Your quick update from Bloody Scotland:

 

Photo: Fraser Rice

LAUNCHING THE 2019 PROGRAMME ON 3RD JUNE

  • In case you missed last week’s announcement, we are so very pleased to be welcoming Val McDermid to star at our programme launch in Stirling on 3 June 2019 with an event in Stirling for her next, slightly different book, for which tickets are available RIGHT NOW! For just £5 you can see Val talk about how she has used distinctive settings across Scotland in her books, in her new photography book My Scotland. (1pm, 3rd June, Golden Lion Ballroom, Stirling) Organised book by book, My Scotland goes through McDermid’s titles and the places in which they are set. She will be on stage at the Golden Lion Ballroom with Alan McCredie (her teammate on BBC Radio 4 panel show “Round Britain”), whose photographs of Scotland illustrate it. Val is a bit of a national treasure and we are absolutely delighted that she can join us at the launch of Bloody Scotland particularly as she will be in New Zealand at the time of the festival itself.

    >>> GET YOUR TICKETS NOW <<<

THE MCILVANNEY PRIZE

  • Submissions for 2019’s McIlvanney Prize closed recently and it was a record year for us with 82 entries, including 14 debuts in the running for the inaugural Debut Prize. We can also reveal the judges this year to be Stuart Cosgrove, Jamie Crawford and Alison Flood! (Read a little more about them here.) We’ll reveal the longlist as soon as our readers have time to make their way through all 82 entries! A busy few weeks ahead…

ALEX GRAY’S NEW CRIMES

  • On Saturday 21 September four new crime writers will be taking the stage in Stirling to be part of our co-founder Alex Gray’s popular New Crimes panel. All she praises for ‘how well the stories stuck in my mind and, more importantly, the superb quality of writing’. In Alex’s own words:
    • Freefall by Jessica Barry (Harvill Secker) was just one of those thrillers that creates a lasting impression long after finishing the story, a crime debut by a writer previously known for romantic fiction. Quite a leap!
    • Close to the Edge by Toby Faber (Muswell Press) kept me reading and I loved the setting and characters in equal measure
    • Past Life by Dominic Nolan (Headline) combines Police Procedural with a harrowing account of one woman’s amnesia, not a tale for the faint-hearted and never falling into the trap of a predictable outcome but a book that grabs you and refuses to let go till the very end.
    • The Rumour by Lesley Kara (Bantam Press) takes what might be considered a small thing, a mere rumour, and build it into a thrilling story. The Rumour might be compared to the recent BBC drama, The Victim, but its resemblance is pure coincidence, just showing the zeitgeist prevailing right now.Tickets for Alex Gray’s New Crimes panel will be available from 3rd June.