The International Crime Fiction Research Group, based at the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities in Queen’s University Belfast, was created in 2013. It brings together scholars from disciplines such as literature, film studies and cultural history. Its principal aim is to organise a series of initiatives themed around issues relating to the international genres of crime fiction, in order to establish long-term collaborations with other UK and European scholars and Libraries. It will involve crime authors and series editors, and other stakeholders in the circulation of crime fiction, such as publishers, critics, translators and specialised retailers. It builds on a series of conferences held to date by the Ireland-based International Crime Genre Research Network, in partnership with Dr Kate Quinn (University of Galway) and Dr Marieke Krajenbrink (University of Limerick) in Galway (2005), Limerick (2007), Cork (2009) and Belfast (2011).

The group’s leading research programme investigates processes of international circulation and exchanges in the crime genre. Based on quantitative analyses and on qualitative readings, it investigates phenomena of translation and imitation between the leading modern cultural industries in which the genre was developed in the 19th Century (in the US, France and the UK) and their importing into, and appropriation by other cultural areas. It seeks to assess trends and influences, as well as the genre’s tensions between conforming and diversity in different languages, literatures and cultures. The research group will therefore include studies of acculturation, dissemination and will measure the success, both commercial and critical, of works of crime fiction from various cultural areas, in and outside Europe.
May I mention my latest Sherlock Holmes chronicle, set in The Forbidden City in 1907. Published November 2016.
Website http://tim-symonds.co.uk
In which Holmes displays his exceptional knowledge of forensic pathology
It’s 1907. Holmes and Watson encounter the terrifying Empress Dowager Cixi at the height of her power…
Sherlock Holmes And The Nine-Dragon Sigil
From MX Publishing http://www.mxpublishing.co.uk
First review of the ‘Nine-Dragon Sigil’ –
https://www.readingalley.com/book/view_review/da3ba823/9/d3d97d83/
Sigil. Pronounced sijil. An inscribed or painted symbol or occult sign considered to have magical power
It’s the year 1906. Rumours abound that a deadly plot is hatching – not in the fog-ridden back-alleys of London’s Limehouse district or the sinister Devon moors of the Hound of the Baskervilles but in faraway Peking. Holmes’s task – discover whether such a plot exists and if so, foil it. Are the assassins targeting the young and progressive Ch’ing Emperor or his imperious aunt, the fearsome Empress Dowager Cixi? The murder of either could spark a civil war.
China’s fate and the interests of Britain’s Empire in the Orient could be at stake. Holmes and Watson take up the mission with their customary confidence – until they find they are no longer in the familiar landscapes of Edwardian England. Instead, they tumble into the Alice In Wonderland world of The Forbidden City.
***
Sherlock Holmes And The Nine-Dragon Sigil was written in a converted oast house near Rudyard Kipling’s old home, Bateman’s, in the English county of East Sussex.
Tim Symonds was born in London. He grew up in Somerset, Dorset and the Channel Island of Guernsey. After several years travelling widely, including farming in the Highlands of Kenya and working on the Zambezi River in Central Africa, he emigrated to the United States. He studied at Göttingen, in Germany, and the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in Political Science.
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As the organiser of the St Hilda’s College Crime Weekend, I would love to make contact with this network. Hope someone can drop me a line. https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/Hildascrime2018
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how does one join the group?
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Hello,
I’m impressed with your website and would be grateful if you would consider reviewing and sharing my debut thriller Tight Lies to the community.
Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher books endorses it as ‘Hard, Fast and Really Good!’
This is the link on Amazon http://mybook.to/tightlies
The author website is http://www.ted-denton.com and on Twitter/ Instagram page my handle is TedDentonWrites
Look forward to hearing from you on anything further you may need from me.
All the best,
TD
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