OK, now what's this? — Win another book

A reader from Pennsylvania long fascinated by bright lights recognized yesterday's photo as a very dusty neon sign and not, as I hoped readers would guess, a Mandelbrot set or a preserved web of veins and arteries. She wins a selection of books from the Detectives Beyond Borders crime library.

You can do the same if you can identify today's photo correctly. Send your guesses and a postal address to detectivesbeyondborders (at) earthlink (dot) net.

© Peter Rozovsky 2014

What is that thing? — Your chance to win a book

I've spent my time shooting instead of reading this past month, and such reading as I have done ain't no crime. (Still, Herodotus on Egypt is worth reading for the pleasure of seeing a sharp, critical mind at work. His guesses about Egypt's geological origins, for example, are breathtaking.)

But it's my new camera that has been keeping me from the books. Here's a photo I took earlier this week. Tell me what the photo shows, and win my respect and maybe a free book.

© Peter Rozovsky 2014

Win books by a couple of Irish guys — We have a winner!

During and after Crimefest 2013 in Bristol, I collected, among other books, the latest novels by Kevin McCarthy and William Ryan. Within days of returning home, I received by mail, among other books, the latest novels by Kevin McCarthy and William Ryan.

That promotional largesse can now win you the books, as I'll send the extra copies to the first readers who correctly answer these skill-testing questions:

1. McCarthy's novels are set amid the agonizing birth of the modern Irish state. The first is titled Peeler. What is a peeler? Win a copy of McCarthy's new book, Irregulars.
2. Ryan's books, set in mid-twentieth-century Soviet Russia, include a notable real-life Russian writer as a character. Who is that writer? Win Ryan's The Twelfth Department. 

*

That didn't take long, did it? One reader in California knew both that peelers are police in Northern Ireland (named for Sir Robert Peel, whose first name became the colloquial name for police in England: bobbies.), and that Isaac Babel is a character in William Ryan's novels. Congratulations. Thanks to you, two Irish guys are smiling, and I save postage by sending two books to one place.

© Peter Rozovsky 2013

Get a clue and win a book (and we have a winner!)

Last week's "Play Where the @#%!^! is Detectives Beyond Borders? and win Adrian McKinty's latest novel" contest asked readers to name the Breton city where I'd spent the day, with the clue that the city's name "might prove a moving experience to readers of English who enjoy word play. Name the city," with one winner to receive a copy of I Hear the Sirens in the Street, McKinty's second novel featuring police officer Sean Duffy.

Several answers came in, both off-site and posted as comments and, while each was creative, none was correct. So here's another clue:

Good luck!

***

We have a winner! I'd come to Brittany to view Neolithic stone monuments, so it is fitting that the winner of the "Where the @#%!^! is Detectives Beyond Borders?" contest is from another region rich in such monuments: Wiltshire, in England. That reader knew, or figured out, from the ermine on the flag that I was in Vannes, pronounced van.

Know that, and it's child's play to figure out why the city's name is a moving experience for English-speaking lovers of word play. So congratulations to Amanda. She wins a copy of the U.S. edition of Adrian McKinty's novel I Hear the Sirens in the Street.

© Peter Rozovsky 2013

Play "Where the @#%!^! is Detectives Beyond Borders?" and win Adrian McKinty's latest

Brittany spears, photo by your humble blogkeeper

While I've been flitting around Europe, dogged only by my home financial institution's apparent efforts to get me thrown in debtors' prison, Detectives Beyond Borders favorite Adrian McKinty has been talking up the U.S. release of his latest novel, I Hear the Sirens in the Street.

Why not, I thought, combine McKinty's work and my play and give you a chance to win a novel about which no less than Daniel Woodrell raves? So, one reader can win the book by playing Where the @#%!^! is Detectives Beyond Borders? and answering this simple question:

The name of the city where I spent the day today might prove a moving experience to readers of English who enjoy word play. Name the city.

First reader to post the right answer here and send me an e-mail at detectivesbeyondborders (at) earthlink (dot) net, including a postal address where the book should be sent, wins it.

Bonne chance!

© Peter Rozovsky 2013

Win a shelf of New Zealand crime fiction

Not everything from New Zealand is fuzzy on the outside; green, sweet, and delicious on the inside. Readers worldwide can win a set of seven New Zealand crime novels, the titles shortlisted for the titles shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. The titles are:

COLLECTING COOPER by Paul Cleave (Simon & Schuster)
LUTHER: THE CALLING by Neil Cross (Simon & Schuster)
FURT BENT FROM ALDAHEIT by Jack Eden (Pear Jam Books)
TRACES OF RED by Paddy Richardson (Penguin)
BY ANY MEANS by Ben Sanders (HarperCollins)
BOUND by Vanda Symon (Penguin)
THE CATASTROPHE by Ian Wedde (Victoria University Press)

Quoth the king of Kiwi crime fiction, Craig Sisterson:

"Anyone can enter the prize draw simply by emailing a photo of themselves reading any New Zealand crime, mystery, or thriller title - contemporary or from days gone by - to ngaiomarshaward (at) gmail (dot) com. 

The book in your picture doesn't have to be set in New Zealand, as long as the author is associated with New Zealand (lives in New Zealand, was born or grew up in New Zealand, etc). So whether it's a well-loved copy of a Ngaio Marsh, Elizabeth Messenger, Laurie Mantell, Michael Wall, or Paul Thomas novel that's been sitting on your bookshelf for years, or a brand new New Zealand crime novel you've recently picked up from a bookstore or library, grab your camera, take a smiling photo of yourself with the book, and send it to ngaiomarshaward (at) gmail (dot) com. If you need some inspiration when it comes to finding an eligible, mystery, or thriller novel to read and photograph, check out this list of more than 80 authors and more than 250 titles here."

I like very much that the contest offers the chance to learn something and not just scarf up a prize. So get educated and enter today!

© Peter Rozovsky 2012

Win Andrea Camilleri's latest (and give yourself one less reason to curse the saints)

Two sentences into The Age of Doubt, fourteenth of Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano mysteries and newly available in English, and Salvo is already cursing the saints:

"He had just fallen asleep after a night worse than almost any other in his life, when a thunderclap as loud as a cannon blast fired two inches from his ear startled him awake. He sat up with a jolt, cursing the saints."

That has long been Salvo's favorite expression of disgust as well as one of mine, and its occurrence this early bodes well for the book. Thanks to the people of Penguin, one lucky U.S. reader can win a copy of The Age of Doubt and curse the saints along with Salvo. All that reader has to do is answer the following question correctly:

What is Salvo's favorite restaurant? (Hint: The restaurant is named for a saint.)

***

While you're scratching your head and cursing the saints, why not weigh in on your favorite invective in crime fiction, read my review of Camilleri's previous Montalbano book, or get hold of Following the Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction, which includes an essay about Camilleri by your humble blogkeeper?

***

We have a winner! Fred in Ohio knew that Salvo's favorite restaurant is the Trattoria San Calogero. He wins a copy of The Age of Doubt, just in time for several festivals of San Calogero in Sicily over the next few weeks. Felicitazióni e buon appetito. 

© Peter Rozovsky 2012

Win a Camilleri library and stuff your face

The good people at Penguin are offering a big, fat prize in conjunction with the release of The Age of Doubt, fourteenth in Andrea Camilleri's series of novels about the splenetic, introspective, put-upon, food-loving police inspector Salvo Montalbano.

Enter by Tuesday to win all 14 Montalbano novels, plus a basket of food that just might divert Salvo's attention from the case at hand: pasta, sauce, olives, desserts, roasted red peppers, olive oil, and cheese. Visit this link for details: http://apps.facebook.com/penguinpaperbacks/Giveaways/Enter/3663

Now, if only they'd offer elocution lessons from Catarella as a prize.

© Peter Rozovsky 2012

Win Arnaldur Indriðason's "Hypothermia"

Arnaldur Indriðason and
your humble blogkeeper
at Bouchercon 2008.

Here's a post that has nothing to do with Bouchercon. It's your chance to win a copy of Hypothermia, Arnaldur Indriðason's sixth Inspector Erlendur novel, to be released in paperback in the U.S.A. next month by the good people at Picador.

Among other things, the book offers a neat solution or two to the problem of maintaining what readers like about a series while keeping the narrative fresh.

I will send a copy to the first reader who answers this skill-testing question correctly:

What is the name of the unfamiliar letter in Arnaldur Indriðason's second name?

***

Liz in the Mid-Atlantic United States knew that the ð in Arnaldur Indriðason's second name is the letter eth (its sound is like that of the th in them.) She wins the U.S. softcover edition of Arnaldur's Hypothermia, a fine novel with a cool title. Congratulations, Liz.

***

Read all my posts about Arnaldur. And read my essay about him in Following The Detectives: Real Locations in Crime Fiction.

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

Win a book and a glimpse of a weird new China

Lisa Brackmann's Rock, Paper, Tiger offers some of the most unexpected views you're likely to get of China short of visiting and hanging out with its squatters, scene-makers, disaffected artists, and others who struggle to stay one step ahead of the country's ruthless capitalistic socialistic-with-Chinese-characteristics wrecking ball.

Now you can meet them by answering this skill-testing question: What Chinese scientist was recently greeted with a hail storm of shoes and eggs in his appearance at a Chinese university? What electronic landmark is he famous for?

First correct answer wins a copy of Rock, Paper, Tiger. Send answers plus a postal address to detectivesbeyondborders (at) earthlink (dot) net

***

Lisa Brackmann was a member of  my "Flags of Terror" panel at Bouchercon 2010. Read her thoughts on architecture, demolition, and community in today's China.

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

Read a review, win a book

My review of Gerard O'Donovan's novel The Priest appears in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, and it was a tough one to write.

An aspect or two of the book drove me nuts, and this distressed me for two reasons: I don't like knocking books, and I feared that my quibbles might seem like idiosyncratic nit-picking.

But I saw my editor preparing his bamboo shoots and thumb screws, so I wrote the review, and I'm glad I did. My complaints only brought into sharper relief the novel's most interesting aspects: It's about a serial attacker/killer, but it does not get inside the attacker/killer's head. Nor, despite the horrific injuries the attacker inflicts, does O'Donovan dwell on them in loving detail.

***

A reader from the state of Fatti maschii, parole femine knew that Pope John Paul II's visit to Dublin forms part of the backstory to The Priest. Her womanly words win her a copy of the novel. Congratulations.

***

My editor excised from the review one damned I'd used as an intensifier. What would he have made of this story?

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

A dose of Stark reality

A contest entry this week turned into a busman's holiday for me with Donald Westlake, writing with his Richard Stark hat on. Here are some of the highlights:

"In a world gone mad, self-interest approached the level of a sacrament, so it was with a will that Baron launched himself into his new found vocation: Looking Out for Number One."

The Handle

"Littlefield leaned closer to him. `You're a young man, you can still learn. Pay attention to this. You can steal in this country, you can rape and murder, you can bribe public officials, you can pollute the morals of the young, you can burn your place of business down for the insurance money, you can do almost anything you want, and if you act with just a little caution and common sense you'll never even be indicted. But if you don't pay your income tax, Grofield, you will go to jail."

The Score

"Casey went, reluctantly, and all the way he kept trying to explain to Grofield that Grofield didn’t have to do any of this. Grofield took him around into the darkness beside the dormitory and hit him with the pistol butt and Casey lay down on the ground and stopped explaining things."

The Handle

"`You’re all right, Parker.’ Scofe raised his head and smiled. He was filthy, and his eyes were covered by a white film, and his teeth were brown. When he smiled, he looked like a parody of something unspeakable. `You’re all right,’ he said again. `You don’t mean all those things you say to me.’"

The Score

***

Trent Reynolds hosts the contest, and Wallace Stroby supplies the prize. The question involves Stark and Dashiell Hammett. That's good, because, as Parker will tell you, any job that requires more than four or five men is no good.

Visit Reynolds' Violent World of Parker site to enter.

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

They won me in a book!

Christopher G. Moore has lived in and written about Thailand for more than twenty years. His new book of essays reveals what he has learned about the country, about writing, and about writing about the country.

What's the book about? Here are the titles of its four sections:

• "Perspectives on crime fiction writing"
• "Clues to solving cultural mysteries"
• "Observations from the frontlines"
• "Outside the Southeast Asia comfort zone," in which Moore leaves Thailand for odd adventures in India

The book's introduction is called "Introduction." I wrote it, and you can read it, along with the rest of the book, in your own free copy. Just be one of the first three people to answer this skill-testing question correctly:

Japan is the Land of the Rising Sun. Korea is the Land of the Morning Calm. What is Thailand's amiable nickname?

***

Readers in England, Oregon and Australia knew that Thailand is nicknamed "The Land of Smiles." Copies of The Cultural Detective will soon he headed their way. Congratulations, and enjoy the book.

© Peter Rozovsky 2011

Win Caryl Férey's "Zulu"

Michael Stanley, who know a thing or two about African crime novels, chose Caryl Férey's South Africa-set thriller Zulu as one of the top ten such books.

The book has won a sheaf of prizes in its original French, including the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France's top award for crime fiction. Now you can see what the fuss is about, courtesy of the good people at Europa Editions, who have added an English translation of Zulu to their fine crime fiction list.

Five readers can win copies of Zulu by answering this simple question: The Zulu were one of the two principal antagonists as South African tribes fought for dominance in the run-up to democracy. Which tribe was their main opponent? (Hint: Nelson Mandela is a member.)

***

We have our winners! Five readers answered correctly that Nelson Mandela is a Xhosa. (Several knew he is a Thembu, one of several groups that make up the Xhosa. So I have learned something from this quiz.)

Congratuations to readers from the great states of Arkansas and Hawai'i and the great countries of Canada, England and Spain. Your books should be in the mail shortly. And, to Europa Editions for agreeing to donate the books, Ngiyabonga! Enkosi! Thanks!

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

Win "The Ice Princess"

Camilla Läckberg has made it to the United States, and two American readers can win copies of The Ice Princess, newly out from Pegasus Publishing. All the two of you have to do is answer this question correctly:

The Ice Princess' English translator has translated books under at least three names in addition to the one he uses here. Tell me at least one of those names along with the title of at least one book translated under that name.

***

A reader in Washington State knew that Steven T. Murray translated Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo under the name Reg Keeland, and a California reader knew that he translated Karin Alvtegen's Shadow under the name McKinley Burnett. They win Camilla Läckberg's The Ice Princess, which Steven T. Murray translated under the name Steven T. Murray. Congratulations.

Now, based on the above, can you guess what kind of music Steven T. Murray likes?

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

Cop some Kiwi crime fiction

The third giveaway at Craig Sisterson's Crime Watch blog offers a chance to win Alix Bosco's Cut & Run, a debut thriller on its way to becoming a television mini-series. (Read the first chapter here. The opening line is a grabber.)

Read what Craig has to say about Alix Bosco here, and enter the contest here.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

Nesbø in North America and your chance to win a book

This could be Jo Nesbø's year in North America. Nemesis, his fourth novel featuring Oslo police detective Harry Hole, has been shortlisted for the CWA's 2010 Edgar Award for best novel. And readers in North America have the chance to get their hands on some new Nesbø.

The Devil's Star, fifth in the series, is just out in hardcover in the U.S., and The Snowman, Book 7, is newly released in Canada and the U.K. Because the order of publication is different in different parts of the English-speaking world, time might be right for a listing of the novels in order of original publication (titles in italics are available in English translation):

1997 – Flaggermusmannen
1998 – Kakerlakkene
2000 – The Redbreast (2006); English translation by Don Bartlett
2002 – Nemesis (2008); English translation by Don Bartlett
2003 – The Devil's Star (2005); English translation by Don Bartlett
2005 – The Redeemer (2009); English translation by Don Bartlett
2007 – The Snowman (2010); English translation by Don Bartlett
2009 – Panserhjerte

=====

And now, one lucky reader can win a copy of the U.S. edition of The Devil's Star, courtesy of the good people at HarperCollins. I'll read it first to see how it differs from the British edition, and then I'll send it to the first person with the correct answer to a skill-testing question. Harry Hole has a wise slacker of a rock and roll-loving cab driver friend named Øystein. You win The Devil's Star if you're the first to tell me the name of Øystein's favorite rock and roll band.

====

Ladies and gentlemen, the answer is the Rolling Stones. Congratulations to Iasa for sending in the right answer before the ink on this page was dry. Read Harry and Øystein's testy exchange about the Stones here.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

We have a winner!

We have a winner of last night's competition.

First across the finish line with the correct answer that 27 U.S. states are at least in part north of Canada's southernmost point was Philip in— well, not far from others names in last night's post. He wins a copy of Let it Ride by John McFetridge.

Vasanth and Michael also came up with the correct answer. They get the silver and the bronze, respectively, along with my congratulations.

The 27 states at least in part north of Canada include the frozen wastelands of California and Nevada, so you have a good answer the next time someone says "The Great White North" and thinks he's being clever.

The book is on its way — once Philip passes the post-competition drug test.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

Take a ride and win a book

Blurbsters and reviewers often invoke Elmore Leonard when talking about John McFetridge, but McFetridge is also a distant relative of such crime writers as Fred Vargas and Janwillem van de Wetering. His cops, bikers and drug dealers are always ready to stop and offer dryly humorous observations:

"They walked into McVeigh's, Andre Price the only black guy in the place, thinking every black guy who ever came in was carrying a badge and gun.

"At least a gun.

"He said to McKeon, `Good thing I have my Irish escort.'

"She sat down with her back to the wall under two rows of black-and-white pictures of men's faces, looked like blown-up mug shots to Price, and said, `I'm the wrong kind of Irish.' "

That's from McFetridge's Let It Ride, released as Swap in Canada in the fall and out next week from Minotaur Books in the United States. I'll send a copy of this border-hopping novel to the first reader with the correct answer to a simple geography question:

How many U.S. states are at least in part north of Canada's southernmost point? Closest answer without going over gets the book.

In the name of Michaëlle Jean, Leonard Cohen, k.d. lang, Roméo Dallaire, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Nancy Greene, I declare this competition Open!

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

We have lots of winners ...

... but only two get books. So many eye-opening and thought-provoking replies poured in for Friday's competition about fallen cities that I'll award two copies rather than one of Annamaria Alfieri's City of Silver.

Alfieri sets her tale of murder and metal in Potosí, little known today (though a UNESCO World Heritage Site), but in the seventeenth century an immensely wealthy city whose silver mines were the economic engine that drove the vast Spanish empire.

I asked readers for examples of other cities whose positions in the world had fallen and promised a copy of Alfieri's novel for the best nomination.

Suggestions flooded in, and I wound up with eyes opened toward parts of the world I had not considered much before, as well as a list of new travel destinations.

In the end, I chose José Ignacio Escribano for his twin suggestions of Manaus, in north Brazil, and Córdoba, Spain, once the capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba, of which it has been said that

"in the latter half of the tenth century Córdoba, with up to 500,000 inhabitants, was then the most populated city in Europe and, perhaps, in the world."

and

Jerry House for Lowell, Massachusetts, once the largest industrial complex in the United States. Honorable mention to Barbara Fister for suggesting Timbuktu, once a religious, intellectual and economic center, and today a byword for way-to-hell-and gone. Honorable mention to the lot of you, really, for the exciting reminders that history is all over the map: North and West Africa, South America, Central Asia, the United States ...

Congratulations to José and Jerry. If they'll send postal addresses to me at detectivesbeyondborders (at) earthlink (dot) net, I'll put their books in the mail. Thanks again to all who contributed to this most enjoyable thread.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010