Out Today - Das Blut Gericht - Joe Hunter 2

DAS BLUT GERICHT (The Blood Court), the German edition of Judgement and Wrath is out today from Heyne and can be ordered here: http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3453435176/verlagsgruppe-21/

I've just received copies of the book in the German translation (by Stefan Rohmig) and think the covers look awesome - I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but actually seeing them in the flesh they look even better - supremely Gothic looking.

Das Blut Gericht (The Blood Court) coming soon

Das Blut Gericht (The Blood Court) is translated from 'Judgement and Wrath' by Stefan Rohmig, and is the second Joe Hunter thriller to be published by Heyne (Random House). It will officially be released on 9th November 2010.
For more information, take a look here: http://www.randomhouse.de/book/edition.jsp?edi=338025

What is Matt Hilton reading?

Over at the superb blog Campaign For the American Reader, editor Marshal Zeringue posed the question of me: What is Matt Hilton reading?

To read my answer, click here: http://americareads.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-is-matt-hilton-reading.html

and for the full unabridged reply, you can read on at Writers Read by clicking here: http://whatarewritersreading.blogspot.com/2010/08/matt-hilton.html

Also, keep an eye out for my entries for My Book, The Movie and my sampling of Judgment and Wrath at the Page 69 Test very soon.

The latest news...

For those of you who don't know where I've been the past couple of weeks, I was in Gran Canaria on a badly timed annual holiday. This came about having booked a family vacation but then having the publication date of CUT AND RUN moved forward to mid-August. I've been on pins while also trying to enjoy my hols, hoping that CUT AND RUN will go OK due to the staggered dates that the book has been/will be launched on. The official publication date was 19th August and the book is now on general sale in the UK (sorry but it will be 1st October for my friends out in OZ and NZ) although I'm not officially 'launching' the book until 7.30 pm this Friday (27th) at the newly restored New Bookshop, in Cockermouth. I chose the New Bookshop, as it has recently risen anew from the devastating floods that raged through the town last November and also took the life of an ex-colleague of mine when a bridge he was directing members of the public off collapsed. I have blogged about the floods in the past and there are also some horrific photographs of when the waters raged through the bookshop. I'm happy to say that the new shop is beautiful. I hope some of my friends will come along.

In my 'hometown' of Carlisle I'll be doing a signing session at 12.30 on Saturday 4th September at my usual location of Waterstones on Scotch Street. Hopefully some of my readers will hold off purchasing copies of the book until then (so it isn't a complete washout), but if you feel you really must and can't wait (fingers crossed) the book is already on sale in the neighbouring Bookends, and at the supermarkets.

I look forward to seeing you along the way.

For my USA launch of JUDGMENT AND WRATH, alas I can't make it across until Bouchercon in October, however, if you're an early riser, you can hear me talk live this coming Friday 27th at 6.45 AM EST on Dr. Alvin Augustus Jones' show from the Paradise Radio Network.

Double the thrills

In a little over a week two brand new Joe Hunter thrillers will be unleashed on to the bookshelves. In the USA, JUDGMENT AND WRATH is published on Tuesday 17th August by William Morrow and Company, and two days later in the UK, CUT AND RUN is published on Thursday 19th August 2010 by Hodder and Stoughton. Both books are hardback editions.

Sneaky Peek at Blood and Ashes - Joe Hunter 5

I've been playing Cecil B. DeMille again and have come up with this promo video for the fifth Joe Hunter thriller - BLOOD AND ASHES - which should be on sale in the UK around February/March next year. This is a preview for my readers and is not to be found anywhere else on the net yet. Hope you enjoy it and look forward to the book. In the meantime, remember that Slash and Burn is out tomorrow in paperback, and you've only a few weeks to wait until Cut and Run goes on general sale in hardback (August 19th to be exact), and if you're in the USA, Judgment and Wrath hits the stands in hardback on 17th August. Lots of good stuff in the pipeline for Joe Hunter fans

The Blood Court is in session.

Das Blut Gericht roughly translates to English as 'THE BLOOD COURT' and is Joe Hunter book 2 (Judgement and Wrath) to be released in the German language by HEYNE Publishers (Random House) on November 9th 2010.

Like I did with Der Knochensammler (The Bone Collector AKA Dead men's Dust), I love this cover and the gothic horror aspects of the books that my writing portray.

Our Man In Poland

http://pdbrazill.blogspot.com/2010/05/short-sharp-interview-matt-hilton.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PaulDBrazill+%28Paul+D.+Brazill%29

Paul D. Brazill is not only a superbly talented noir and crime writer, but he is also a consumate gentleman. He conducted a short, sharp interview with me for Pulp Metal Magazine some time back, and has re-posted the interview now at his own blog: 'You Would Say That, Wouldn't You?'

Expect different questions than normal...and enjoy.

And while you're there, try out some of Paul's wicked writing at the various links on his site. You will not be disappointed.

Paul's short story THE TUT was recently shortlisted for the 'SpineTingler Award'.

JAW at Euro Crime

There's an excellent review of 'Judgement and Wrath' by Michelle Peckham at Euro Crime if you'd like to read it: http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/Judgement_and_Wrath.html

Thank you Michelle (and Karen)

This weeks big news continues...

In the rush towards publication of my third book, it had almost slipped my attention that this Thursday 18th March 2010, the mass market paperback edition of Judgement and Wrath will also be available to purchase from all good bookshops, supermarkets and such like throughout the UK and across the world.

If you haven't got your copy yet, this is your chance to pick up a Joe Hunter novel that has been getting rave reviews. The brand new cover is awesome...and not a daffodil in sight!

The Sleuth of Baker Street on JAW

Great little review of 'Judgement and Wrath' from THE SLEUTH OF BAKER STREET.

This link takes you to a PDF of the latest newsletter and the review is on page 4:
http://www.sleuthofbakerstreet.com/NEWSLETTERS/January%202010%20Newsletter.pdf

My thanks to all at SOBS for the excellent review.

I met the lovely ladies there while at Bouchercon at Baltimore back in 2008. Nice to see that they remember me and have stocked my books. Again, ladies, thanks for that.

Sons of Spade - Favourites of 2009...and the winner is....

I'm thrilled to find that Judgement and Wrath has been voted the best of 2009 in the 'Best Action Scenes' category over at JV Steen's SONS OF SPADE blog site.

Take a look via this link, and please feel free to thank JV while you're there (if you wish).

http://sonsofspade.blogspot.com/2009/12/favorites-of-2009.html

Judgement and Wrath in large print

Those wonderful folk over at Clipper books are about due to release the large print edition of Joe Hunter 2 JUDGEMENT and WRATH.

Here's a link, if you know anyone who may like a copy: http://www.wfhowes.co.uk/catalogue/titles.php?&t=4277

What The Australian says about Judgement and Wrath

Here's a review for Judgement and Wrath in The Australian - I like it even though it's in an almost-but-not-quite-as-good-as-Lee-Child-way. You can read the review here.

JAW gets a new paperback cover

Again, having just spotted this on Amazon, I'm safe to say that I can now show you the new look paperback cover for Judgement and Wrath for when it's released next spring. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

From Blue Suede Shoes to a Cool Blue Cover

Here's a little interview I did regarding my early days and how i got started in the writing game. Hope you find it informative.

http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk/news/learning/my_schooldays/hold_on_to_that_dream_says_cumbrian_man_who_landed_800_000_book_deal_1_625267?referrerPath=news/learning

Of Dandelions and Daffodils...and explosions (just in case you thought I was growing soft)

Flowers have featured heavily in the last couple of days of my life.

Not very 'thrilling' you might think for a thriller author to be talking about flowers, but there is a reason for it.

Explosions, too.

First off, DANDELION.

I had to chuckle when my well-meaning mam said she'd been reading Judgement and Wrath and had got to the point where Dandelion first shows up. 'It's not Dandelion, it's Dantalion,' I explained. 'Oh, well, you know who I mean,' she responded.

Well, actually, that got me thinking. Must make sure that I don't pick a villain's name that is difficult to pronounce in future. Even in Dead Men's Dust, there were different people calling the killer TWO-BALL Cain (which I'm sure as a red-blooded man he appreciated), while me and a few others pronounced his name Chew-bel Cain.

Another thing that has been mispronounced is Arrowsake (the secret base where Hunter trained while fighting terrorists). Some people ( even on the audio reading of DMD) pronounced it ARRO-SACK-AY as though it was a Japanese name. It isn't it's pronounced ARROW (as in bow and arrow) and SAKE (as in oh, for f..k's sake!). My fault entirely, as I used the original base for the wartime Special Operations Executive as the idea behind Arrowsake. This was based in Scotland at Arisaig, which I turned into a phonetic (ish) sounding Arrowsake to avoid the ire of the locals.

With Dantalion, you can pronounce it DAN-TALLION or DAN-TAY-LION but please don't call him Dandelion - I'm not sure that the warped contract killer would care too much for that. Being callled his mother's little angel was enough to send him off on one, let alone being callled her little weed.

Oh, and by the way, the title of DMD is plural - but it still occasionally gets the singular Dead Man's Dust.

Let this be a lesson to all you aspiring authors when considering titles and character names.

Now for DAFFODILS.

Well, what can I say?

As followers of this blog know, I appeared on BBC Radio Five Live on the Simon Mayo show where J&W was reviewed by three critics. Although I kind of expected to be attacked as being a 'commercial' thriller writer as opposed to being a 'literary author, the last thing I expected was for a discussion to spring up as to what two 'yellow things' were on the cover of the book. Someone suggested rubbish, and someone else suggested 'Daffodils', while I was thinking WHAT THE F..K? Did two tiny yellow blobs of colour mean anything to listeners who couldn't even see the book cover?

OK, so I got that the presenter and the critics were only having a little banter, so I didn't feel precious about it, but you could probably hear from my desultory explanation that 'They're lights in the distance.' that i wasn't that chuffed at the direction the conversation had turned.

But, hey, overall, I came out feeling good. Two of the critics liked the book and said so, while the third, although constantly referring to Lee Child as being better also summed up by saying he liked it.

Now for the EXPLOSIONS!!

The feedback I've had has been massive, and very incendiary from some people (get the explosion reference?).

I've had some well-wishers emailing, and some telephoning, and even some demanding that one of the critics be boiled in oil then strung out for the ravens to peck at....and I have to say a HUGE thank you to you all.

Another one for the aspiring authors here: not everyone will like your work. FACT. Some will try to pull it down at the expense of making others sound better. FACT. Critics criticise. FACT. Just take any bad press on the chin and move on.

...although that big pot of oil is approaching bubbling point!!

Seriously, though, here's some quotes gleaned from said radio interview:

“suffused with testosterone. . .. very exciting . . . I liked Joe Hunter.” Zara Husain

“Fun, furious. . . a good read. . . . cracking pace. . . crisp pacey thriller.” Joel Morris

“I enjoyed it. . . classic opening scene. . . last 1/3 really exciting. I was totally caught-up in it.” Boyd Hilton.

So what's there to complain about, huh?

My thanks to Simon Mayo, and to Zara, Joel and Boyd, for featuring me on the show.

Joe Hunter comes up as a decent Son of Spade

http://sonsofspade.blogspot.com/2009/11/judgement-wrath-joe-hunter-by-matt.html

Here's a link to a review of Judgement and Wrath over at JD Steen's Sons of Spade web-site.

Many thanks to JD for a well-balanced review.

The Northern Echo says...

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/leisure/entertainment/books/reviews/4726598.Judgement_and_Wrath_by_Matt_Hilton__Hodder_and_Stoughton____12_99_/

This is what The Northern Echo has to say about Joe Hunter's latest adventure - Judgement and Wrath. My thanks to Steven Craggs.
Matt

NZ gets JAW this coming Monday

I had a head's up from a buddy in New Zealand who has confirmed that Judgement and Wrath will be out there this coming Monday.
Cheers Bryan.