Willard Grant Conspiracy - A No Alibis Event

No Alibis Bookstore and Strange Victory present an evening of spoken word and music with The Willard Grant Conspiracy and Ian Rankin on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th November at 8:30PM. Doors for this unique event mixing the finest in Indie Americana with the best of writing in the crime genre will open at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, priced £12.50 (£8.50 concession) for each night.

We're pleased to announce that BBC Radio Ulster’s Ralph McLean will be on stage, interviewing Robert and Ian. Ralph will be in his element as a lover of all things Americana and a devotee of Crime Fiction.

Willard Grant Conspiracy is an alt-country band currently based near Palmdale, California. Originally formed in 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts by Robert Fisher and Paul Austin, the band operates as a collective, with vocalist Fisher the only permanent member. Up to thirty other musicians occasionally contribute to the band, both in the studio and during live performances.

The band toured extensively in 2005 and 2006 visiting twenty-three countries, including a showcase at the South by Southwest music festival. Fisher's voice and Americana style have been compared to both John Cale and Johnny Cash, with most songs being acoustic. Their 2003 release Regard The End, featuring Kristin Hersh as well as Chris Eckman of The Walkabouts, received critical acclaim with UNCUT magazine naming it album of the month.

Robert Fisher will be joined on stage by James Youngjohns (Viola) (Anna Kashfi/Last Harbour).

Ian Rankin needs no introduction...born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960,he graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus books are now translated into twenty-two languages and are bestsellers on several continents.

His latest novel “The Impossible Dead”, will be available on the night and Ian will of course be signing copies.



Malcolm Fox is back...

Fox and his team are investigating whether fellow cops covered up for Detective Paul Carter. Carter has been found guilty of misconduct, with his own uncle - also in the force - proving to be his nemesis. But what should be a simple job is soon complicated by a brutal murder and a weapon that should not even exist.

A trail of revelations leads Fox back to 1985, a year of desperate unrest when letter-bombs and poisonous spores were sent to government offices, and kidnappings and murders were plotted. But while the body count rises the clock starts ticking, and a dramatic turn of events sees Fox in mortal danger.

Malcolm Fox returns in the stunning second novel in Ian Rankin's new series...



TV presenter, Radio DJ, respected arts commentator, producer, scriptwriter and newspaper columnist; Ralph has done it all in his impressive career. His life long passion for music and the arts has served him well as the popular presenter of entertainment TV shows such as First Stop, 11th Hour, Belfast Festival At Queens and many more.

On radio he has presented his own two hour roots show, the ever popular McLeans Country, for more than five years now on BBC Radio Ulster and made more series and one-offs than even he cares to remember.

He is 6 feet 4 inches tall and dreams of the day that Liverpool FC will win the Premiership.

Well a man can dream can’t he?

We expect this event to be very popular, so avoid disappointment and book your tickets now. Tickets can be obtained directly from the Crescent Arts Centre's event page.

A Wee Review - Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'Edera

Ian Rankin is best known and often lauded for his Rebus series of crime fiction novels set in Edinburgh. He’s written relatively few standalones to date. So I was quite surprised when I found out he’d penned a graphic novel. And as I read it, I was even more surprised by the hybrid genre he’d thrown himself into. Dark Entries is one part nihilistic private detective story and one part Barker-esque demonic horror. Now, I have to confess that I am disgracefully uneducated in Rankin’s work for a self-confessed crime fiction junky, but I imagine his hardcore fans would have been pretty surprised by this deviation in style, form and genre. Pleasantly, I hope.

Rankin’s protagonist in Dark Entries is a well-seasoned recurring character best known as the star of the Hellblazer series. Now, I admit that I’m no expert in comic book trivia, and had to refer to Constantine’s Wikipedia page to learn a little about his history at DC Comics. However, as far as I can decipher, Rankin is sticking his neck out quite a bit by taking on this character. With so many chronicled adventures under Constantine's belt and a very solid fan base, the smallest of slips in characterisation are sure to draw criticism like flies to poop. But based on my slapdash learning, Rankin seems to have handled it well.

Constantine is an occult detective of questionable morals and sarcastic charm. In Dark Entries, he is approached by a network executive at the helm of a new reality TV series. The idea of the TV show is basically Big Brother in a haunted house. Said house is set up with all manner of technical jiggery-pokery designed to freak the housemates’ beans. But there’s a ghost in the machine. Or several. And so Constantine’s mission, should he choose to accept it, is to go into the house in the guise of a surprise contestant and see what’s what. After a little bartering and a tonne of sarcasm, Constantine agrees to go in, armed only with nicotine patches and a flimsy cover story. And then things get a bit FUBAR.

Dell'Edera’s art is bang on the money for this story. Working in stark black and white with little-to-no grey shading, somehow he manages to make each panel seem softer than it should and very easy on the eye. Constantine looks as badass as he should and some of the more imaginative art that features in the second half of the novel... bloody marvellous. Literally. Something else caught my eye in the novel’s presentation – at the midpoint, the story takes a From Dusk to Dawn-type twist when things just go nuts. From that point on, the panels are framed in a black background which distinctly marks out the change in direction and sanity. It’s a neat little trick.

Dark Entries will take you to hell and (part of the way) back. In it you’ll find a fascinating satire of soulless reality TV and a thoughtful study in flexible morality. It represents another string to Ian Rankin’s bow and Vertigo Crime should be applauded for allowing him the opportunity to experiment.

So, who’s the next crime fiction writer to pull out all the stops for this DC Comics imprint?

Jason Starr.

Bring on The Chill!

Get Your (Comic Book) Geek On...

Feast your eyes on the tasty loot I managed to get my grubby mitts on this week:




Beautiful new graphic novels. Two hardbacks and an advance review copy. The first three titles from the new DC Comics imprint, Vertigo Crime. Not suitable for kids or adults of a sensitive disposition. Perfect for a little Mick crime junky like me. Especially since Jason Starr's offering is steeped in Irish mythology.

I've already devoured Filthy Rich. Pure American noir. More on that in a day or two.

News Scraps – A Chain of Linkage

Stuart Neville is officially a Rising Star. If you’ve read The Twelve, please stop off at Amazon UK and leave a review for him. More reviews he gets, the more chance he has of becoming THE Amazon Rising Star. A kingpin of debut novelists, so to speak.

Tony Bailie has a story up on the Verbal Magazine website. That’s a prestigious spot to occupy, especially now that the magazine is bi-monthly and they only run one piece of fiction per issue.

And Sam Millar is making waves on the blogosphere ahead of the release of The Dark Place. See what they have to say about him on Liffeyside and Sons of Spade. I’ll have to crack the spine of my copy soon.

I doubt anybody will forget that James Ellroy is coming to Belfast in November. (I’ve a suspicion that Stuart Neville has some impressive news to reveal on that score, but I’ll not speculate on what it might be. Wouldn’t want to steal his thunder, you know?) Tickets will be on sale soon, according to the Waterfront website.

Here’s another big event that slipped under my radar -- Ian Rankin at the Belfast Waterfront as part of the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's.

So there you have it, plenty going on in and around these parts crime fiction-wise.