Welcome,

The World of Crime is international crime writing at its best. Canada's own Giles Blunt, Sweden's Henning Mankell and France's Fred Vargas are the award-winning and best-selling inaugural authors in this exciting new initiative.

As a reader of crime fiction you know how insatiable your appetite can be for a good read in the genre. With the success of Giles Blunt outside Canada and the success of Henning Mankell outside Sweden, we are seeing a growing taste for crime committed internationally and World of Crime will bring you offerings from the world's best. A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor said, "Reflecting the issues facing the nations in which they take place, many international detective novels are more than simple whodunits." Isn't that we're looking for in good crime writing? The Guardian in the U.K. also said "These are often novels with a social conscience grappling with the issues of 21st-century Europe". We should be, and are, more curious about the bigger world we live in and all that that implies. When crime fiction is at its best it can, as the beloved P.D. James argues, "stand with any good straight novel. It can tell you more about life today than more 'prestigious' novels." Why shouldn't P.D. James be considered for the Man Booker Prize?

Last year the most prestigious award in British crime-writing, The Golden Dagger, awarded by the British Crime Writers' Association, was given to Arnaldur Indridason of Iceland. This has prompted the British Crime Writers' Association to bar foreign writers from the Golden Dagger as Spaniard José Carlos Somoza won the Dagger in 2002, and in 2001 it was given to Henning Mankell. Why no foreign writers? Perhaps the reasoning is that they are simply too good these days.

Along with the three authors mentioned above, we are thrilled that P.D. James' most recent novel THE LIGHTHOUSE will be a Vintage World of Crime title available in bookstores on April 25, 2006. Coming soon are books by American Chris Knopf whose work is set on Long Island and British writer Colin Cotterill who lives in Thailand and sets his books in Laos.

It would seem things are conspiring to bring international crime fiction to the attention of readers everywhere and with World of Crime we intend to bring the best to you.

Enjoy.

Marion Garner
Publisher, Vintage Canada