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Welcome to CrimeSquad.com!
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Hello and welcome to CRIMESQUAD.COM - your #1 crime fansite for 2008. Earlier this year we celebrated our third anniversary online – yes, now we are three! Little did we know when our little ‘fansite’ launched all those months ago that we would grow so fast, or be embraced so wholeheartedly by the amazing crime and thriller community. So, naturally, we’d like to thank everyone involved for their astonishing levels of support. Authors, publishers, publicity and marketing departments, agents, web developers, designers, our amazing review team and – of course – our legions of dedicated visitors. Every review we have ever done is now on our ‘Previous Issue’ pages... just click the navigation button and you’ll get a taste of the hundreds of books we’ve loved to share with you!
We have been ridiculously fortunate to launch this website at a moment when the crime genre is riding the crest of a wave of popularity never seen before in the history of publishing. Our mission for the next three years is to serve the people who have supported us with an even better, even more up-to-the-minute take on the crime and thriller genre; remembering always that our core founding ideal was to create a simple, stylish and entertaining site created “by fans for fans”. We know there are hundreds of thousands of you out there – and we look forward to keeping you informed and entertained for a long time to come.
A number of people have contacted us recently asking how we measure our unique ‘spyglass’ rating system attached to reviews. Of course, it is all highly subjective, but we ask our review team to rate books based on their extensive knowledge of the book, the author and the genre as a whole. A ‘five star’ (or ‘five spyglass’!) review is, in the reviewer's opinion, a near-flawless novel that we think is simply brilliant. A “must read”, if you like. A 'four star' rating is still great, but slightly flawed in some way or just not as strong as the writer's previous best work... and so on. It is unusual that we review books with less than a 'three star' rating for many reasons – and these are, in our opinion, still well worth reading. We agonise over ratings every month, but it's really not that important. If we like it we review it - it's that simple! As a 'fansite', our philosophy is that we want to encourage readers to sample a wide variety of the very best that crime and thriller novels have to offer. We never publish a consciously ‘bad’ or negative review for the sake of it. What’s the point? That's not saying that we are never critical. Our reviewers tell it like it is, showing no fear or favour, even of high-profile names in some cases. However, all this leads to another slight problem that we'd like to clarify... Sometimes if we don’t review a book (and we now receive hundreds every year!) it can be assumed that we don’t like it. This is simply not the case. Our editorial policy is to show a varied selection each month – containing something for everyone – and, like everyone, we are limited both by time and available space... Whew, I'm so glad we got all that off our chest!
Our May Author of the Month is John Connolly. A brilliant author who blends elements of the supernatural with the crime and thriller genres. Great stuff, and I guarantee you’ll love the latest from this talented writer!
One of our proudest claims is that we have helped to discover and promote new writing in the genre. Many of the names we have highlighted have gone on to bigger and better things – even gathering awards in some cases. It is all too easy to simply reach for an established ‘favourite’ author, so why not try something new? Our latest Fresh Blood author is Jason Pinter who has written a brilliant debut novel that is already being hailed by many top-notch crime/thriller authors as a ‘next big thing’... So we read THE MARK with a certain amount of trepidation - and loved it, loved it, loved it! It’s a book that certainly lives up to all the hype it is getting, and Jason Pinter is definitely a name to watch.
CRIMESQUAD.COM is growing fast. Our latest visitor numbers are well over three times those of a year ago, and word is certainly spreading fast about us. It’s all very exciting and, indeed, moving for us, because, at heart, we too are crime fans, pure and simple. Please do continue to send us e-mails and ideas. We love to hear from you!
CRIMESQUAD.COM regularly features "classic" authors and currently we are delighted to highlight Michael Gilbert who died only last year. His intelligent and poignant short stories were recently released in a definitive anthology - also reviewed.
Don’t forget to explore ALL our brilliant CRIMESQUAD.COM mini-sites. (Click through on any of the logos featured on the left of this page.) These pages are sponsored by some of the biggest and best publishers in crime fiction and are changed on a regular basis.
STOP PRESS!!! We are delighted to be the first to announce the exciting line-up of star name authors and events for the 2008 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival - part of the Harrogate International Festival. Click onto the Festival logo and you'll see our dedicated microsite with all the latest information. Also... click onto the "Vote Here" symbol to get exciting news about the longlist for this year's Crime Novel of the Year Award!
We’ll be busy uploading new reviews and items more frequently than ever in 2008 – not just at the beginning of the month – so please do remember to bookmark us and check back often. |
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If you have any comments or have a particular author you
would like to see highlighted on this website please e-mail
me at chrissimmons@crimesquad.com.
Chris Simmons
Online Editor.
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