Read All About It:

GREAT BRITISH FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
by
Russell James

published by Remember When
(an imprint of Pen & Sword)

Recommended price £19.99
(though check for lower on the net!)

ISBN 978 1844 680269

And don't miss my recent historical novel, The Maud Allan Affair - a 'fictography', i.e. a fictionalised biography, of the legendary Maud Allan, originator of The Dance of the Seven Veils. The book is a handsome hardback - with photos - published by Pen & Sword.

Find out more at
The Maud Allan Affair page.
Talking of non-fiction, I was also a principal contributing editor to the Harcourt Encyclopaedia of Crime Fiction, also out this year - but at a much higher price!

---

OTHER NEWS:

Out this year in France is a fine translation of my Painting in the Dark - known there as Peindre au Noir.



Renowned publishers FAYARD and translator Corinne Julve have done a superb job here.

Plenty of mentions on French websites:

bibliosurf.com called it "un roman noir d’une exceptionnelle tenue, un portrait dense et documenté de la figure du Mal dans toutes ses ambiguïtés."

"C'est exactement cela," agreed bibliomanu on his blogspot. "A un point tel que j'ai vraiment eu l'impression que partie documentée et partie fictionnelle ont évolué en parrallèle sans jamais parvenir à se confondre tout à fait, ne permettant pas à ce polar d'accéder au rang de 'roman noir exceptionnel'. Intéressant et instructif, certes, mais souvent redondant, Peindre au noir, ne sera jamais parvenu à faire baisser mon désintérêt grandissant."

Reviewer actu-du-noir agreed. This is "un gros roman, dense, parfois dur et dérangeant, mais toujours passionnant," he decided.

And a contemplative but appreciative piece in the Breton discussion group Eireann summed it up as: "Un excellent roman, très bien écrit et je pense très bien documenté également. La chronologie n'étant pas toujours respectée, ce livre requiert une attention soutenue. Il nous raconte l'histoire de ces soeurs qui, ayant vécu malgré tout des existences en marge des normes, finissent toutes les deux dans une sorte d'opprobre national. En effet ce livre en plus d'être un roman sur le monde de l'art, est aussi un rappel historique sur une période assez sombre de l'Angleterre."

---

Last year in the States saw the first American reissue of my first thriller - the cult classic Underground - which Stark House Noir Classics put together with a collection of my shorter stories. It's a great-looking paperback, retailing at a mere $14.95.
Quote ISBN 1-933586-17-6 to make your bookseller happy. Or order direct from the publisher, Stark House Press, 2200 0 Street, Eureka, Cal 95501 (phone (707) 444 8768 or check the website Stark House Press


- UNDERGROUND was my first book.

'An original and innovative voice in the too-cosy world of crime fiction' said Mike Ripley in the Daily Telegraph.

'An unholy cross between Len Deighton and the great American noir novelist David Goodis' felt John Williams in The Face

'Britiain seen through a gun-sight' declared the Literary Review

For an American view of UNDERGROUND, click here.

Publication details from Stark House Press

---

ESSENTIAL READING: Have you read the blackest Russell James?

NO ONE GETS HURT
(recommended by The Erotic Review, praised by The Literary Review), and coming out in 2010 in France.

Find out why at the
No One Gets Hurt page.

---

Or for a lighter read: PICK ANY TITLE
which has now come out in Russian.
I can't quite get my head round this: it's a black comedy, for Heaven's sake.

PICK ANY TITLE - my lightest, funniest book
Check the Pick Any Title page.

Another sexy cover, I'm afraid.)

---