And so a New Year begins with its likely killing fields and an abundance of good crime in prospect on both the page (whether paper or electronic as is increasingly the case) and the screen, but not before 2011 came to a suitable end with the annual Noir in Fest film and literature festival held in Courmayeur in Italy in December (for reflections on 2010′s event, click here and here). Unlike many previous occasions, this 21st edition was an almost snow free week with unusually mild weather, but the festival was as ever its usual convivial and intellect-challenging success.