*Starred Review*
Irish novelist McKinty returns to his roots with the first book of the Troubles Trilogy, set in his hometown during the time he grew up. At the height of conflict between the Catholic IRA and Protestant paramilitary factions in 1981, Sean Duffy, a Catholic police sergeant in the Protestant town of Carrickfergus, near Belfast, gets an unusual case. Two gay men have been murdered, their right hands severed (the classic modus for killing an informant) and switched between the two bodies. Duffy initially suspects a serial killer, but when no more gay men are targeted, he comes to believe that the second killing was done simply to cover up the first, in which the head of the IRA’s feared internal security force was the victim. Even after the case is reassigned, Duffy defies orders and keeps digging, coming up against corruption and collusion. Everything in this novel hits all the right notes, from its brilliant evocation of time and place to razor-sharp dialogue to detailed police procedures. McKinty, author of the Forsythe and Lighthouse Trilogies, has another expertly crafted crime trilogy going here, and readers will want to see what he does in the concluding two books. --Michele Leber
You can get The Cold Cold Ground right now on Amazon.com, here.
Or you can get it right now from Barnes and Noble, here.
And of course you've been able to get it on Audible since January, here. Audible has already picked TCCG as one of its "best of 2012 so far" (You should see who else is on that list. . .TCCG seems to be the only book not written by a celebrity or with an Oscar winning celebrity narrator. So thank you Audible!)
24 comments:
Well, TCCG is a really great book, so it's no mystery that it's getting starred reviews. The real mystery to me is why it took so long to get it published in the US.
Speedskater
Its not a mystery. The simple truth is that it was rejected by every publishing house in New York because we were told "there was no market for this kind of book". The crime fiction market in the US is dominated by fiction set in either America or Scandinavia and its very difficult for anyone else to get a look in. Stuart Neville has opened a few doors for N. Irish fiction but Stuart Neville's publisher rejected me too because they felt I might eat into Stuart's market share. Its ironic because Stuart is a good friend of mine and couldnt have done more to help launch The Cold Cold Ground in the UK.
TCCG was finally published by Seventh Street Books because they are an upstart young publishing company with no preconceived notions about "the market". The next few weeks will prove whether they or the mainstream publishing firms were right....
I should point out that TCCG is also available to order from independent bookstores too. It has no strict street date, so if you don't see it on the shelves, any store that does special orders should be able to take your request. It seems to be in Ingram's east coast warehouses but not out here in the west yet. But that just means that you easterners will get your copies faster.
Seana
Good point. All independent and mystery bookstores should be able to order the book now and have it in stock (if they are going to stock in) with the next week or so!
Adrian,
Its amazing that with your track record that you still had trouble finding a publisher!
I'm looking forward to reading TCCG!
Gavin
Oh you dont know the half of it. I got at least a dozen rejections for this book and the reasons were always along the lines of "...difficulties of selling a book like this in the current market."
As I've said in the past you can sell any old shit set in Norway or Sweden these days but its more of a challenge trying to convince publishers of the worth and commercial potential of a book like TCCG.
And to be brutally honest without a book tour or advertising the chances of TCCG breaking through are pretty slim...
Blogger’s shit new template is eating comments again, so let’s give this a second try.
You might be interested in this post and subsequent discussion on the Crime Scraps blog, notable because the blogkeeper has long been a booster of Scandinavian crime writing.
Note especially his declaration that:
“The fact that the last three Swedish crime fiction books I have read: Dark Angel-Mari Jungstedt, Silenced -Kristina Ohlsson and Autumn Killing-Mons Kallentoft* [* this one I will review later] have been so dark and miserable making one wonder if there are any normal functioning people in Sweden has made me reconsider my reviewing policy.”
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Peter
I found the Dragon Tattoo books to be ridiculous and repulsive at the same time. Larsson seemed to be having his cake and eating it too by condemning violence against women but giving us plenty of rapes and torture in lurid detail. And it seems that the authors who have followed in his wake feel that it is necessary to up the ante and give readers even more rapes, torture and violent death - especially the violent deaths of children.
Perhaps I get too emotionally involved in the books I'm reading or writing (it is just fiction after all) but I could never bring myself to write a book where a child is tortured or raped. I wouldnt want to read such things never mind write them.
Henning Mankell once said that he includes horribe deaths in his novels (to his credit, the ones I remember happen off the page) because such things really happen. Maybe readers of Larssonite torture porn flatter themselves that they are brave and virtuous for reading about things that really happen.
Peter
The one Henning Menkell book I began was called The Man From Beijing which begins with half a dozen people including kids being brutally murdered (bludgeoned to death I believe) in a remote farm in Sweden.
Do such things happen? Of course they do. A perusal of this morning's New York Times or New York Daily News is evidence of that. But if you are going to make me as a reader wade through fictional gore you better have a really good story or a fascinating character or some excellent writing at your disposal to keep my interest after that. Menkell didnt deliver and I gave up the book.
Maybe he's got more bloody with the passing years. The Man From Beijing is more recent than the books I read.
Peter
Perhaps I'll try another but it'll be a while because life is short and Scandinavian crime fiction no longer has much attraction for me. I've been let down by too many of these books and I'd rather read something really good in my precious free moments at the end of a long day. Sturgeon's Law is particularly apt here. The 10% of Nordic crime novels that were good have probably now been written and we're well into the 90% crap by now.
Some burning swans were enough to put me off Henning Mankell for life.
Mark
Yeah I watched that episode of Wallander. It was so cheesy and ridiculous it was actually quite funny. I assumed that in the book it was done a bit more cleverly but I guess I assumed incorrectly.
I've read some good Nordic crime novels, but the only author from that part of the world who has knocked my socks off has been Arnaldur Indriðason. That's a lower proportion than from some other parts of the world.
And now, I would never suggest that anyone read a book from anywhere just to see what all the fuss is about.
===================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
I've read and enjoyed several of the Martin Beck novels by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. These are quite good books.
Speedskater, Sjöwall and Wahlöö, though almost universally cited as much-admired forebears by current Nordic crime writers, came along well before the aspect of Nordic crime writing under discussion here.
Sure, they were didactics, but the could write, with with and touches of humor, even. The same is decidedly not always the case with authors who followed them.
And yes, S&W have knocked my socks off, too. I forgot to mention them because I don't consider them part of the current wave.
Adrian, I just learned that The jack Kerouac school at Naropa is starting an online poetry mag that will feature a small part to book reviews of any genre. I don't know what kind of reach it will have, if any (emphasis on if and any), but since you taught there, and since TCCG is so good, I don't know - you might create a groundswell with the yoga meisters and drop outs and trustafarians and cool weirdos - like me (emphasis on who? me?).
Something on Paper
Jack Kerouac School
Naropa University
2130 Arapahoe Avenue
Boulder, CO 80302
Sheiler
Thanks for that. I've got a few contacts left at Naropa so I'll fire them off a copy. I have VERY fond memories of teaching there. A lovely place, so much more relaxed than UC Boulder.
I have very fond memories of being there too, but mostly involved meditation and maitri room antics.
Also a couple good writing classes.
I was wondering why I didn't see more crime fiction from Ireland here. I've had to check the guardian bookstore just to stay updated. Congrats on the reviews an your new release here in the states!!
The Swedish and American movies were different too. It was definitely upsetting.
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