Fictional detective meets creator: Craig Russell's Wolfsfährte

Scottish writer Craig Russell takes viewers on a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the German screen adaptation of his book BROTHER GRIMM (Wolfsfahrte), which I understand is scheduled to hit German TV screens in December this year, in this YouTube video.

Russell describes witnessing the filming of his his book, and seeing his characters coming alive via the actors, as very much"the peak of my achievement - the ultimate in achieving what I wanted to achieve with the Fabel series."

Russell is the author of the best-selling and critically-acclaimed Jan Fabel thrillers set in Hamburg, and the Lennox thrillers set in 1950s Glasgow. His evocation of Hamburg in the Fabel series is so good that early in his career some media thought he was a German writing under a British name, rather than a Scotsman writing stories set in Germany. In fact, in 2007 Russell was awarded the highly prestigious Polizeistern (Police Star) by the Polizei Hamburg, the only non-German ever to receive this award. He has also won the CWA Dagger in the Library, and been shortlisted for the CWA Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger.

I first came across Russell when I picked up a copy of BROTHER GRIMM from the airport bookshop when I was headed from Auckland to LA in 2007. I read the book at summer camp (I was a counselor), and really enjoyed the mix of modern crime entwined with myth and history.

Last year I was fortunate enough to interview Russell for a feature article in The Weekend Herald, looking at his Hamburg-set Jan Fabel thrillers, and his then-recent foray 'back home' to Scotland with the start of his 1950s Glasgow-set Lennox series (you can read my EuroCrime review of LENNOX here). I found him to be very intelligent, humble, and interesting to interview. You can get a bit of a sense of him in the YouTube video - which certainly has me intrigued and excited as to how the German production of the Jan Fabel story will come together on screen. Hopefully we may get a chance to see it in English-speaking countries at some stage.

Thoughts? Comments? Have you read any of Craig Russell's books? What do you think?