Month: February 2011

The UK office of fair trading is to "investigate" the agency model

>

I’ve just found out, thanks to fellow blogger and FriendFeed Maxine, that the UK office of fair trading is to "investigate" the agency model publishers are using to force Amazon and other book/ebook sellers to charge what the publisher says and not what the retailer (amazon and co) want.

“The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has announced that it will be conducting an investigation into anticompetitive behaviour by firms with regards to the use of the ‘agency model’ by publishers in relation to the sale of e-books.

Following a number of complaints. the OFT would be looking into whether “arrangements that certain publishers have put into place for the sale of e-books may breach competition rules.”

The investigation will be under the Competition Act 1998 which prohibits agreements, practices and conduct that may have a damaging effect on competition in the UK.

Essentially the agency model means that publishers are able to dictate the prices of ebook products, with firms such as HarperCollins and Penguin able to determine how much consumers pay for their ebooks rather than the vendor, by which the pricing is typically determined having purchased from the publisher.

Does overpricing encourage piracy? Look at DVDs and music, once overpriced and now worthless.”

Read more:

Candied Crime by Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen

>

Fellow blogger and FriendFeed mate Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen has published Candied Crime DJ’s Daim Stories vol.1.

The present issue, the first volume in a planned series, has thirteen flash fiction stories, a collection of cosy and humorous crime, some of which have been published earlier on her blog HERE.

Available on Ebook reading format at $0.99 USD HERE.

I have just bought it and I’m planning to read it soon, stay tuned.

The Redeemer (Frelseren) by Jo Nesbø

Original title: Frelseren (2005). Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett. Vintage, 2009. 576 pages. ISBN: 978-0-099-54044-1

The Redeemer, the sixth of Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole novels, opens at a Salvation Army summer camp in Norway in August 1991. A fourteen years old girl is raped but we don’t know who the offender was. Twelve years later at a street concert, a soldier in the Salvation Army is shot down one cold December night in one of Oslo’s busiest areas. Harry Hole and his team are called to investigate. They have little to work with. There are no immediate suspect, no weapon, no motive. It seems very professional, probably a contract killer. But when the assassin discovers he has shot the wrong man, Harry’s troubles have only just begun. With no money and no place to stay, the hit man becomes increasingly desperate. He will stop at nothing to eliminate his target.

On his personal front Harry Hole has managed to remain sober. He attends regularly AA meetings, although Rakel has left him. But professionally, things don’t seem to work all that well. Bjarne Møller, his boss and protector, is taking a new ‘senior special position’ in Bergen. His new boss, Gunnar Hagen, can make his existence difficult to say the least.

As it is being usual in Nesbø the plot is complex and intricate. And the story, rich and full of historical references, is narrated just at the right pace. I was immediately hooked and could hardly put it down. Harry Hole remains a fascinating character. The Redeemer is a brilliant and exciting story, with enough twists to keep us guessing until the last pages. This is Nesbø at his very best. A captivating read and a fabulous storyteller. Having read so far The Redbreast, Nemesis and The Devil’s Star, I’m catching up on Harry Hole’s series. The Snowman is sitting next on my TBR shelves and The Leopard is on its way. Stay tuned.

The Redeemer has been reviewed at Nordic Bookblog, International Noir Fiction, DJ’S Krimiblog, Reviewing the evidence, Crime Scraps, Detectives Beyond Borders, Mysteries in Paradise and Euro Crime amongst others.

I’m counting The Redeemer for my participation in the Nordic Challenge 2011.

%d bloggers like this: