A Tale Of Two Titles

Apologies for the confusion, but I can’t make out if Alex Barclay’s new offering is called BLACK RUN or TAINTED – Amazon is calling it BLACK RUN but the title on the book is TAINTED. If anyone out there can confirm what the official title is, I’d be so grateful I’d probably faint. What we can say for certain is that the book will be published on November 26th, and that the blurb elves have been wittering thusly:

Twenty years ago ... A woman lies battered and bleeding to death beneath the gaze of her killer, her head bludgeoned, glass in her face, coughing blood with her last breaths. With a final, shattering blow, she is gone. Present day ... Special Agent Ren Bryce is in trouble. After the brutal murder of her trusted friend and therapist, Dr Helen Wheeler, and the curious alteration of her psychiatric records, she finds herself fighting for her innocence of the heinous crime she did not commit. With a dark connection to a savage murder committed two decades earlier, conflicting evidence, and the return of an old enemy hell-bent on Ren’s destruction, she must battle for the answers she needs to clear her name and find the real killer, whatever the danger, whatever the cost.

  BLACK RUN / TAINTED, by the way, is the follow-up to last year’s BLOOD RUNS COLD, which won the inaugural Best Crime Novel at the Irish Book Awards earlier this year. Will BLACK RUN / TAINTED secure Alex a second gong? Only time, that notoriously impolitic tittle-tattler, will tell …

BLOOD RUNS COLD: Hot Stuff, Baby

Ah yes, the wonders of technology. The news that Alex Barclay (right) won the inaugural Irish Books Awards crime fic gong filtered through by way of interweb blog (thank you, Bob), text messaging (commiserations, Brian), and Borg-style mind-meld (get out of my dreams, Alex, and get into my car, etc.).
  Yes indeedio – showing a blatant disregard for the exit poll conducted right here on Crime Always Pays, in which Alex Barclay came fourth, the good folks at the IBA, and the wider voting public, gave the thumbs aloft to BLOOD RUNS COLD. Which suggests that the IBA vote was rigged (boo!) or that the Crime Always Pays readership doesn’t know its arse from its elbow (there’s a new one for you, Peter). Personally, I’m inclined to believe the latter …
  Meanwhile, in other categories, Derek Landy scooped the Senior Children’s Award for PLAYING WITH FIRE, and Ronan O’Brien won the Best Newcomer Award for CONFESSIONS OF A FALLEN ANGEL. For the full list of winners, clickety-click here …
  Anyhoos, the crime fic award couldn’t have gone to a nicer home. I’ve met Alex Barclay on a few occasions, and rather than the high maintenance diva I was expecting from her ultra-glam publicity shots, she’s actually a down to earth gal, and very funny to boot. And, of course, she’s a terrific writer. Nice one, Ms Barclay.
  Commiserations to the nominees who didn’t make it onto the podium, being Arlene Hunt (UNDERTOW), Brian McGilloway (GALLOWS LANE), and Tana French (THE LIKENESS). Still, it’s always nice to be nominated, folks. And, like the Olympics, it’s the taking part that counts. Or is it the taking drugs that counts? I never can remember when it comes to the Olympics …

Watchmen: Who Reviews The Reviewers?

Erm, I do. Occasionally. Or once, at least. Sometimes a review is so badly put together you just can’t help sticking your oar in. Take The Book Critic’s review of Alex Barclay’s BLOOD RUNS COLD, for example. To wit:

According to the blurb, Alex Barclay is the rising star in the world of crime fiction. With this being her third novel, you’d have thought that she might have got into her stride by now and be displaying the talent that her agent and publishers saw in her.
Sadly, with Blood Runs Cold, this talent is yet to show itself.
  This is a poorly plotted, lumpenly-written novel with about as much verve, sparkle and edge as a damp towel. In a genre filled with the likes of Janet Evanovich, Sara Paretsky, Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell, Alex Barclay needs to do a serious amount of work to do more than make up the numbers.
  The protagonist in this novel is totally unsympathetic and the dialogue is at times laughable, often impossible to follow. As a whole, it didn’t feel genuine or believeable.
  Another negative was the glut of supporting characters, none of whom felt real or sharply-enough drawn to hold the reader’s attention.
  I’m sure somewhere in the book is a semblance of a good plot straining to get out, but it’s mired in clunkiness of the highest order.
  Alex Barclay may be a talent, but on the evidence of this, it’s not clear if it will enough to sustain a career.

There’s an old phrase that runs, ‘If you can’t say anything nice, say nothing at all.’ Another version runs, ‘If you can’t say anything original, fresh or constructively critical, crawl back under your stone.’ To wit:

According to the blog The Book Critic, bertieonrob is the rising star in the world of crime fiction criticism. With this being his umpteenth review, you’d have thought that he might have got into his stride by now and be displaying the talent that his ego saw in him.
Sadly, with Blood Runs Cold, this talent is yet to show itself.
  This is a poorly detailed, lumpenly-written review with about as much verve, sparkle and edge as a failed writer. In a niche filled with the likes of Peter Rozovsky, Glenn Harper, Karen Meek and Gerard Brennan, bertieonrob needs to do a serious amount of work to do more than make up the numbers.
  The critic in this review is totally unsympathetic and the critique is at times laughable, often impossible to follow. As a whole, it didn’t feel genuine or believeable.
  Another negative was the absence of supporting arguments for his case, none of which felt real or sharply-enough drawn to hold the reader’s attention. Or existed, even.
  I’m sure somewhere in the review is a semblance of a good critique straining to get out, but it’s mired in clunkiness of the highest order.
  Bertieonrob may be a talent, but on the evidence of this, it’s not clear if it will enough to sustain a zzzzzzzzz ….

  For those of you interested, here’s a rather different take on BLOOD RUNS COLD.

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Alex Barclay

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Jim Thompson’s THE KILLER INSIDE ME.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Ooh … Jeeves. Bertie Wooster is priceless.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
No guilt for me … whatever I read, I love, so I’d never feel guilty about doing something I love.

Most satisfying writing moment?
When everything comes together. Because I don’t write chronologically, I have files of separate scenes waiting to be arranged. When I can put them together in way that surprises me and it works out well, it feels great.

The best Irish crime novel is …?
Any of Declan Hughes’.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Any of Declan Hughes’.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Solitude / solitude.

The pitch for your next book is …?
It’s Colorado, it’s below-zero, an FBI Agent hunts the killer of a colleague and starts to unravel her colleague’s life … and her own.

Who are you reading right now?
David Sedaris – WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Write. It’s an addiction. And I couldn’t do rehab. Too much sharing, too many group hugs.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Fuelled by coffee.

Alex Barclay’s BLOOD RUNS COLD is published by HarperCollins.

Beautiful Women, Dangerous Minds

Brace yourselves, folks – there’s a couple of new offerings coming your way via the fiendish minds of the uber-glam ladies of Irish crime fiction. First up is UNDERTOW, Arlene Hunt’s follow-up to MISSING PRESUMED DEAD, with the blurb elves wittering thusly:

A missing boyfriend … a heavily pregnant girlfriend … just another ordinary case for QuicK Investigations. But the trail they follow suggests something far from ordinary. Who is Orie Kavlar and why has he gone to ground? What is the connection to the body of a dead girl found on waste ground in Sandyford? And what is his relationship to Darren Wallace, ex-gangland criminal? With their personal relationship at a new all-time low, Sarah and John are straining under the weight of their own problems, such as the murder of Sarah’s ex-boyfriend Vic. Vic was a dangerous psychotic, but murder is murder. So why won’t she accept John’s help? In no time John and Sarah’s investigations alert others to their search, and as they dig deeper into Orie Kavlar’s life, one man decides he has too much to lose to allow them to continue. Sarah and John are about to be caught up in an undertow of violence that will suck them into their most perilous case yet.

  Nice. Meanwhile, BLOOD RUNS COLD, Alex Barclay’s third novel, arrives on December 1st. Quoth the blurb elves:

Kidnap and murder collide in Alex Barclay’s heart-stopping new thriller featuring FBI Agent Ren Bryce. When an FBI agent is found dead on the white slopes of Quandary Peak in Colorado, a brilliant but volatile agent is drafted in from Denver to lead the investigation. Fighting personal demons, pressure from Washington and dwindling leads, the case stalls and a career falters. But as summer comes, Quandary Peak has disturbing new secrets to give up. And as one agent fights failure and hopelessness, another has left behind a trail that leads to a man with a dark past and even darker intentions.

  So there you have it. Beautiful women, dangerous minds. No wonder we like this crime fiction malarkey …