The Return of Elena Forbes & Mark Tartaglia

It's been a few years but Elena Forbes's series detective, DI Mark Tartaglia, is back in The Jigsaw Man in January 2015:

In the early hours of the morning DI Mark Tartaglia is sent to a London hotel to investigate the murder of a young woman. When he recognises the victim, the case takes a dark and personal turn. Another case he has been investigating - the body of a homeless man found in a burnt out car - is also not what it seems. Tests reveal that the body has been assembled from the parts of four different people. Tartaglia now has a far more macabre puzzle to solve. With the clock ticking, and torn between the two investigations, he must decide where his priorities lie.


The previous (and third book in the series), Evil in Return, was published in 2010.

New Competition

Win a copy of Elena Forbes's new book, Our Lady of Pain. Details on how to enter are on the Competition page (conditions apply).

New Reviews and Updates

Here are this week's new reviews, website updates and a reminder of January's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews The Dark Eye by Ingrid Black - a book which starts well but ultimately disappoints;

Maxine is also disappointed with the debut novel from Elena Forbes - Die With Me and gives the writer a tip for the next book...;

Terry Halligan rose to the challenge of the monumental girth of Elizabeth George's What Came Before He Shot Her and enjoyed it enormously;

I took on the minuscule girth of the middle part of the amazing De Luca series by Carlo Lucarelli - The Damned Season - a short book but with a lot packed into it

and Laura Root reviews Frank Tallis' Fatal Lies and finds it continues his high standard.


Other Website Updates

The News page has been updated.

The Authors page (a list of author homepages) now has 608 entries.

The New Releases pages have been updated.


Current Competition (closing date 31 January):

Win a copy of Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

New crime author for Quercus

Publishing News reports that Quercus:

...has acquired an author whom it believes is set to join the ranks of British crime-writing greats.

Publisher Sue Freestone has taken on Elena Forbes, a former investment banker whose debut Die With Me will introduce readers to DI Mark Tartaglia and pathologist Fiona Blake. The novel is set in the London suburb of Barnes, which in Forbes’ hands is “as vivid as Morse’s Oxford”, while Tartaglia has “the charisma and complexity of a Rebus or Wexford”.

The book is part of “a very decent” two-book deal, and independent TV production company Windfall, which is pitching a documentary about the making of a bestseller, is filming Forbes as she goes through the editorial process.

I'm surprised they didn't throw a reference to Dalgleish in there too...