Knowing me, I've probably read about this on the litblogosphere somewhere and forgotten all about it, but I did enjoy reading "How to start a crime list" in the Bookseller (13 April issue). A slight aside, my reading of Booksellers and Publishers Weeklies is like a nerve impulse: in quantal packets. We subscribe at work, but distribution through the office is erratic. Therefore you don't see a copy of either for weeks, then get six at once. Hence I am only just reading the 13 April issue on 15 May.
The above-mentioned article is an interview of Anthony Cheetham by Liz Bury. Mr Cheetham, who had helped to build up the very good Orion crime list, turns out to be the driving force behind the relatively new Quercus imprint, which has just won the Plus "new business of the year" award and is perhaps better known to you as publisher of The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, the overall Costa (formerly Whitbread) book prize winner this year.
The first book published by Quercus was Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook, which I reviewed the other day. Quercus are presumably smart at marketing as I bought that book when it was first published because it was Amazon's then "deal of the week". Soon after publishing that, Mr Cheetham read the manuscript of Bad Debts by Peter Temple, which he snapped up cheap as it had been turned down in the past. With these two books, he felt he had the makings of a list. He likes crime fiction not only because 11 of the 50 current UK bestsellers are crime fiction titles, but because "It's a method of armchair travel, where you get a real sense of the place they're set in".
Other books published or to be published by Quercus, by 21 new and established writers, include The Shadow Maker Walker by Michael Waters (featuring Mr Negrui, the head of the serious crime squad in Ulan Bator), The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry, Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland (set in the Outback with a half-Aboriginal hero), and The Coroner's Lunch (about the "charming" 72-year-old chief coroner of 1970s Laos). Maybe Peter of Detectives Beyond Borders should consider recommending his latest, as-yet untranslated Croatian discoveries to Mr Cheetham.
What Anthony Cheetham looks for in a manuscript: sophisticated prose, with excitement and colour; an interesting setting, graphically portrayed; a central character with charm and appeal; a gripping mystery or crime; forensic stories for readers with a crime-lab fascination; and detailed procedural work that reveals life in a cop shop. That's all, sounds easy enough.
If you want to read the whole interview you need a subscription to the Bookseller: here is their website.
Hi Maxine,
I'm glad it's not just me with The Bookseller. I swear there is some sort of vortex where they disapppear for months on end before re-appearing on someone's desk. I'm currently reading February.
Anyway, cheers very much for the coverage of Quercus. Details of the Croatian masterpieces will be passed on. Proof copies of a few of the titles you mention have arrived in the office, so if you want a freebie read, do give me a shout.
Posted by: Iain@Quercus | 17 May 2007 at 18:16
Peter shall indeed consider passing on your recommendations. Thanks.
Michael Walters sent me a nice note in response to a comment I left on his blog. He seems like a pretty nice guy in addition to being author of novels set in an exotic location. As it happens, this is coming to you from an Internet cafe on Charing Cross Road, where I have just failed to find "The Shadow Walker" in the first shop where I looked for it. My current location augurs well for my chances of finding a copy, though.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Posted by: Peter | 18 May 2007 at 18:23
Hey, Peter, you sure get about!
Posted by: Maxine | 18 May 2007 at 18:28
Thanks to Peter for correcting my mistake of calling The Shadow Walker the Shadow Maker.
Posted by: Maxine | 18 May 2007 at 18:39
I found the book!
If I get about, so do many of the international rabble who mill about Charing Cross Road looking for reading matter. The store clerk who sold me my copy of The Shadow Walker was Canadian.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Posted by: Peter | 20 May 2007 at 20:06