British Invasion

And while we’re thinking of Bouchercon (we were, weren’t we?), Bloody Brits Press is due to launch there this weekend. Even without the launch, this is an imprint that seems destined to make inroads fast. According to The Guardian:

It's time for the bloody Brits to invade America. So says crime novelist Val McDermid, who has teamed up with U.S. publisher Kelly Smith to bring UK crime and thriller writers to the vast American market.

The idea is that American readers starved for hard-to-find UK mysteries will flock to bookstores for the latest releases of books by authors that might not otherwise be available to them.

While American readers won’t find the concept difficult to understand, readers in the UK might think the idea a bit confounding. The Guardian remarks that it’s “a refreshing leap of faith at a time when the UK book trade is obsessed with the next offerings from Thomas Harris, Kathy Reichs, John Grisham, and James Patterson.”

The grass is always greener on the other side of the pond.

Over the next few months, Bloody Brits Press will introduce works by Chaz Brenchley, Sarah Diamond, Joyce Holms, Bill Kirton, John Malcolm, Danuta Rhea, Chris Simms, and McDermid herself.