22 Feb
1937 Jilly Cooper was born Hornchurch, London in 1937. One of the original 'Bonk-buster' authors her novel, including Riders published in 1985 and went on to be international best-seller as part of her Rutshire Chronicles. Read Jilly Cooper novels
Read the opening extract of the brand new Tony Lynch book before its publication on 21/03/2012
If you like crime writing then find out more about the best international crime writers as chosen by our resident crime expert Maxim Jakubowski
Featured Books
The Stronger Sex Hans Werner Kettenbach
A young lawyer is brought in to defend a case of wrongful dismissal against a despotic, wheelchair bound industrialist by his younger former mistress and becomes attracted to his wife. German veteran Kettenbach often reminds the reader of Patricia Highsmith... Format: Paperback - Released: 10/03/2011
Tattoo Manuel Vazquez Montalban
Pepe Carvalho, ex-cop, ex-marxist and constant gourmet, is working as a private detective in Barcelona, when a body is pulled out of the sea, its face so badly destroyed that the only way of identifying it is through a tattoo... Format: Paperback - Released: 21/08/2008
Death in August Marco Vichi
Bestsellers in Italy, the Inspector Bordelli mysteries finally reach us here. Set in Florence in the 1960s, they feature a fascinating cop and disillusioned anti-hero who rails against both injustice and the corrupt system but faces classic murder cases with... Format: Hardback - Released: 09/06/2011
The Hypnotist Lars Kepler
When a whole family is murdered in Stockholm, Inspector Joona Linna is brought in to investigate the murky case and soon uncovers an unsettling connection to disgraced hypnotist and medic Erik Maria Bark. With uber-villains in the Thomas Harris mould... Format: Hardback - Released: 12/05/2011
Affairs of State Dominique Manotti
A past winner of Crime Writers' Association International Dagger, French author Manotti's crime books invariably focus on the injustice in contemporary society and the corruption that ensues. Her latest novel to be translated is a tale of intrigue and corruption... Format: Paperback - Released: 01/12/2009
Black Heart Mike Nicol
Although written in English (unlike his compatriot Deon Meyer who writes in Afrikaans), Nicol's Cape Town-set series of thrillers are as much a total immersion into an alien environment for an English reader. This is the final volume in the... Format: Paperback - Released: 22/03/2011
Three Seconds Anders Roslund, Borge Hellstrom
One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
Winner of the CWA International Dagger 2011.
Further explorations of the dark side of Swedish society with a particularly brutal and vivid touch. An undercover cop is sent to a high... Format: Paperback - Released: 03/02/2011
The Wings of the Sphinx Andrea Camilleri
Shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger 2011.
Already the eleventh volume available in English of the Inspector Montalbano Sicily-set series which is rapidly becoming an acquired taste for the Anglo-Saxon reader (and might even prove more popular should the TV series... Format: Paperback - Released: 03/06/2011
A Death in Calabria Michele Giuttari
Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara works for the Anti-Mafia Investigation Department (not unlike Giuttari himself who ran the Florence Police Force until 2003) and his cases take him all over Italy. The series has taken him so far to Florence and... Format: Paperback - Released: 02/06/2011
The Gigolo Murder A Hop-Ciki-Yaya Thriller Mehmet Murat Somer
Devastated by the end of her relationship, our heroine swaps her catsuit for pyjamas and hides away from the world. But her friends from the nightclub refuse to let her waste away in self-pity and drag her out to make... Format: Paperback - Released: 27/08/2009
Following the overwhelming success of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander novels, Nordic crime fiction is now all the rage. Both the Wallander novels by Henning Mankell and the Harry Hole investigations by Jo Nesbo are fast following in their footsteps in the bestseller lists, while a cohort of other Scandinavian mystery writers are all queuing at the gates.
Karin Fossum, Anne Holt (Norway), Arnaldur Indridason, Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Iceland), Asa Larsson, Ake Edwardson, Camilla Ceder, Mari Jungstedt, Johan Theorin, Hakan Nesser, Camilla Lackberg, Liza Marklund (Sweden), Leif Davidsen (Denmark) being the most prominent but still the tip of a mighty iceberg. However welcome this new-found interest in foreign culture and crime is, it should not obscure the fact that, outside Scandinavia, there also exists a wonderful flowering of crime fiction in other languages.
These are some of the other 'bloody foreigners' I would recommend you looking out for. None of them require a passport; just a taste for good plotting and mighty thrills.
Below is Maxim Jakubowski's list of International Crime authors. Click the author name to read his comment.
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