Your favourite... crime fiction

Over on Facebook and Twitter, we've been grilling folk on their favourite books/authors - but doing so genre by genre. First up it was crime fiction, followed by science fiction a couple of nights ago. Keep an eye out for more discussions coming soon.

The feedback for both crime and science fiction was superb - so much so, that rather than lose all the ideas after the threads become old hat, we thought we'd gather the suggestions for each genre on the blog. So first up, crime fiction - here are the books/authors who got under people's skin:

• CJ Sansom for his historical crime fiction, such as Dissolution
• Richard Wright - Native Son
• Caleb Carr - The Alienist/Angel of Darkness
• Patritica Highsmith - Ripley Novels
• Kate Atkinson
• Susannah Gregory - Matthew Bartholomew books
• Agatha Christie
• James Lee Burke
• Elizabeth George
• Karen Maitland
• Ariana Franklin
• Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
• George Pelecanos
• Megan Abbott
• John Connolly - Charlie Parker series
• James Ellroy
• Peter James - 'dead' series, with detective Roy Grace
• Jeffrey Deaver - Lincoln Rhyme novels
• Jonathan & Faye Kellerman - LA-based books
• Stieg Larrson - Millennium trilogy
• Jo Nesbo - Harry Hole books
• Henning Mankell
• Peter Robinson - Inspector Banks books
• David Peace - Nineteen Seventy-Seven
• Michael Connelly - Harry Bosch books
• Jeff Lindsay - Dexter series
• Nick Stone - Max Mingus trilogy
• Ruth Rendell
• George Simenon - non-Maigret novels, Stain in the Snow, The Blue Room, Traffic Lights
• Didier Daeninckx - only two books in translation - Murder In Memoriam/A Very Profitable War
• Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - Martin Beck books
• And, of course, Ian Rankin
• Last, but not least, George Bellairs - Half-mast for the Deemster...

As you can see, a diverse spread of authors and books there. Of those 33 named, I've read work by just nine of them - and I consider myself a crime fiction fan. Just goes to show, there's so much talent out there, it's a tough job keeping up as a reader.

Check out the list, follow the links and hope you find a some new good reads.


Cheers
JohnQ

Manx Litfest 2012 - dates to be confirmed soon

In our last post, we mentioned a little matter of announcing the dates for the first ever Manx Litfest. Well, we're close now - but not quite there yet.

What we can say is that we've narrowed it down to September 2012, providing the weekends we are looking at during that month can accommodate us. We're fairly confident though, and would hope to be able to confirm the dates within the next couple of weeks following a meeting with the Isle of Man Arts Council.

You should also hear some news about the winner of our logo comp, which we're again aiming to firm up during the next few weeks.

In other news, our legal supporter Appleby Isle of Man is drawing up the relevant paperwork to officially register Manx Litfest as a company with charitable status, and that should come to fruition within the next couple of months.

Finally in this quick update - if you're not following us on Facebook or Twitter, please feel free to do so and help spread the word about what we're trying to achieve.

More news coming soon...

Cheers
JohnQ