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Welcome to CrimeSquad.com!
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Hello and welcome to CRIMESQUAD.COM - your #1 UK crime fansite for 2009.
This month we are proud and pleased to support the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate from the 23rd to 26th July. This is, without doubt, the biggest and best event of its kind in Europe and probably the most prestigious in the world! If you have not done so already, book now on 0845 130 8840. No true crime and thriller fan should miss it!
So, we have now entered our fifth year of operation! This website was launched four years ago and was a true labour of love from the start. Little did we realise what an amazing journey it was to become! Month by month, year by year we see growth and excitement rise on an upward curve. Naturally it is gratifying to know that visitors from all over the globe are interested in our thoughts and explorations on the burgeoning crime and thriller scene. Someone told us recently that nearly 40% of all fiction sold in the UK comes broadly under our genre. What an incredible rise in popularity we have witnessed for our beloved crime and thriller fiction. Long may it continue and thank you all for your sustained and considerable support!
CRIMESQUAD.COM is developing and growing fast. Our latest visitor numbers are quadruple those of a year ago, and word is certainly spreading fast about us. We’re also exploring new relationships with publishers and the book trade – notably a new strategic alliance with Waterstones that is very pleasing. It’s all very exciting and, indeed, moving for us, because, at heart, we too are just crime fans, pure and simple. Please do continue to send us e-mails and ideas. We love to hear from you!
Our July Author of the Month is George Pelicanos – well known to any serious crime fan and a ‘special guest’ star of the Harrogate Festival to boot! His latest novel is a corker! See George’s answers to our exclusive CRIMESQUAD.COM Q&A.
One of our proudest claims is that we have helped to discover and promote new writing in the crime and thriller 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, Andrew Grant, is another new and talented writer with a rare and unusual pedigree. He is Lee Child’s brother! Read Andrew’s interesting answers to our exclusive Q&A – and see him at the Harrogate Festival too!
Whilst we are on the subject of new writing, I have been very privileged to be invited to judge the CWA New Blood award for this year and have therefore plowed my way through dozens of submissions since the end of last year. The winner has just been decided (no I won’t give any clues...!) and I can assure you that the future of crime and thriller writing seems assured if my experience is anything to go by!
CRIMESQUAD.COM regularly features "classic" authors and currently we are delighted to highlight James Curtis and Robert Westerby as our Classic Crime choice. Crime novelist, Cathi Unsworth investigates these two crime authors who were celebrated in their day but have sadly since been forgotten. It is down to the marvelous London Books that we can again enjoy these classics in smart, gorgeously presented hardbacks. Cathi explains that these two 'bad boys' wrote about a thirties Britain that you will never see in a Christie or Sayers novel! Enjoy.
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 names in crime fiction.
Well, it is finally here! We deliberated long and hard... and argued late into the night. We coaxed, persuaded, sulked and cajoled... then finally came up with our list. And now we are very happy with it. So click onto our TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2008 and see who made it... Naturally, for every book on the list there were half a dozen or more that we considered. Which only goes to show how strong and remarkable the crime and thriller scene is right now. Long may it continue... and congratulations to everyone who made our list!
Thank you all for your continued interest and support. We’re busy uploading new reviews and items more frequently than ever – 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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