Crime Fiction Grab Bag, No. 2

The weekend's coming, which means it's time for another crime fiction grab bag here on The Overnight Bestseller, where we share links to the latest tidbits from our favorite genre.

Crime fiction author Michael Connelly has won the 2012 Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction with The Fifth Witness, which features Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller. The selection committee included Linda Fairstein, Condoleezza Rice, and Lisa Scottoline. Read about it here.
   
The Sabotage Times (whose motto is "We Can't Concentrate So Why Should You?") provides an interview with J.J. Connolly, who riffs on his latest novel, Viva La Madness, the long-awaited sequel to the black comedy gangster novel Layer Cake, the film version of which stars Daniel Craig.

Crime Time informs us that Harvill Secker has acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights for A Treacherous Paradise, the new novel by Henning Mankell. Translated by Laurie Thompson, it will be published in June 2013.

Still on a Scandinavian theme, since that region continues to be a hotspot for crime fiction, Wired UK offers six tips on how to write your own Nordic thriller, as suggested by Barry Forshaw, author of Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction. Delightfully tongue-in-cheek, they cover characterization, amount of bloodshed, and of course, an appropriately cold setting. (Where's the Canadian equivalent, folks? Who's up for that one?)

Finally, at the bottom of the bag this week, we pull out from CNN an amusing article suggesting travel destinations for crime fiction lovers wanting to check out the settings of their favorite crime fiction novels. Locales include: Baltimore; Brattleboro, Vermont; Edinburgh, Scotland; Gaborone, Botswana; and, inevitably, Sweden.

Enjoy, and see you next time!