Alan Parks wins McIlvanney Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2022 for MAY GOD FORGIVE

Alan Parks has triumphed at Bloody Scotland’s 2022 International Crime Writing Festival, winning the much sought after McIlvanney Scottish Crime Book of the Year Prize for his latest novel, MAY GOD FORGIVE.

The McIlvanney Prize recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing and includes a prize of £1,000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones. The other finalists for this year’s prize were: THE HERETIC by Liam McIlvanney, A CORRUPTION OF BLOOD by Ambrose Parry and THE SECOND CUT by Louise Welsh.

Alan was announced as winner on the 15th of September at the Albert Halls in Stirling after all finalists led a torchlit procession there from Stirling Castle.

Ayo Onatade, chair of the McIlvanney Prize judges, described MAY GOD FORGIVE as: ‘A terrific continuation of Alan Parks’ police procedural ‘month’ series. MAY GOD FORGIVE is every bit as entertaining, gritty, darkly humorous and steeped in the grimy underbelly of Glasgow as the previous books.

‘A fantastic book with an intriguing cast of characters that not only keeps to a tight timeframe, but is fast, hard, edgy and thought-provoking; 1970s Glasgow has never been so thoroughly invoked. A truly gripping read.’

MAY GOD FORGIVE is the fifth in Alan Parks’ highly acclaimed Harry McCoy series and sees a desperate search for two kidnapped boys in an unruly Glasgow. It was published in the UK by Canongate earlier this year, and by Europa in the United States. The series is sold in more than ten countries around the world, and Alan is currently working on the sixth instalment.


About Alan Parks

Alan Parks was Creative Director at London Records in the mid 1990’s, then at Warner Music, where he created ground-breaking campaigns for artists including All Saints, New Order, The Streets, Gnarls Barclay and Cee Lo Green. He was also Managing Director of 679 Recordings, a joint venture with Warner Music. His debut novel BLOODY JANUARY propelled him onto the international literary crime fiction scene immediately and his work has been hailed by contemporary writers and critics alike.

BLOODY JANUARY was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, FEBRUARY’S SON was nominated for an Edgar Award, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER was picked as a Times Best Book of the Year, won an Edgar Award and has been shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery novel, and THE APRIL DEAD was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.

Alan was born in Scotland and attended The University of Glasgow where he was awarded a M.A. in Moral Philosophy. He still lives and works in the city that is so vividly depicted in the 1970s setting of his Harry McCoy thrillers.

Praise for MAY GOD FORGIVE

‘MAY GOD FORGIVE is the fifth instalment in a remarkable series that began with BLOODY JANUARY. The novels, as someone once said, can be read in any order; the important thing is to read them all.’ – Mark Sanderson, The Times, ‘The Best New Crime Fiction for May 2022’

‘MAY GOD FORGIVE is a bleak and violent book, full of grisly details not for the squeamish, but also tenderness, poignance and hard-earned wisdom.’ – Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

‘Noir has long been the dominant colour in the palette of such Scottish writers as Ian Rankin and Denise Mina, but Parks manages to find a deeper shade of black, only slightly attenuated by Harry's willingness to go far off the grid to extract a wee bit of justice. A must for those who take their noir straight, no chaser; others should keep the Pepto handy.’ – Bill Ott, Booklist

‘Enjoyably readable… Parks is a gifted story-teller’ – Allan Massie, The Scotsman

‘Harry McCoy is the brightest dark star on the Tartan Noir scene for some time and in future critics of Scottish crime fiction will surely be referring to the triumvirate of Laidlaw, Rebus and McCoy … MAY GOD FORGIVE is crime fiction which pulls no punches, powerfully told and, at times, heartbreakingly poignant. One of the crime novels of 2022.’ – Mike Ripley, Getting Away With Murder

 

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DEVIL'S PEAK by Deon Meyer commences principal photography as a 5 x 1 hour series

Benny Griessel – the hero of Deon Meyer’s South African crime series – is being brought to life on screen for the first time as filming gets underway in South Africa on the TV adaptation of DEVIL’S PEAK. Produced by Lookout Point and backed by BBC Studios, the series stars Hilton Pelser (Moffie, Glasshouse, Kissing Booth) as Benny, with Sisanda Henna (Trackers, Rogue), Tarryn Wyngaard (Raised By Wolves, Stam, The Watch), Shamilla Miller (Blood & Water, Troy: Fall of a City), and Masasa Mbangeni (The Republic, Scandal).

The 5 x 1 hour series is directed by Jozua Malherbe (Griekwastad, Justice Served), and written by Matthew Orton (Operation Finale, Moon Knight).

Deon Meyer says: “Benny Griessel started his fictitious life as a humble once-off cameo character, and never in my wildest dreams did I think he would one day be part of an international TV series. I am absolutely thrilled that this brilliant team of cast and crew will bring him and his story to life.”

DEVIL’S PEAK, the first of six novels featuring the detective, sees the talented but broken Benny Griessel tracking down a righteous vigilante killer whose crimes are capturing the imagination of the city. Meanwhile grieving father Thobela Mpayipheli seeks justice after the untimely murder of his son. Benny and Thobela are brought into the orbit of a trapped mother, Christine, who is willing to do anything to achieve a better life for herself and her daughter, and the fates of these three characters become inextricably linked. Combining gripping tension with uncompromising authenticity, DEVIL’S PEAK offers an original South African take on the investigative thriller for today.

About Deon Meyer

Deon Meyer lives in Cape Town. His books are sold in 23 countries, and have been awarded many prizes around the world: the Deutsche Krimi Prize in Germany, the ATKV Prize in South Africa, and Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. COBRA was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger, THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA International Dagger, and HEART OF THE HUNTER, was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Prize and selected as one of Chicago Tribune’s ‘10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004’.

Praise for the novel DEVIL’S PEAK

Winner ATKV Award (South Africa)

Shortlisted for the M-Net Prize 2005

A Peter Millar Times Christmas choice, 2007.

Winner of Svenska Oversatta Kriminalroman (Martin Beck) Award 2010

Winner of the Readers’ Award from CritiquesLibres.com in the category Crime Novel or Thriller in October 2010.

‘One of the most startling things about this crime masterwork from South African author, Deon Meyer, is that it was originally penned in Afrikaans. All the more credit, then, to translater KL Seegers for producing such a beautifully written and yet blood-pumpingly readable English language version. But it isn’t just about the action. A far, far cry from your basic ‘cops and robbers’ or blow-by-blow ‘good guys v bad guys’, DEVIL’S PEAK is a grown-up and multi-faceted tale, tough and visceral in tone, but also rich in flawed characters and deeply redolent of both urban and rural South Africa; not just the geographic landscape, but the political and social scene as well.’ – Paul Finch

‘This is one of those entertainment fictions that teaches one more than any textbook or documentary. This thriller is a fascinating portrayal of one aspect of life in post-apartheid South Africa…winding up the tension to a gripping, shocking climax. Highly recommended.’ – Literary Review

‘Deon Meyer is…one of the sharpest and most perceptive thriller writers around…Meyer paints a wonderful picture of the dark side of the rainbow nation… Against the odds Meyer leaves us with a resolution that is both poignant and supremely satisfying. In no way is this a negative book about the new South Africa. It makes the place come alive with a breathless urgency that recalls the 1940s Los Angeles of Dashiel Hammet or Raymond Chandler: a bit mad, a bit bad, a bit dangerous, but exotically vibrant, a society in adolescence. Think of Meyer in the way that you might have regarded a bottle of Cape red a dozen years ago – dark, strong with an unusual but beguilingly moreish taste. If it can produce popular literature as good as this, the new South Africa has a lot going for it.’ – Peter Millar, The Times

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Alex Scarrow Adaptation LAST LIGHT Debuts on Peacock

After many years of hard work behind the scenes, the miniseries adaptation of Alex Scarrow’s brilliant 2007 novel LAST LIGHT has premiered on the US streaming service Peacock. The five-part series, directed by Dennie Gordon (Jack Ryan, Madame Secretary), stars Matthew Fox (Lost) and Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey).

LAST LIGHT was co-produced by MGM International, Make It Happen Studio, Cactus Films, Entertainment 360, Film United, Twentieth Century Fox and Viaplay. It is expected to air in the UK on NOW TV and the Sky app, as part of their offering of Peacock content.

Set in the near future, LAST LIGHT is a thriller unfolding over the course of just a few days: it seems to be a very normal Monday morning. But in the space of only a few days, the world's oil supplies have been severed and at a horrifying pace things begin to unravel everywhere. And this is no natural disaster: someone is behind this.

Jenny is stuck in Manchester, fighting desperately against the rising chaos to get back to London, where her children are marooned as events begin to spiral out of control: riots, raging fires, looting, rape and murder. In the space of a week, London is transformed into a lawless and anarchic vision of hell.

Jenny's estranged husband, oil engineer Andy Sutherland, is stranded in Iraq with a company of British soldiers, desperate to find a way home to his family, trapped as transport links and the very infrastructure of daily life begin to collapse around him.

Against all this, a mysterious man is tracking Andy's family. He'll silence anyone who might be able to reveal the identities of those behind this global disaster. It seems that the same people who now have a stranglehold on the future of civilisation have flexed their muscles before, at other significant tipping points in history, and they are prepared to do anything to keep their secret - and their power - safe.

About Alex Scarrow

Born in Hertford, raised in Hong Kong and then Essex, Alex is an ex-rock guitarist, graphic artist and creative director of a games company; now a full-time writer. His TIME RIDERS series is a huge international success sold into 20 languages and his new projects pack the punch to go bigger and better.

ELLIE QUIN is a Sci Fi thriller series featuring a remarkable heroine in a bizarre and dangerous futuristic world that is closer than you think.

He is currently developing ICARUS, a feature film script, with Forefront Media and working on potential adaptations of some of his novels.

BFLA handles the media rights in Alex's books as well as his screenwriting.

Praise for LAST LIGHT   

‘Alex Scarrow's depiction of Britain as only a few hours away from disintegration is chillingly plausible’ – Daily Telegraph

‘LAST LIGHT is sensational’ – London Lite

‘Scarrow keeps his foot on the accelerator in this apocalyptic thriller, which is reminiscent of Frederick Forsyth and John Wyndham’ – Birmingham Post

‘Few books have made my heart race and blood pressure soar like this one... it had me on the edge of my seat.’ – Peterborough Evening Telegraph

‘This has everything, from conspiracy theories to highlighting environmental issues facing the world today ... Scarrow made my head zing.’ – The Truth About Books

‘A terrific thriller ... the thriller of the summer. It should be the novel that airport booksellers can't get enough of.’ – materialwitness.com

‘Alex Scarrow is a crime writer of real distinction.’ – Good Book Guide

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Edward Carey’s PLAGUES AND PENCILS: A Year in Pandemic Sketches published by University of Texas Press

Edward Carey’s PLAGUES AND PENCILS: A YEAR IN PANDEMIC SKETCHES is published in North America by the University of Texas Press today. Casey Kittrell, Senior Acquisitions Manager at University of Texas Press, bought North American rights from Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann. The collection of Carey’s beautiful, haunting lockdown drawings includes a foreword by Max Porter and was published in the UK by Gallic Books as B: A YEAR IN PLAGUES AND PENCILS.

Edward will be in conversation with Austin Kleon and signing copies of PLAGUES AND PENCILS at a launch event at BookPeople in Austin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday 14 September. More details here.

In March 2020, as lockdowns were imposed around the world, author and illustrator Edward Carey raced home to Austin, Texas. The next day, he published on social media a sketch of “A Very Determined Young Man.” The day after, he posted another drawing. One year and one hundred and fifty Tombow B pencil stubs later, he was still drawing.

Carey’s pencil fills the page with the marvellous and intriguing, picturing people, characters, animals, monsters, and his favourite bird to draw, the grackle. He reaches into history and fiction to escape grim reality through flights of vivid imagination – until events demand the drawings “look straight on.”

Breonna Taylor, the Brontë sisters, John Lewis, King Lear, and even the portraits that mark the progress of the year for the Very Determined Young Man combine into a remarkable document of the pandemic and its politics. For Carey, though, trapped inside a home he loves, these portraits are something more, a way to chart time, an artist’s way of creating connection in isolation.

Casey says: ‘We’re delighted to be publishing Edward Carey’s latest work, and I’m personally delighted to be working with someone whose art I’ve admired for years. I would buy it just for the grackles, but, really, it's a gift for anyone, especially creative folks, who felt the need to do something, to somehow mark the time and resist the torpor, of the pandemic.’

Edward Carey says: ‘I'm thrilled that the University of Texas Press, whose books I've loved and cherished for years, will publish this book of pandemic drawings. I sat in a small corner of Texas during the pandemic and drew every day to communicate, to travel, to mourn, to celebrate and to keep busy. It's so fitting that UT press is giving this book a home in America – its starting point is Texas and it contains various grackles. I'm so delighted to be working with them again.’

Isobel Dixon says: ‘With great determination, artistry, empathy and generosity, Edward gave his many followers a great gift during lockdown. So many brilliant daily images – thought-provoking, rousing, delightful, a rich range that endures far beyond the instant online moment. I’m so happy that Casey Kittrell and the University of Texas Press have joined in to spread the word – and image – further afield. All power to publisher, artist and (B) pencil, and here’s to many more happy readers.’

Edward’s previous book, THE SWALLOWED MAN, was published in the UK by Gallic Books in November 2020, and in the US by Riverhead in January 2021. Edward is completing his next novel, EDITH HOLLER, which will be published by Riverhead in the US.


See more about Edward as an illustrator here.

Praise for B: A YEAR IN PLAGUES AND PENCILS

‘B is for Black, the kind of pencil [Edward Carey] … used to draw and endite this charming lockdown memoir. Perfect gift for doodlers and illustrators – one day RBG, the next a walrus – made me want to take up drawing again!’ – Margaret Atwood

‘There is so much sharp grace and so much generosity in Carey's art; I loved this book, for its beauty, and for its tenacity of heart.’ – Katherine Rundell

‘Once again Edward Carey has produced a remarkable book, this time blend of words and drawings about both outrage and consolation. Noted mask wearers, shut-ins and plague witnesses rub shoulders with monsters mythical and all too real. Those house arrested days when we mourned together, feared together, loved together as planet are recorded. Birds and writers gather. Injustices howl and graves multiply. And still human beings add beauty to reality – and hope. As Carey writes ‘’There’s magic in the ordinary.’’ The best of us uncover it and pass it on. This book contains magic.’ – A.L. Kennedy

‘Edward Carey probably didn't know what he was getting himself into when he committed to tweeting a daily lockdown drawing, but the results are the best thing by far to come out of a horrible year. Whether a startled moggy or a panda-eyed Hamlet, each drawing is stamped with Carey's unique style and off-kilter sensibility. B: A YEAR IN PLAGUES AND PENCILS is a constant delight.’ – Graeme Macrae Burnet

‘These characterful images are bound together here with words of wistfulness and modest hope.’ – Hephzibah Anderson, The Observer

 

Praise for Edward Carey

‘If this were music, Carey would be Eric Satie. If it were film, he would be Tim Burton.’ – Newsday

‘All of Edward Carey's work is profound and delightful.’ – Max Porter

‘A novel that takes the shape of a constellation of memories recalled amid idle waiting… Carey is a playful writer whose charming sentences are works of careful craftsmanship… his isn’t the “Pinocchio” of your childhood. Instead, Carey has written something more cerebral, an existential fairy tale for adults told by an old artist considering the tragedy of life.’ — Eric Nguyen, The Washington Post

‘Edward Carey has an imagination of tremendous range and power. He transforms the familiar stuff of life in shapes utterly strange and marvellous.’ – Patrick McGrath

‘Edward Carey, with OBSERVATORY MANSIONS] proves the potential brilliance of the novel form.’ — John Fowles

‘Carey writes with such persuasive authority, and we are inclined to believe him …The emphasis on detail in Carey’s sweetly detached, exact prose has forebears in the illuminated dreams of Borges and Calvino and Georges Perec.’ — Carey Harrison, The New York Times Review of Books

'Wonderfully weird... Carey reproduces, or invents... with relentless energy.' – Herald Scotland

‘Edward Carey is bursting with imagination and madness.’ — Lire

About Edward Carey:

Photo: Elizabeth McCracken

Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator who was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. Like his father and his grandfather, both officers in the Royal Navy, he attended Pangbourne Nautical College, where the closest he came to following his family calling was playing Captain Andy in the school’s production of Showboat. Afterwards he joined the National Youth Theatre and studied drama at Hull University. He has written plays for the National Theatre of Romania and the Vilnius Small State Theatre, Lithuania. In England his plays and adaptations have been performed at the Young Vic Studio, the Battersea Arts Centre, and the Royal Opera House Studio. He has collaborated on a shadow puppet production of Macbeth in Malaysia, and with the Faulty Optic Theatre of Puppets.

He is the author of the novels OBSERVATORY MANSIONS, THE IREMONGER TRILOGY, ALVA & IRVA, THE SWALLOWED MAN and LITTLE, all of which he illustrated. He always draws the characters he writes about, but often the illustrations contradict the writing and vice versa and getting both to agree with each other takes him far too long.

He has lived in England, France, Romania, Lithuania, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, and the United States. He currently teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, which is not near the sea.

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