New Blood for the Brits

The husband will be in Cambridge on Thursday night to take part in "New Blood: Debut Author Evening" at Heffers Books.

I'm not tagging along for this trip, but when I was there before, we had a nice chat with the gentleman who takes care of their crime/thriller books section. He gave me a copy of great little pamphlet they publish -- "The Crime Reader's Map of Cambridge."

It lists novels set in the area, complete with a body map and markings for real, fictional and historical places. It was great fun looking up "kills" for the street our hotel was on, where we had dinner, and so on.

And while I'm at it, let me share a few more pictures from that trip.



This one is inside the university, actually the rooms where the fire takes place near the beginning of "The Malice Box." When Martin took me there a couple summers ago, this section of the college was closed, so we could only look from the steps at the edge of the courtyard.

Since it was open this time, I headed straight for the far stairwell to take a picture since that's how you'd get to Adam's room. And at that point, Martin said he never said which upstairs room belonged to Adam. Apparently it doesn't say in the book. Hmmmm, who does he think he is?? The author? Because I'm entirely certain that Adam's room is on the second floor, the last windows on the right side of courtyard.


The book's sales ranking has been all over the place on Amazon's UK site in the past month. If you read the book (especially if you liked it,) please feel free to sign on to their site and let your thoughts be known. It's popped up on a few bestseller charts here and there and has gotten a few nice remarks from the bloggers -- including (gasp) a spoiler.

He's working on the sequel now, and plans are still a go to get "Malice Box" published in the US come fall.

Labels: books, cambridge, malice box, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 5/09/2007 02:40:00 PM

 
Beware the bowlers

Still sorting through the pictures from the trip to the UK. Here's some street art in Cambridge:

Labels: cambridge, pictures

- posted by Amy @ 2/26/2007 09:47:00 AM

 
The secret violence of the Black Walnut tree

Since my father-in-law's surgery went better (and faster) than expected, we had a bit of extra time to kick around in Cambridge last week. Paid a visit to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, which was established in the 1800s by Charles Darwin's professor John Stevens Henslow.

Sure you can have a good look at the history of plant genetics, but I was more fascinated with the violence in the plant kingdom, like this:

Just before the Lynch Walk on your left is a fine, mature Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) the canopy of which forms a dense tracery against the sky. Black Walnuts are competitive plants and can poison neighbours that grow too close by releasing the chemical juglone from their leaves. ...

Less dramatically, also learned there's a little section of South Africa that has more varied plant life than even the Amazon rainforests.

The picture, by the way, is a seed pod of sorts that's shaped like a rose. Unfortunately the plant wasn't labeled, so I couldn't tell you what it was.

Labels: cambridge

- posted by Amy @ 2/19/2007 10:43:00 AM