The latest issue of Literature Matters carries this article on non-English (European) Crime Writers - how they provide new ways of looking at crime and how the recent exclusion of translated works from Crime Writers' Association's annual Award indicates the popularity of such translated works.

I would wager a vigorous bet that the influence of these books and authors will soon begin to make itself seen in the books of our own British and American crime and mystery authors as they familiarise themselves with new ways of looking at the world, approaching the universal theme of the struggle between good and evil, that is at the heart of most mystery fiction.

I, for one, am a huge fan of Henning Mankel, never being able to pass up an opportunity to pick up his latest Wallander mystery and offering the aging and all-too-human Wallander a giant dose of sympathy.