Award Season

Last week, Stuart Neville filled me with pride and envy at the same time. Pictured below, you'll find our Stu amongst a murder of Edgar Award shortlisters. All scribes pictured have, of course, earned their place on that list. However, it'd be disingenuous to be less than gobsmacked by the presence of Stephen King in this picture. STEPHEN FECKIN' KING!

L-R: Ian Rankin, Stephen King, Karin Slaughter, Stuart Neville and Wiley Cash

As it turned out, King nabbed the prize for his novel, Mr Mercedes. I'm reading said novel right now. Whether or not I'll enjoy it as much as or more than Neville's The Final Silence remains to be seen. So far, it's pretty good, though. I've looked through the King novels listed at the start of Mr Mercedes. Of the 57 books in the list (includes those written under the Bachman pseudonym, the non-fiction books and the Dark Tower series), I've read 47. I read IT when I was 13 years old and have dipped in and out of his work since then. And enjoyed the vast majority of them. Hence my envy, Mr Neville!

Anyway, I got over that tinge of jealousy and remain proud of the fact that one of the writers that I know and respect has hit this level of recognition. You can consider this the official CSNI message of congratulations to one of the leading lights of the Northern Irish crime fiction scene.

Now, from Stuart Neville to Anthony Quinn.

Anthony Quinn at the launch of The Blood Dimmed Tide earlier this year

I learned today that Quinn has been long-listed for the 2015 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. You can see the longlist in its entirety over at the Shotsmag Confidential blog. You'll notice that Lee Feckin' Child (along with other top class scribes with the affectionately given middle name of Feckin') is included on this list. However, Anthony Quinn is the only Northern Irish entrant. This makes me sad and happy at the same time. I'd like to see more names from the NI crime fiction set on the longlist, but I also like the fact that I don't have to split my cheerleading attention on this one.

So, here at CSNI, we (by which I mean me, myself and I) are urging you to vote for Anthony Quinn's Disappeared to make it onto that shortlist.

It's a big feckin' deal.

We (and this time I mean everybody reading this)  can't actually vote until the shortlist is announced, but we can show Anthony our support by making a lot of noise about his achievement. So, if you could share this blog post on social media, look for Anthony on Facebook and Twitter so you can congratulate him, or -- most importantly -- READ THE BOOK, that'd be pretty cool of you.

I read Disappeared a few years ago (I got my hands on the US version which was published long before the UK version) but, despite the fact I highly recommend it, I failed to find the time to write a review. Other people have reviewed it, though. Get Googling, people!

Disappeared

I was delighted to meet Anthony Quinn at Tara West's book launch a few weeks ago. A very pleasant chap. Anybody who opens a conversation with a cheeky remark about my greying hair is all right in my book. I had seen his Q&A on Crime Always Pays and made a mental note to learn more about the guy. Unfortunately, I was up to my eyes in work for my MA and the note got lost. However, a quick chat with Mister Quinn soon jogged my memory. I later found out that Ken Bruen thinks his book, DISAPPEARED, is great. There is no higher recommendation as far as I'm concerned.

But if you need further convincing, check out this Culture NI review.

Or just buy the book.