the more traditional mystery reader, see what happens when famed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar takes on Ruth Rendell’s Live Flesh, in his 1997 movie Carne Trémula, or when Iceland’s Baltasar Kormákur films his country’s most famous moody detective, Erlendur in Jar City, based on the novel by Arnaldur Indridason. This is currently only available on DVD in the U.K. so you’ll need a multi-region player but fingers crossed it releases soon in North America.

Oh! Watch for Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of The Killer Inside Me coming out next year.

Click here for a list of other great books that have been made into movies.

Posted by: Michelle Wan - author of the Death in the Dordogne mystery series

Researching a book on location in France is more than it’s cracked open to be. I say “cracked open” because you start with a Fabergé egg - the jeweled prospect of a long-term stay in France where you will write The Book (call it the omelette). Give the fragile shell of irreality a tap and a Bruegelesque scenario spills out. Example: flight Toronto-Paris, dog in hold, smooth. Train to Bordeaux not too stressful. Bordeaux train station awful because Bordeaux station is all stairs, no trolleys, and Tim and I have 4 large bags, an immense dog crate, 2 backpacks, 1 dog who needs to pee, and only minutes to make connection to Le Buisson. Arrival at final destination hell because first thing dog does on entering house is eat rat poison. We make him vomit (all over livingroom carpet). Max’s fecal matter is neon orange for the next few days, but no lasting damage.

When we try to open bank and internet accounts, situation goes from hell to Helleresque. Can’t get internet without bank account. Can’t get bank account without proof of residence (utility bills). Don’t have utility bills because house belongs to my sister who lives in California. Eventually a compassionate bank employee breaks the deadlock. Now we’re clicking, life is good, sun is shining (weather lousy in Ontario, we hear). Sun shining through magnifying glass burns a hole in my desk. Two day before my sister arrives, dishwasher, oven, fridge and phone die. We attend an outdoor theatre presentation. It is washed out by a powerful storm. As we drive back in a monsoon, avoiding fallen trees, someone accidentally powers down all the car windows. Back at house, electricity is out, and the kitchen is flooded. My sister puts gas in her diesel rental car.

When I’m not dealing with detours, if not outright road blocks (i.e., life), I do my book research. I realize that one does not have to know French to speak French. You can say, for example: “Regardez les pompom girls en blue-jeans qui mangent les chips au ketchup,” and you will be perfectly understood. On site, Tim and I hike the scrubby plateau of Gramat Causse and the foothills of the Pays Basque, spend time in the High Pyrenees, surrounded by splendid peaks, pure air, mountain livestock and dizzying switchback roads. You are warned when you enter tunnels to watch out for cows, who like the shade. They’re there all right, lying about, not inclined to move, eyes glowing trustingly in your headlights. Back in the Dordogne the hedgerows are full of sweet plums and blackberries. The trees are heavy with golden fruit. Tim and I are putting on weight (all that gastronomic research), and Max has become a thoroughly French dog (everyone calls him Maxsou, he is welcome everywhere and has developed his own star rating of restaurants). I am aware that existence here is secure, tranquil, and deeply satisfying. Guess I’d better get busy creating a murder or two.

Posted by: Gail Bowen - author of the Joanne Kilbourn series

The Derrick Murdoch Award, awarded for ‘contributions to Canadian Crime Writing’ is one of those ‘lifetime achievement’ awards that makes the recipient check her pulse to make certain she’s still in the land of the living. Well, I am, and glad of it. I’m also glad to have received this particular award because it’s encouraged me to reflect on the changes in Canadian crime writing since my first Joanne Kilbourn novel appeared in 1990.

When Deadly Appearances was published there was an advertisement promoting Canadian crime writers. It consisted of mug shots of writers like Howard Engel, Eric Wright, Medora Sales and Alison Gordon. I think perhaps the total number of writers represented was ten. I would love to see a similar ad promoting Canadian crime writing today - not just because our numbers have grown exponentially, but because those mug shots would reveal some significant facts about us as Canadian crime writers. We are a diverse group: male and female; gay and straight; young and old; rural and urban. We come from widely divergent ethnic and religious backgrounds. We are from every part of Canada and we write about every part of Canada. Collectively, we give the world a significant literary picture of what it means to be a Canadian in the year 2009. That is no small achievement.

When Derrick Murdock, after whom the award is named, began reviewing crime fiction for The Globe and Mail, the books that came across his desk were primarily written about places other than Canada. This is no longer the case. To write simply about Canadians and Canada would be parochial and impoverishing but not to write about ourselves would be to contribute to the problem Margaret Atwood identified in her seminal work, Survival. In that book she used a powerful metaphor to illustrate the need for a national literature. Atwood asked what would happen to a person who every morning looked into a mirror and was given back a reflection of someone other than herself.

Through our work, Canadian crime writers have given readers here and throughout the world images of the Canadian identity in all its diversity and vibrancy. This, too, is no small achievement.

In the almost two decades since my first book was published, perceptions about the calibre of Canadian crime fiction have changed radically. When my second novel Murder at the Mendel was published in 1991, I appeared on a panel with a number of other academics. Our topic, if I remember correctly, was “Do Mysteries Matter?” The consensus seemed to be that they did not. One of my sister panellists said that she regarded women who wrote crime fiction as akin to the 19th century women who painted china. She believed that neither those 19th century china-painting women nor 20th century mystery-writing women had the courage required to attack the big canvas or the serious novel.

Canadian crime writers are no longer regarded as practitioners of a lesser art. Our books are now on the curricula of universities throughout the world. Theses and learned papers are written about us, and we are regularly reviewed and discussed by thoughtful readers who value our contribution to literature.

Last week I received an email from two young female academics asking if I would write an introduction to a book of essays on Canadian Detective Fiction. The book will be published by Wilfred Laurier Press, a publisher of serious and handsome books. The young academics made a point of noting that their book will be “the first in the field”. In my opinion, it’s about time.

Posted by: Dinah Forbes - Executive Editor, McClelland & Stewart

On October 21, the coldest night of the fall so far, Peter Robinson’s fans and admirers bravely fought through a few tiny flakes of snow to pack into the Crush Wine Bar in downtown Toronto for a terrific birthday bash. It wasn’t the author’s birthday, and it wasn’t exactly the birthday of his hugely popular detective, DCI Alan Banks, but it was the twenty-first birthday of Banks’s first appearance in fiction. He is such a real character and has grown and changed so authentically over the course of the eighteen novels in which he features that it seemed odd he wasn’t there in person to blow out the candles on his chocolate birthday cake.

Spotted in the crowd were crime-fiction writers José Latour, Howard Shrier, and Rick Blechta; IFOA impresario Geoff Taylor; Martin Levin, books editor at The Globe and Mail, and several women I cannot name who would have loved to meet an off-duty Alan Banks in person. All of them were also there to celebrate the publication of All the Colours of Darkness, Peter’s latest Inspector Banks novel, and were delighted to meet the author, who spent much of the party in the corner, trying to avoid the gaze of an eight-foot tall poster of himself and autographing copies of the new novel for a line-up of fans.

Posted by: Alexander McCall Smith - Author of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

This is Part 2 of Alexander McCall Smith’s March newsletter. You can catch up with Part 1 here.

The main book news is that volume nine in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has now been published in the UK (and in some other countries, including Australia) and will shortly be published in the USA and Canada. The Miracle at Speedy Motors takes us back to the everyday world of Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi. There are anonymous letters flying around, and there will be no prizes for guessing who is writing them. And Mr J. L. B. Matekoni gets an idea into his head again — but Mma Ramotswe is, as usual, tolerant and understanding. Mma Makutsi continues to be engaged to Mr Phuti Radiphuti (when will they get married?).

While Mma Ramotswe leads her eventful life in Gaborone, I lead my own life here in Scotland. I am currently working on volume five in the Isabel Dalhousie series, and hope to finish that novel shortly after Easter. Volume five of the Scotland Street series has also just been finished, and will be published in hardback in the UK in July under the title The Unbearable Lightness of Scones.

In April I go to the USA for a lengthy tour (the details of which are set out below). I have just completed a German tour for my German publishers, in which I went to Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig. Readers of the von Igelfeld series may be interested to know that in Hamburg I visited my old friend, Professor Dr Dr (honoris causa) (mult) Reinhard Zimmermann, who plays a part — as himself — in the books.

I also recently visited Paris and Madrid. In Paris I gave a talk at the American School and also in the residence of the American Ambassador. The Paris trip was organised by my American lecture agent, Steven Barclay, who does a lot to support the American School. He hosted a dinner for my wife and me, my New York agent, Robin Straus and her husband, Joseph Kanon (the novelist) and David Sedaris. Those of you who are not familiar with David’s work should look into it — he is very, very funny, even if his humour sometimes requires a strong stomach (he tells very funny stories about boils and other human difficulties).

I shall be in Botswana in June. I am involved in the setting up of a very small opera house there — the No. 1 Ladies’ Opera House. I shall write more about that in the next newsletter — in the meantime, I send you my warmest best wishes. And I hope that you enjoy The Miracle at Speedy Motors.

Posted by: Alexander McCall Smith - Author of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

This is an excerpt from Alexander McCall Smith’s newsletter. You can visit his website here.

Last night I went to the premiere showing in London of the film version of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. It was a bitter-sweet occasion: that very morning the director of the film, Anthony Minghella, that good and kind man, died in hospital from complications following an operation. We were all shocked by this sad news: Minghella was the United Kingdom’s most distinguished film director and The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is now his last film.

As I am sure you can imagine, I felt very sad. Anthony had been planning for years to make the film. I had complete confidence in him — indeed, I counted myself most fortunate that it was he who was going to make the film. And now this. And yet we must remind ourselves that the film he has made is a wonderful, joyous hymn of praise to Botswana and to Mma Ramotswe. Everything in it is perfect. The actors and actresses are just right: wait until you see Mma Ramotswe, Mr J. L. B. Matekoni and Mma Makutsi — each one of them is just exactly as he or she should be! And the whole film is permeated by love. The film is a stand-alone feature film that was designed to set up a subsequent television series. It will be shown on television stations throughout the world, but may also be shown in some theatres. We await news on that. But there is very important news on the television front: HBO in the United States and the BBC in the UK have teamed up to commission a thirteen-part television series which will start to be filmed in mid- to late-2008 and will be shown in the USA, the UK and throughout the world in early 2009. This is wonderful news indeed, and it came in time for Anthony Minghella to enjoy it. (I am not sure, by the way, when the film will be shown in the USA: I think that it will be shown by HBO closer to the time that they begin the series.) Anthony Minghella was a great man who brought happiness and a very humane vision to this world. I feel very happy that he loved Mma Ramotswe, and I know that she would have loved him.

Posted by: Alexander McCall Smith - Author of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

Here is the final excerpt from Alexander McCall Smith’s latest newsletter, with some updates on his latest projects.

During February, Scottish Opera will be performing part of the opera on which I have been working with Stephen Deazley, a composer, and Ben Twist, a dramatist. This will be part of a programme they are doing in which they are performing several works in progress, one of them being ours. It is based on my book Dream Angus. Also in February, I am going to Paris for a few days to do an event at the American School there. This has been arranged by my lecture agent in the USA, Steven Barclay, who has a strong connection with that school. Steven is great company and I look forward to being in Paris as his guest. I then go for a few days to Spain to do press interviews for my Spanish-language publishers.

In February the UK paperback edition of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive will be published. March sees the publication in the UK and elsewhere of the next Mma Ramotswe book, The Miracle at Speedy Motors, which will come out in the USA and Canada in April. In March I shall be doing a number of events in the UK and a tour of Germany for my German publishers. The details of these events will be on the website. In April I look forward to a major American tour, starting in New York and heading off in every direction thereafter. Those tours are pretty tiring, as they take me across the entire country and involve numerous flights. But they are really rewarding too, as they give me the opportunity to meet many readers of the books and I count that as a great privilege. Indeed I am very much aware of the fact that these books have given me a very great privilege in this life—that of being part of a prolonged conversation with many people throughout the world. Not a day goes past but that I think about the pleasure that that has brought me and how fortunate I am to have had that opportunity. So thank you for that. Thank you.

Finally: news of the film. It is now fully edited—the music put in etc. I have not yet seen it, but am told that it is stunning (I have seen a few excerpts). Jill Scott, who plays Mma Ramostwe, has done a really great job, as have the other actors. We will let you know when we have concrete news of when it can be seen.

Alexander McCall Smith

Posted by: Alexander McCall Smith - Author of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

This is the third of a series of excerpts from Alexander McCall Smith’s newsletter. We’re rejoining him in Sri Lanka.

My wife and I also went to lunch with Geoffrey Dobbs on the tiny island that he has about twenty yards off the beach. You wade to it and are presented with a towel when you arrive on the other side. Geoffrey explained to me that when the tsunami hit he was actually swimming in the sea off the island. He was swept away, but a fisherman threw him a line eventually and he lived to tell the tale.

Back to Scotland for a week and then, I’m afraid, I set off again, this time to Florida, to carry out two public events. The first of these was in Lakeland, which is an attractive town near Tampa. I spoke at Florida Southern College there, and signed books afterwards. As always in the United States, I encountered great kindness and generosity, and had a very enjoyable dinner in an ancient Mexican restaurant with two professors of English, Mary Pharr and her husband Donald. They are close readers of the Scotland Street series and we got on extremely well.

On to Palm Beach, where I addressed the Four Arts Society and did a signing. Palm Beach is quite a place—very fashionable indeed, and I am happy to report that the ladies there do a good line in very large hats. I had lunch with the Director and the Librarian from the Society and at a neighbouring table there was a Palm Beach lady wearing a hat which was as large as the table at which she was sitting. Again the warmth and kindness of the audience was remarkable.

Now I am back in Scotland and hard at work again on the Isabel Dalhousie novel. In fact, it’s going very well and I hope to finish it this month. I have just written a scene in which Eddie, Cat’s assistant at the delicatessen, has tried out his newly acquired skills as hypnotist on Jamie—with unexpected results. Sometimes when I am writing I find that I burst out laughing. It must sound rather sinister to anybody else in the house to hear laughter coming from a room containing only one person.

Scotland Street is also going well. I should finish volume five in that series this month. Poor Bertie. His mother has arranged psychotherapy with a new psychotherapist and is also going to go to cub scout camp with him. Matthew and Elspeth Harmony are back from their honeymoon in Australia, and Domenica has recovered the stolen Spode tea cup from her neighbour’s flat (there is, however a complication in that plot-line.)

Posted by: Alexander McCall Smith - Author of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

We left Alexander McCall Smith last week in Sri Lanka—this week we’re catching up with him at the Galle Literary Festival.

The Galle Literary Festival was founded by a very good man called Geoffrey Dobbs. Geoffrey spent much of his business career in Hong Kong before he ended up in Sri Lanka, where he set up a number of hotels. When the tsunami hit Sri Lanka he devoted a great deal of his time and energy to setting up a charity to help get the Galle region back on its feet, and he has done great and good work in that respect. He has been tireless in working for the benefit of people who lost everything in that disaster, and he is much appreciated in the country as a result.

But he is not one to sit about and, as well as being one of the inventors of the new sport of elephant polo, he decided that a literary festival would not only draw visitors to the region and help out in that way but that it would add substantially to the cultural life of Sri Lanka. And it has done exactly that. It is one of the most enjoyable literary festivals I have ever attended and I can thoroughly recommend to anybody who wants to spend a holiday in that part of the world to go to the festival as part of the trip. The next one will be in January 2009: details will be available on their website.

Who was there? As well as major figures from Sri Lanka, which has a lively literary tradition, international visitors included Gore Vidal, William Dalrymple (a friend of mine who writes books on Indian history) and Vikram Seth (with whom I share an editor in London). There were several remarkable parties and—this being a very important feature of the festival—a number of lunches and dinners where readers could choose to sit down to a meal with the writer of their choice. Those were wonderful, as they gave everybody a chance to meet a writer whose work they were interested in. I had an extremely enjoyable dinner attended by about sixty people, where I was able to speak personally to everybody and where we were treated to a superb meal by a famous Australian chef.

Posted by: Alexander McCall Smith - Author of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive

This is the first of a series of excerpts from Alexander McCall Smith’s newsletter. You can also visit his website, here.

January and February are months that I devote to writing and try to ensure that I have as few disturbances as possible. In theory. In practice, although this is a relatively quiet period, I have found that there have been several diversions, with more to come. Fortunately the business of finishing the next Isabel Dalhousie novel is going well, in spite of various other commitments.

The first of these was a trip to Sri Lanka to attend the second Galle Literary Festival. I have never been to Sri Lanka before, although I have been several times to India and have visited a number of other countries in the region. (Thailand and Singapore are both favourites of mine.) So the invitation to speak at the Galle Festival was one I was very keen to accept, even if it did fall in what should be a quiet period at home. I justified the whole thing to myself by saying that I would spend ten days writing there before the festival itself started, and that is, in fact, what I did. My wife and I established ourselves in a small, quiet hotel in the Old Fort at Galle (the Galle Fort Hotel) and every morning I wrote about Isabel Dalhousie while my wife read, swam, and saw the sights.

Sri Lanka is a gem of a country. We were in the southern part and did not visit the central area, which is hilly and where much of the tea is grown. That we shall do on our next visit—and I certainly intend to go back. Galle itself is a very old town that used to be a Portuguese and Dutch settlement before the British occupied it. These layers of history are all still in evidence, and one still comes across Portuguese and Dutch names in contemporary Sri Lankan families. The people, by the way, are particularly charming and make the visitor feel exceptionally welcome. It is a lovely place to visit, my only note of caution being this: you will not be able to visit the north and north-east until the tragic war which has simmered away there for so many years is finally brought to an end. The people I spoke to about this seemed to be universally distressed and despondent that the hostilities are proving so long-lived, and they all expressed anxiety about the ending of the ceasefire.

Posted by: Val Gow - Imprint Sales Director

The nice thing about summer books is being able to introduce those quirky novels that might get lost in the larger fall season. This summer Doubleday Canada will publish two books that definitely fit the category of perfect seasonal reads. Recently I recommended two to our sales team that I thought I’d mention here.

Fresh: Mark McNay’s debut novel that is exactly that - fresh. Quirky, compelling, and set in a poultry slaughter house in Scotland, this is a book that will grab you immediately. Even though it is written in a thick Scottish accent and features a liberal dose of regional slang, it’s easy to understand the universal frustrations that young Sean (the protagonist) faces while trying to make his way in the world. The best parts of the book are those that contrast the gritty reality of a dead-end life with the loving heart that beats in even the most despicable character. And to make it even more appealing, it has just been announced that Fresh has won a U.K. Arts Foundation Award for New Fiction!

Three Bags Full: Billed as a ‘sheep mystery’ (as it is set in a flock of sheep), Leonie Swan’s debut novel has already won fans in both our Mississauga and Toronto offices. Give it a try I think you will be impressed.

An unforgettable cast of characters (the sheep), try to solve the murder of their beloved shepherd, and in the process they learn a lot about humans and their eccentric ways. I was immediately drawn into the mystery and I quickly believed that the animals were capable of thought and emotions. And I never felt betrayed by the interesting device of problem-solving sheep. I don’t want to give away the murderer but certainly all of the human suspects have motive enough to kill George, and even some of the flock are suspects, for a time…