Crimefest

Crimefest 2011 was thoroughly enjoyable, and for me it offered a chance to relax from the frenetic activity at work following our recent business merger. I spent much more time chatting to friends old and new than attending panels, though I did enjoy all those I did attend. And happily I found time to do a bit of work on and thinking about my plans for the next Lake District Mystery.

Our pub quiz team, the International Bloggers, included Karen Meek of Eurocrime, Dorte from Denmark and Kerrie Smith from Mysteries in Paradise. We didn't make a great start, and shamefully I managed not to recognise Jane Marple from Peter Guttridge's cleverly selective description, but we did have productive rounds involving anagrams and Hitchcock movies, and were rewarded with some freebie books and audio books. It was a great pleasure to meet Dorte and Kerrie and their husbands. As always, Peter did a great job with the quiz questions.

Karen kindly sent me the photo of the quiz team. And Pauline Rowson (who also blogs splendidly) sent me the other two photos, taken by her husband Bob. Pauline and I first met a few years back at a TV studio. The full story is less glamorous, we agreed, than it sounds, but it was great to see her and Bob again. One photo shows me with Pauline, the other was taken at the Severn House drinks reception, and features Peter Guttridge, Ann Cleeves, Michael Walters (someone else I was delighted to have the chance to chat to at some length) and Maureen Carter.

I'll post a bit more about Crimefest - when I get my breath back!

Wallander - Mastermind

Good as the Kenneth Branagh series for BBC TV was, I’m starting to think that the Swedish television take on Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander is even better. Thanks to Karen Meek of the excellent Eurocrime blog, I learned that the programmes are going out on BBC 4 and I have just watched ‘Mastermind’.

Needless to say, ‘Mastermind’ has nothing to do with either the television quiz show or its Crimefest equivalent! But it is an outstanding story, which I found gripping from start to finish. I’m not wildly enthusiastic about sub-titles, but on this occasion they proved no obstacle at all to my enjoyment.

Kirster Henriksson is very good as Wallander. It’s a more subdued performance than Branagh’s, but highly effective. In this story (which is original, not based on a Mankell novel) a middle-aged woman’s body is found hanging from her apartment ceiling, and drained of blood. Soon, the daughter of one of Mankell’s colleagues is snatched from her blood-spattered bedroom, and it turns out that the blood is not hers, but belongs to the murdered woman. Mankell’s daughter is then injured, and it emerges that someone is targeting the police. But why?

The climax is very tense. All in all, this is first-rate viewing. Strongly recommended.