Notes

By: Peter Rozovsky

Detectives Beyond Border

Does Nordic crime leave you cold? Do you like your beach reading sandy rather than Scandi? The sun better than lots of guys named -sson?

Maybe you prefer your protagonists heat-baked and lethargic rather than shivering and morose? Or perhaps you want your crime fiction to do more than rip away the gleaming facade of the welfare state to reveal the hypocrisy that lies beneath. If so, boy, do have the crime fiction collection for you.

Sunshine Noir hits e-readers near you next week and bookstores in mid-September. If you’re going to Bouchercon 2016 in New Orleans, you just might find some copies there.

Annamaria Alfieri and Michael Stanley put the volume together, and the book includes stories by Robert Wilson, Jason Goodwin, Colin Cotterill, Paul Hardisty, Nick Sweet, Leye Adenle, Susan Froetschel,Greg Herren, Barbara Nadel, Richie Narvaez, Tamar Myers, Kwei Quartey, Ovidia Yu, Timothy Williams, and Jeffrey Siger, plus a word from Tim Hallinan and, in the British edition, from Peter James.

I’m in there, too; I wrote the book’s introduction, a little thing I called “Clime Fiction.” I quite like it, and I hope you’ll enjoy it, too, along with some pretty good stories.

Having just completed this novel, which I came across by chance, I reached for information about the author. Timothy Williams, b. 1946, now teaches in Guadeloupe [the scene of his French books featuring Judge Anne Marie Laveaud]. He has also written five books featuring the morose Commissario Piero Trotti between 1982–96, this being the last.

I am an avid reader of the novels of the late Michael Dibdin and Magdalen Nabb [both born just a year after Williams] and Donna Leon, as well as the many books by authors of translated books involving Italian detectives. As I read on enthralled, my wonder grew that I had never come across Williams or this character before.

Read more here

Here’s what happened at this year’s Storymoja Festival in Nairobi, in pictures.

 

More..

Catch Timothy Williams at the What’s Your Poison? Summer Crime Party at Heffers in July.

Date: 16 July 2015

Time: From 18:30 to 20:00 (BST)

Venue: Heffers Bookshop, Cambridge, UK

Be sure not to miss out on this fantastic event.

 

Narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds deftly captures the taciturn, prickly Commissario Piero Trotti, who likes nothing better than fighting crime in Pavia, Lombardy, and enjoying an endless supply of boiled sweets. Williams won a Crime Writers’ Association award for this fourth volume in the Trotti series, which excels in depicting contemporary Italy. In addition to Trotti, Reynolds spiritedly portrays a huge cast of suspects and police with countless melodious Italian voices and accents. Trotti’s assistant, Pisanelli–he of many fiancées–is one of the most memorable. Particularly engaging is hearing a newspaper account of the complex case, which mistakenly identifies the corpse. Listeners will enjoy learning a bit of Italian history as Trotti finally nabs the killer. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2015]

Visit: http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/96921/

28 May, 7 – 8pm

Vestry House Museum

Walthamstow

London E17

 

11 – 14 March

Left Coast Crime, Portland

 13 March, 6:15pm

Alliance Française, Portland

 

18 March, 12pm

 Seattle Book Store

 

23 March, 7pm

Murder Inc, San Francisco

 

26 March, 7pm

Literary Salon with Janet Rudolph

Berkeley

 

30 March, 2pm

Monday Mysteries Book Club

Orange Public Library

 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12

SCOTTSDALE, AZ

 

POISONED PEN

4014 N Goldwater Blvd #101

Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(480) 947-2974

Contact: Barbara Peters & David Hunenberg

 

ARRIVE: 1:45 PM

BEGIN: 2:00 PM

Reading and signing

“Laveaud is an accomplished juggler, dealing with the joint responsibilities of keeping a family and a career in balance and navigating the murky waters of sexism, cronyism and racism in a society where she is very much an outsider. As much social commentary as mystery, this is a crackerjack whodunit from start to finish, as well as a compelling look into one of the last bastions of colonialism in a shrinking world.”
—BOOKPAGE

 

“A close look at the folk of Guadeloupe and the West Indian culture in general, with its mix of races and lingering colonial resentment of Mother France.”
—GUMSHOE REVIEW

 

“Anne Marie’s second appearance, courtesy of the author of the Piero Trotti crime novels, boasts an elegantly incisive narrative and a fascinating heroine.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS

 

“Sharp-witted, French-Algerian Anne Marie is an investigator worthy of a following, and Williams has craftily created her story as a microcosm of Guadeloupe’s social situation, where alienation battles dependence and racial stratification rules. Williams digs deep below the exotic setting’s surface in this nuanced mystery. ”
—BOOKLIST

 

“Absorbing … Laden with Insights about the legacies colonialism, such as nuanced racism, official corruption, and troubled interactions between men and women. ”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY