The best crime fiction from the best new crime writers
This is the second year of Waterstone's Fresh Blood campaign, which showcases some of the best new crime writers around. This fantastic list of 12 authors, who you can read more about below, demonstrates the wealth of talent in the Crime fiction genre today.
Karin Alvtegen
Shadow by Karin Alvtegen
Karin Alvtegen was born in Jönköping, Sweden, in 1965. She won Sweden's most prestigious crime novel award, the Glass Key, in 2000 with her novel, Missing. She is the great-neice of Astrid Lindgren (author of the Pippi Longstocking stories), and lives in Stockholm. Shadow was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger 2009. Shadow is an utterly compelling novel of dark family secrets, murder and betrayal, which will keep you gripped until its final thrilling revelations.
Sam Eastland
The Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland
Sam Eastland lives in the US and the UK. He is an English author writing under a pseudonym, and is the grandson of a London police detective. Eye of the Red Tsar is the first of a series featuring Stalin's cop, Inspector Pekkala, and has been described by the Times as "a terrific debut" and USA Today as "in the tradition of Martin Cruz Smith and Tom Rob Smith ... A must for the beach bag". The second book, Red Coffin, will be published in 2011.
Alan Glynn
Winterland by Alan Glynn
Alan Glynn was born in 1960. He studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and has worked in magazine publishing in New York and as an EFL teacher in Italy. His first novel, The Dark Fields, was published in 2002 and is soon to be made into a film. He is married with two children and lives in Dublin.
Ann Featherstone
Walking In Pimlico by Anne Featherstone
Ann Featherstone is Lecturer in Performance History at Manchester University and Researcher in Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is the author of several non-fiction books about the Victorian entertainment industry including The Victorian Clown, with Jacky Bratton. Walking in Pimlico is her first novel.
Ryan David Jahn
Acts of Violence by Ryan David Jahn
Ryan David Jahn made his first attempt at a novel when he was sixteen, writing a 55,000-word horror tale in six weeks. Between then and Macmillan's acceptance of his debut novel, Acts of Violence, he piled up fifteen years, three more novels, and nearly fifty short stories. He has worked as a janitor, a day labourer, and a forklift driver. Since 2004 he has worked in television and film, and currently lives with his wife Mary in Los Angeles.
MR Hall
The Coroner by MR Hall
M. R. Hall is a screenwriter, producer and former criminal barrister. Educated at Hereford Cathedral School and Worcester College, Oxford, he lives in Monmouthshire with his wife and two sons. Aside from writing, his main passion is the preservation and planting of woodland.
Mike Nicol
Payback by Mike Nicol
Mike Nicol lives in Cape Town, South Africa. He has only recently turned to writing crime fiction with the publication of the first two books of his Revenge Trilogy - Payback and Killer Country. Before that he wrote a number of internationally published novels and works of non-fiction, including a short biography of Nelson Mandela (Mandela - the authorised portrait), and a memoir of his country's dramatic and bloody entry into democracy, The Waiting Country. He is a journalist and a teacher on the University of Cape Town's creative writing course.
Alan Bradley
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Alan Bradley was born into a family of storytellers who never stopped talking about the old days 'back home' in England - for which he is eternally grateful. He lives with his wife, Shirley, in Gozo. His novels feature the precocious Flavia de Luce as she uncovers mysteries and conspiracies within her sleepy English village.
Craig Russell
Lennox by Craig Russell
Craig Russell is the author of the Lennox novels, set in the Glasgow of the 1950s and the award-winning Fabel series set in contemporary Hamburg. His novels are published in twenty-three languages. He has worked as a police officer, copywriter and creative director. Shortlisted for the CWA Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger and the French Prix Polar, he was presented with the Polizeistern (Police Star) award by the Polzei Hamburg and won the 2008 CWA Dagger in the Library.
Gene Kerrigan
Dark Times In The City by Gene Kerrigan
After seven non-fiction books, veteran journalist Gene Kerrigan received critical acclaim in Ireland, the UK and the USA for his first two novels, Little Criminals and The Midnight Choir. Dark Times in the City, his third novel, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger. He lives in Dublin.
Stuart Neville
The Twelve by Stuart Neville
Stuart Neville has been a musician, a composer, a teacher, a salesman, a film extra, a baker and a hand double for a well-known Irish comedian, but is currently a partner in a successful multimedia design business in the wilds of Northern Ireland.
Belinda Bauer
Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter and her script The Locker Room earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters. Blacklands is her thrilling debut novel, published to critical acclaim and selected for the TV Book Club. Her second novel, Darkside, is out in early 2011. Belinda lives in Wales.
