Launch: Jo Spain’s THE CONFESSION at No Alibis

One to Watch: TANGERINE by Christine Mangan

Set in 1950’s Morocco, Christine Mangan’s debut TANGERINE (Little, Brown) is billed as a blend of Patricia Highsmith and Daphne du Maurier. To wit:

The last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband was Lucy Mason. After the horrific accident at Bennington, the two friends - once inseparable roommates - haven’t spoken in over a year. But Lucy is standing there, trying to make things right.
  Perhaps Alice should be happy. She has not adjusted to life in Morocco, too afraid to venture out into the bustling medinas and oppressive heat. Lucy, always fearless and independent, helps Alice emerge from her flat and explore the country.
  But soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice - she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. Then Alice’s husband, John, goes missing, and Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to ever come to Tangier, and her very own state of mind.

  According to Joyce Carol Oates, TANGERINE is ‘As if Donna Tartt, Gillian Flynn and Patricia Highsmith had collaborated in a screenplay to be filmed by Hitchcock.’ The movie rights have already been sold, with Scarlet Johansson slated to star, and George Clooney producing.
  TANGERINE will be published in March.

Event: Takin the Mic at the Irish Writers’ Centre

I’m not entirely sure what I’ve let myself in for by agreeing to host the next ‘Takin the Mic’ event at the Irish Writers’ Centre, but I’m sure it will all be good, clean fun. It takes place at the IWC from 7-9pm on Friday, January 26th, with the details as follows:

The performers list for January’s Takin the Mic is now open! Our host this month is crime fiction writer Declan Burke, one of the current UNESCO City of Literature Writers-in-Residence, at the IWC. As usual, all manner of poetry, prose and everything in between are welcome. Sign up to perform here!

One to Watch: THE LONG SILENCE by Gerard O’Donovan

Gerard O’Donovan, author of THE PRIEST (2010) and DUBLIN DEAD (2011), returns to the fray after something of a long-ish silence with – oh yes! – THE LONG SILENCE (Severn House). To wit:

February, 1922. Hollywood is young but already mired in scandal. When a leading movie director is murdered, Irish-American investigator Tom Collins is called in by studio boss Mack Sennett, whose troubled star, Mabel Normand, is rumoured to be involved.
  But Normand has gone missing. And, as Collins discovers, there’s a growing list of suspects. His quest leads him through the brutal heart of Prohibition-era Los Angeles, from speakeasies and dope dens to the studios and salons of Hollywood’s fabulously wealthy movie elite, and to a secret so explosive it must be kept silent at any cost ...
  Inspired by the unsolved real-life murder of movie director William Desmond Taylor, The Long Silence is the first in a richly evocative, instantly compelling series of new noir mysteries set in Hollywood’s early days.

  THE LONG SILENCE will be published on January 31st.

One to Watch: THE MELODY by Jim Crace

Way back in 2013, I interviewed Jim Crace on the publication of HARVEST, which was later shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and which Jim had decided would be his final book. To wit:

“I’m still young, I’m still fit, and I’ve got things to do. And I don’t want to spend any more time on my own in front of a blank screen, getting anxious. I’ve been that soldier, I’ve littered the bookshops with enough corpses. So there’s nothing for anyone to feel sorry about. I’m going to have a ball.”

  But lo! He’s back! Littering bookshops with more corpses! Huzzah! To wit:

Alfred Busi, famed in his town for his music and songs, is mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days in the large villa he has always called home. Then one night Busi is attacked by a creature he disturbs as it raids the contents of his larder. Busi is convinced that what assaulted him was no animal, but a child, ‘innocent and wild’, and his words fan the flames of old rumour – of an ancient race of people living in the bosk surrounding the town – and new controversy: the town’s paupers, the feral wastrels at its edges, must be dealt with. Once and for all.
  Lyrical and warm, intimate and epic, The Melody by Jim Crace tracks the few days that will see Busi and the town he loves altered irrevocably. This is a story about grief and ageing, about reputation and the loss of it, about love and music and the peculiar way myth seeps into real life. And it is a political novel too – a rallying cry to protect those we persecute.

  For more on Jim Crace, clickety-click here …