New Reviews: Camilleri, Connolly, Hunter, Kelly, Kepler, O'Donnell, Robertson

Here are 7 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

Maxine Clarke reviews Andrea Camilleri's The Age of Doubt tr. Stephen Sartarelli the latest Montalbano to have a UK release;

Lynn Harvey reviews John Connolly's The Wrath of Angels the new 'Charlie Parker' novel;

Terry Halligan reviews Alan Hunter's Gently Continental, the series upon which the TV show is (very) loosely based;

Jim Kelly's Philip Dryden is back, in Nightrise, reviewed here by Geoff Jones;

Earlier this week, on the blog, I reviewed Lars Kepler's The Nightmare tr. Laura A Wideburg, the follow-up to The Hypnotist, starring Stockholm detective Joona Linna;

Susan White reviews Peter O'Donnell's A Taste for Death featuring Modesty Blaise, which is being serialised on Radio 4 later this month

and Amanda Gillies reviews the paperback release of Imogen Robertson's Circle of Shadows the fourth in the eighteenth-century Westerman-Crowther series.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Adler-Olsen, Hunter, Kallentoft, Larsson, Sigurdardottir, Sussman, Thomson

Apologies for the slight delay and fewer reviews than usual this week.

Here are 7 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

Last week I reviewed on the blog, Jussi Adler-Olsen's Disgrace tr. K E Semmel the sequel to Mercy;

Rich Westwood reviews Alan Hunter's Gently with the Ladies [the books only sharing a name with the Martin Shaw tv series];

Maxine Clarke reviews Mons Kallentoft's third Malin Fors book, Autumn Killing tr. Neil Smith;

Susan White reviews Asa Larsson's The Black Path tr. Marlaine Delargy now out in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews Yrsa Sigurdardottir's standalone ghost-crime thriller I Remember You tr. Philip Roughton;

Lynn Harvey reviews Paul Sussman's third book in his Yusuf Khalifa series, The Labyrinth of Osiris which is the last due to the author's untimely death this year

and Terry Halligan reviews June Thomson's latest collection of Sherlock Holmes stories: The Secret Archives of Sherlock Holmes.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

More Inspector George Gently

News from the BBC website of the two next episodes of Inspector George Gently, starring Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby, a series loosely based on the long-running series of books by Alan Hunter:

Martin Shaw returns to Sixties Northumberland in Inspector George Gently with two new feature-length films written by Peter Flannery.

This classic series, with its growling, passionate detective hero (Shaw) and his headstrong, un-pc sidekick, Bacchus (Lee Ingleby), lovingly recreates the Swinging Sixties as it finally hits the North East. Full of warmth and humour, seen through their "perfect" copper partnership, Inspector George Gently brings a colourful nostalgia to the period; when darned socks and a clout round the head were the norm. The series also gives a fascinating insight into a society on the cusp of change, and the difficulties that the police had to face in the Sixties to investigate and solve their crimes – without the help of modern technology.

Writer Peter Flannery says: "Inspector George Gently has taken on a new lease of life since the series came home to its geographical and spiritual roots last year. The city of Durham – in true Geordie fashion – has welcomed the show with open arms and the cast and crew simply love being there."

The first film, Goodbye China, delves into police brutality and corporal punishment when a youth disappears and an old "grass" of Gently's dies. Guest stars include: Neil Pearson, Dean Lennox Kelly, Christine Bottomley, Mark Benton, Lucy Akhurst, Shaun Prendergast and Alexandra Gilbreath.

In the second film, Gently Upside Down, Gently and Bacchus are thrown into the new world of pop and media celebrity when a schoolgirl vanishes and her friend is catapulted into the public eye. Guest stars include: Neil Morrissey, Vincent Regan, Louise Delamere, Kaye Wragg, Sean Gilder and Christopher Coghill; introducing Kate Bracken.

A further two films of Inspector George Gently have already been commissioned by the BBC to be filmed in 2012.

You can read the whole article and more information on the episodes at the BBC website.

TV News: Inspector George Gently's back on Sunday

Two more episodes of Inspector George Gently have been filmed and the first, Gently Evil, will be on Sunday night at 8.30pm (according to my tv guide) on BBC1.

Here are some details from the BBC Press Office:

Martin Shaw returns as old-school detective Inspector George Gently in the crime drama set in the Sixties, written by Peter Flannery.

It's 1966, and when a young woman is found murdered in an idyllic coastal village in Northumberland, Gently and Bacchus find themselves investigating a family with unimaginable secrets.

Initially it appears that the woman's estranged husband, Alan Charlton, father of their enigmatic young daughter Agnes, is responsible for the killing. Then they meet the child's uncle, Darren Paige.

With a rogue reporter, Max Osgood, desperate to get an exclusive story on the family, the police have their work cut out.

As Gently and Bacchus investigate the disturbed family, they discover an alarming truth.

In an added complication, Bacchus is having marriage problems and becomes jealous of Gently when he realises how close the older man has become to his wife, Lisa, and toddler Leigh-Ann.

Some background information on the filming (now in England and not Ireland) can be found on the BBC Press Office website

Incidentally, is Bacchus the most irritating policeman on tv?

The new Inspector George Gently episodes

The first of four new Inspector George Gently episodes, starring Martin Shaw as GG, was shown last night on BBC One. The four episodes are:

Gently with the Innocents

Gently in the Night

Gently in the Blood

Gently Through the Mill

Clicking on the above episode titles will take you to the BBC press release for that episode which contains a detailed plot outline plus some backstage trivia and/or filming locations in Ireland.

A full list of the Gently novels by Alan Hunter, can be found here.