An interview with DCI Logan author, JD Kirk
An interview with DCI Logan author, JD Kirk
When I’m not writing about my characters, I miss them
An interview with DCI Logan author, JD Kirk
We caught up with crime writing sensation JD Kirk, before his appearance, alongside novelist Rachel Abbott, at our opening event on Friday the 13th of September, at 3pm.
You’re appearing alongside Rachel Abbott at Bloody Scotland at our opening event. What can bloody Scotland fans can expect from the event?
Generally, whenever I do any of these events, I absolutely wing it, and so I’m no way prepared. I never prepare for any of them. I think it’s better when it’s more spontaneous. I’ve met Rachel before. We were actually on a panel together just prior to me switching to crime fiction. She was talking about her crime books, and I was talking about a comedy science fiction series that I wrote called Space Team. I remember telling her at the time that I was looking at writing a crime novel, and Rachel, and author LJ Ross, who was also on the panel, were both very, very encouraging. I’ve not seen Rachel since, so it’ll be good to catch up and say, look, I did it!
You’ll be discussing your latest book, A Killer of Influence at the festival, can you tell us about the inspiration behind the book?
The book comes out on the 12th of September – just the day before my event. We have hardbacks in stock, ready to go, so someone will get the first signed copy of the novel at Bloody Scotland.
The book is about social media and how beauty spots in places like the Highlands are being taken over by social media users and influencers. Take Glenfinnan, for example. It’s a tiny little village which the Glenfinnan Viaduct runs through and has done for hundreds of years – but now it’s just the ‘Harry Potter Bridge’. Locals are being driven demented by people coming up dressed in robes so they can take pictures of themselves in front of the bridge as the Hogwarts Express goes across it. Visitors are parking in people’s driveways and destroying verges and all kinds of stuff. That sort of thing is happening more and more not just across the Highlands, but across lots of rural places. There’s this sense of entitlement that I think both the internet and Covid have given people. And that’s what first inspired the idea behind A Killer of Influence.
The book is about a group of social media influencers who are at a convention in the Highlands and go missing. Broadcasts start playing on their social media profiles showing them locked up in cages and being made to perform for their lives, basically. It’s probably the darkest book I’ve written so far, but it’s also got lots of humour in it. The humour is the kind of thing that attracts a lot of people to the series, and that’s what makes it enjoyable to write. I couldn’t just write, you know, relentlessly bleak stuff.
Where did your character DCI Jack Logan come from?
I would say he’s kind of a wish fulfilment thing. He can say things that I can’t say out of politeness. I’m too nice! I think a lot of Logan is me, but with that nice bit and my politeness dialled down and the rest of it dialled up. He’s also the same height as me which is no coincidence!
What compels you to write crime fiction?
Well, I actually started off writing children’s books. I wrote kids’ books for 10 years for Harper Collins and Penguin and various others. But for me, whatever I write has always just been about characters and people and how they interact. Under the surface, a lot of my books are just about dysfunctional sort of families or groups of people that have come together and need to find a way to get along with each other. That’s what keeps me coming back to the DCI Logan series and my spinoff books. It’s about finding new ways to get those characters together and seeing what happens. I feel like I’m almost observing when I’m writing now because I know the characters really well.
When I’m not writing about them, I find myself missing the characters. Like my readers – I want to know what the characters have been getting up to and what’s been happening between books. The actual crime bit is almost secondary to me, and I think it is to a lot of my readers as well. I don’t often get people saying, oh, I love the mystery element. People will say, oh, I’m really sad about what happened to Ben, or, I can’t believe this has happened to Tyler, or whatever. One of my main police characters is pregnant with twins at the moment and I’ve had three or four people email me to say they’ve started knitting – for fictional babies that would never exist! Readers get really invested in the characters – and that’s what I love too.
What’s the best thing about Bloody Scotland?
It is such a celebration of crime fiction. It really feels like a celebration – and not like a festival. A lot of festivals feel quite dry but Bloody Scotland – with its quiz nights and karaoke and whatever else is going on – feels like quite a joyous thing.
JD Kirk will be at the festival this year to talk about his novel, A Killer of Influence on Friday the 13th of September at 3pm
![Ruth Stairs](https://bloodyscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ruth-Stairs-uai-800x1066.jpg)
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
A criminally good catch up with AA Chaudhuri
A criminally good catch up with AA Chaudhuri
An interview with novelist, AA Chaudhuri
This week, we caught up with novelist AA (Alex) Chaudhuri who is the author of the new thriller, Under Her Roof. Alex, who will be at the festival on Saturday the 14th of September to discuss her latest book, will appear alongside CM Ewan and BA Paris, at our Everyday Extraordinary event.
How did you become a novelist?
Like most authors, I always loved reading. I was an only child, so I always had my nose buried in a book. In the back of my mind, I think I always knew I’d like to be an author, but things took a different turn, as they do in life. I used to play tennis professionally, so that was my life for about 13 years. But I always had a book with me on the tour!
I went back and did my A Levels and then went to law school but I knew by the time I was three years qualified that I wasn’t really enjoying it. I had my first child, and I knew that I wanted to spend more time with the kids and I’d had this book idea in my head for a long time. When I was pregnant with my second child, I started writing and it just sort of felt right.
You’ll be appearing alongside CM Ewan and BA Paris, what can Bloody Scotland fans expect from the event?
I’m so excited about it. Our panel is about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. And I think that’s what makes the psychological thriller so compelling. It takes ordinary people and very ordinary circumstances and looks at the worst thing that could happen! I think that’s what makes psychological thrillers so relatable for readers. They tend to explore issues we can all relate to, but then take things down a dark path! I think that’s what makes it so exciting because we can all see ourselves going down a dark path sometimes. We’re all fallible human beings and we try to live within morally acceptable boundaries, but the characters in our novels tend not to.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your latest book, Under Her Roof?
My novel is about a landlord and tenant, which is a very ordinary situation that many of us have been in – most of us have been tenants at one point, I’m sure. But what struck me about that particular setup was the fact that they’re both strangers to each other. So, you don’t know what the other person’s past is, or what they’re hiding. And that’s the other thing in psychological thrillers – a lot of it is about what people keep back, behind that facade. It’s all about the secrets that people keep and the things they don’t show to the outside world. You don’t know what your next-door neighbour might have been up to – that’s what makes it so thrilling, I think.
I chose to base the book in Hampstead because I know that area quite well. I used to live in northwest London, so it was an area I was very familiar with. Hampstead’s supposed to be quite a rich, affluent, nice area of London. And I thought that would provide quite a lot of dramatic irony because my characters are in this amazing house where they should feel incredibly safe but of course it’s anything but! I really like the idea of that juxtaposition – something very dark happening somewhere very beautiful.
What compels you to write crime thrillers?
I just find them really exciting. For me it’s a real challenge. I love constructing puzzles. I love trying to fool readers and getting them to guess what’s going on. I love the red herrings and all the twists and the turns. I love to be shocked, and I love to shock my readers as well. I think that’s really exciting. There’s just so many challenges to crime writing.
I also love the way the genre comments on society. A lot of it is about human nature, about what drives people to do the things they do. Human nature is not all black and white, circumstances can drive people to do terrible things. I think crime writers and psychological thriller writers show the good and the bad and try to give even their bad characters some sort of redeeming qualities. I think readers appreciate that. They don’t want all perfect characters.
Is this your first time at Bloody Scotland?
Yes – I’m so excited. I’ve visited Edinburgh and Glasgow, and I’m really excited to go to Stirling too. I’ve heard so many nice things about the festival. I’ve seen all the photos, and it seems like such a friendly crowd. It’s one of the biggest crime fiction festivals in the world, so I’m really honoured to have been asked. I can’t wait to be a part of it.
AA Chaudhuri will be at the festival this year to talk about her novel, Under Her Roof at our Everyday Extraordinary panel on Saturday the 14th of September at 10am.
![Ruth Stairs](https://bloodyscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ruth-Stairs-uai-800x1066.jpg)
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
A bloody good chat with Louise Minchin
A bloody good chat with Louise Minchin
A Bloody Good Chat with Louise Minchin
You are appearing at the festival this year, alongside Ruth Ware. What can Bloody Scotland fans expect from your event?
I think it’s going to be super exciting because we’ve both written books about reality TV shows on islands where storms disrupt things very dramatically. I’ve read Ruth’s book, which I think is utterly brilliant. The premises are the same, but actually our stories are very different and I think it’ll be really fun to hear about our different approaches to reality tv, why we both wanted to write about it, the different characters that you see on these shows, and also why we both thought that it would be such a great place to set a thriller.
Can you tell us a bit about Isolation Island and where the inspiration for the novel came from?
It’s my debut thriller and I’ve had a character that I’ve wanted to write about for ages. She’s called Lauren. She’s an investigative journalist and I’ve had her sort of living with me for about 12 years now! I thought I knew where I was going to send her, but then I went into the I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here castle in Wales (in 2021) and we got thrown out because of this once in a 100-year storm, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Isolation Island is absolutely inspired by Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None. I lived in Scotland and went to St. Andrew’s University. I spent five of my happiest years in Scotland and traveled a lot to the West Coast and visited lots of beautiful islands like Skye. And I just thought it would be such a brilliant place to have an imaginary monastery and an imaginary island.
How did you find your first foray into novel writing?
I’ve written two nonfiction books, but I’ve always wanted to write fiction. I wrote nonfiction first as a way of honing my skills and learning my craft, but obviously nonfiction and fiction are hugely different. I had a very set idea of where I wanted to send my characters, who I wanted to go to the island and I knew who was going to die and why they were going to die. And I also knew, or thought I knew, who had killed them – but what I love about the fictional creative process is you set things in motion and then your characters start taking on a life of their own. They surprise you. They do things you’re not expecting. And that’s what I love about it. You set out your plot but then things change along the way.
What’s the best thing about being a good crime writer?
Being able to let your imagination go wild. Seeing people read Isolation Island and engage with the characters is fantastic. I love hearing readers talk about who they love and who they hate in the book. They see things in the book that even I, even myself, haven’t seen – so that’s really exciting for me. The book sort of takes on a life of its own once it’s out in the world.
Is this your first visit to Bloody Scotland? And if so, what are you most looking forward to about your visit?
It’s not my first visit to Stirling, but it is my first visit to Bloody Scotland. I absolutely love literary festivals number one, but crime writing festivals just have a whole atmosphere of their own. The crime writing community – they’re incredibly interesting. They’re incredibly informed. They really care, you know, about both readers and writers and about the genre. It is great to be in that environment. I’m really looking forward to it and meeting other writers too. I love going to see other writers and it’s a huge opportunity for all audiences to go and see their favourite writers and to meet new writers too. For me, it’s always about hearing where the inspiration comes from, how they create their characters and how they feel about their characters. It’s a great opportunity for readers to meet their heroes. And you know, I’ll get to meet my heroes too. Ruth Ware! I love her books and I’m so excited about sitting on a panel with her.
Louise will appear at Bloody Scotland alongside Ruth Ware on Sunday the 15th of September at 12pm. You can book tickets to this event here: https://bloodyscotland.com/event/louise-minchin-and-ruth-ware/
![Ruth Stairs](https://bloodyscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ruth-Stairs-uai-800x1066.jpg)
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
2024 Crime in the Spotlight Authors Announced
Our 2024 Crime in the Spotlight Authors
Presenting our 2024 Crime in the Spotlighters
We’re delighted to announce our 2024 Crime in the Spotlight authors!
This year’s cohort includes:
Simpson Grears, TY Garner, Morag Pringle, Jake Bowen-Bate, Brian Cook, Claire Wilson, David Goodman, Isobel Shirlaw, Nina Bhadreshwar, Charlotte Stevenson, Donna Morfett, Jack O’Donnell, Susan Allott, LM Chilton, Jane McLoughlin and Rhiannon Barnsley.
Read more here: https://mailchi.mp/bloodyscotland.com/bloody-scotland-newsletter-crime-in-the-spotlight-2024
Event
Apply to Volunteer
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
A catch up with former Crime in the Spotlighter Liz Webb
A catch up with former Crime in the Spotlighter Liz Webb
If you’re eligible for Crime in the Spotlight – apply! What have you got to lose?
As we launch our Crime in the Spotlight slots – an annual initiative which sees new crime writers reading an extract of their work in front of a packed Bloody Scotland audience – we caught up with former participant Liz Webb. Liz, who read an extract of her debut novel The Daughter at the festival back in 2022, will return to the festival this year to discuss her second novel, The Saved at our Dark Islands event on Friday the 13th of September. The novelist will appear alongside fellow authors George Paterson and Claire McGowan.
Can you tell us about your Crime in the Spotlight experience?
“My Crime in the Spotlight experience was great. My publisher Allison & Busby encouraged me to apply and I thought: oh, I’ll never get in. But then, amazingly, I was given a slot, which was absolutely fantastic.
“It’s the most brilliant thing because it allows very new writers with no real presence to get up on stage in big venues with amazing people. Gordon J. Brown introduced me to the audience, and then I got to do my reading before Denzil Meyrick and Alex Gray were interviewed on stage. Both of the authors are absolutely fantastic. They were so nice and encouraging.
“I’d practiced my reading so many times that I knew it off by heart! I was so incredibly nervous, but it was a great experience. Everyone was so lovely.
“We did a little practice beforehand. I was a standup comedian many years ago, but nowadays I’m quite a nervous person. Thankfully, once I was up on stage, the old standup within me kicked in and I was able to really enjoy the experience. After you read you get to do a book signing alongside the authors who are headlining the event which was absolutely fantastic.”
How did the experience help you as an author?
“It really helped me because I hadn’t appeared at any of the big festivals at that point. It’s really good to get over the horror of reading your work and realising that actually, everyone gets a bit nervous. It’s very good for your profile too because Bloody Scotland send you social media assets to help promote the fact that you’re appearing at the festival – and that does make a difference. It ups your profile and gives your social media a boost, which helps attract the attention of the industry.”
Applications are now open for 2024. What would you say to anyone who was thinking about applying?
If you’re eligible then apply – 100%. What have you got to lose? It’s totally worth doing it and not just for the experience of reading. Bloody Scotland has got this slightly magical feel to it and everyone is so friendly. It’s worth going for the whole weekend and attending the panels and the Golden Lion Bar – that’s a great place to meet fellow authors and readers too.
You’ll be at the festival to talk about your latest novel, The Saved. Can you tell us about the book?
“The Saved centres around Nancy and Calder, a young couple who move from London to the fictional Scottish slate island of Langer. Within a week, Nancy sees Calder’s body floating in the bay outside. Nancy and the man who runs the church drag the body onto the ground but Calder cannot be resuscitated. The emergency services fly his body by helicopter to Glasgow and the doctor says – and this is a real thing in medicine – ‘you’re not dead until you are warm and dead’. Calder has had a heart attack when he’s freezing cold. It’s very rare, but under these circumstances you can actually be brought back to life up to six hours later.
“Nancy doesn’t believe that Calder can be revived, but the doctors take his blood out of his body and warm it up one degree at a time and feed it back in, before giving him an electric shock. They manage to bring him back and it feels like a miracle. They test his brainwaves, and Calder is fine, but when Nancy looks into his eyes, she doesn’t see her partner. There is something drastically wrong. They go back to the island together, but as far as Nancy is concerned, she’s going back there with a stranger.
Your panel at Bloody Scotland centres around ‘Dark Islands’. Why do they make such good settings for crime novels?
“I think islands have this extra intensity to them. I visited the Scottish slate islands of Seil, Easdale and Luing during a writing retreat and took inspiration from them for the book. I live in London and I’m used to being able to get anywhere I want at any time of day or night, but on these small islands the ferries stop and you can’t leave. As a city dweller, I found that really amazing. They’re also very wind swept, distant and can be quite old fashioned – which is not to smear the people who live there at all – but they do have a more traditional feel about them that lends itself well to a novel setting.
“That, coupled with weather that can be extreme and changeable – creates perfect conditions for a tensely plotted book. You’ve also got a fixed number of people living in a place like that – so in many ways it’s like an extended escape room setting – which suits the crime genre perfectly.”
Liz Webb will appear at Bloody Scotland at our Dark Islands event on Friday the 13th of September at the Holy Trinity Church.
Event
Join us for a special Launch Event...
Join us for this special standalone event with the brilliant Val McDermid, who’ll be helping us to launch the 2024 Bloody Scotland programme. Val will be in conversation with Craig Robertson about her dark and bloody latest novel, Queen MacBeth.
Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history. Expect the unexpected. A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. Thursday 20th June at 1.30pm in The Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling. Tickets £6/£5
Thursday 20 June 2024, 13:30
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
LONGLIST REVEALED FOR THE MCILVANNEY PRIZE 2024
LONGLIST REVEALED FOR THE MCILVANNEY PRIZE 2024
![McIlvanney prize covers](https://bloodyscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/McIlvanney-covers2.webp)
LONGLIST REVEALED FOR THE MCILVANNEY PRIZE 2024:
D V Bishop – A Divine Fury (Pan Macmillan)
Chris Brookmyre – The Cracked Mirror (Sphere)
Val McDermid – Past Lying (Sphere)
Charles Cumming – Kennedy 35 (HarperCollins)
Andrew James Greig – The Girl in the Loch (Storm Publishing)
Doug Johnstone – The Collapsing Wave (Orenda)
S G Maclean – The Winter List (Quercus)
Abir Mukherjee – Hunted (Vintage)
C S Robertson – The Trials of Marjory Crowe (Hodder & Stoughton)
Kim Sherwood – A Spy Like Me (HarperCollins)
Doug Sinclair – Blood Runs Deep (Storm Publishing)
Douglas Skelton – The Hollow Mountain (Polygon)
This year the prize will be judged by BBC Scotland presenter, Bryan Burnett; Category Manager for Waterstones, Angie Crawford and Journalist and Editor, Arusa Qureshi.
The McIlvanney longlist and the Bloody Scotland shortlist will be promoted in bookshops throughout Scotland in the period between the announcement and the presentation at 6pm on Friday 13 September.
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
A bloody good chat with Ruth Ware
A bloody good chat with Ruth Ware
A Bloody Good Chat with Ruth Ware
After revealing crime writer Ruth Ware as one of our Bloody Scotland ‘sneaky peeks’ last week, we thought it would be nice to get to know her a little better! The author of In a Dark, Dark Wood and Zero Days, who will appear at the Albert Halls alongside Louise Minchin on Sunday the 15th of September, says she’s thrilled to be part of this year’s programme.
“I love Bloody Scotland. Crime festivals are always just the best fun because crime readers are the nicest readers and crime writers are the nicest writers. And I’m not just saying that – it’s been scientifically proven!
“The nice thing about Bloody Scotland is that Stirling is such a small city, so everyone who is part of the festival stays within a stone’s throw of each other. It gives it a really lovely communal feel. Everybody’s hanging out at the Golden Lion. It just feels like an incredibly friendly festival – it has this ‘come as you are’ atmosphere. Everybody there is a reader and everyone has come along to enjoy themselves.
This year, you’ll be appearing alongside Louise Minchin. What can Bloody Scotland fans expect from your event?
“I haven’t had the chance to read Louise’s book, Isolation Island, yet, but it sounds brilliant. Both Louise and I have written reality tv thrillers, so we’ll be talking about that. Mine is One Perfect Couple and it’s set on a kind of desert island. It’s a Lord of the Flies type story. Things go horribly wrong. The fresh water supply starts to run down, so there’s an awful lot of cracked lips and people slowly becoming dehydrated. Whereas Louise’s novel sounds like it’s sort of climatically the polar opposite. It’s set on a windswept island.
“I think it’s going to be really interesting to look at how two writers have taken what, on paper, sounds like a pretty similar idea and have gone off in completely different directions. We’ll also be discussing how an island setting can play into some of the best loved tropes of the genre. You know, stuff like locked room mysteries, isolated locations and a closed cast of suspects. I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going be a really fun event.”
Where did the inspiration for One Perfect Couple come from?
Well, the funny thing is, I’m actually not a huge reality TV fan, which makes me feel like a bit of an imposter. I watched and really enjoyed the first couple of series of Big Brother. All of my friends were addicted to it, so we all watched it and gossiped about it. And then I just kind of drifted away from reality tv. I had kids and a really demanding job, and there were so many of those types of shows popping up. It was really hard to keep up. But then The Traitors came out in the UK and I absolutely adored it.
“I think as a crime writer, what I loved was the crime adjacent format. You know, the fact that it’s all about figuring out who’s lying, who’s telling the truth, who’s deceiving other people for their own gain and how far contestants will you go to win.
“Then I was at an author event with the writer Gillian McAllister, and we were talking about reality TV. I think I said something like, it’s a miracle more people on those shows don’t end up murdering each other because the stakes are so high. You can see the producers winding the contestants up to such a pitch where sometimes it really does feel like it wouldn’t take much for them to come to blows. And Gillian said, as a kind of joke, oh that sounds like a Ruth Ware novel! I didn’t really think anything of it at the time, but then when I sat down to write what became One Perfect Couple, her words kind of came back to me!”
What compels you to write crime thrillers?
“I love books that have a really strong cerebral element to them. I like a really strong puzzle. As a reader, I love reading books where you are kind of in a battle of wits almost with the author. You can see that they’re laying out the clues. You can see they’re giving you information and it feels like you’re in a race to solve the puzzle, before the characters in the book solve it.
“But as a reader, I also really love books that have a huge amount of heart in them and a really strong emotional storyline. As a reader, you really feel what the characters are feeling – you’re terrified when they’re terrified. The thing about psychological thrillers, and particularly the kind that I write, is that you don’t have to choose. You can have both of those things. You can have that puzzly aspect where there’s a great twist and you’re sort of like, oh! I should have guessed that. But you can also have characters that you’re really, really invested in and a strong emotional thread to pull you through the story.”
What’s the best thing about being a crime thriller writer?
“The community. The readers and the other writers are genuinely lovely. And crime festivals are always such fun because, you know, the crowds are just so good. The readers are so good, they’re so generous, they’re so intelligent, they’re so well read. And, you know, likewise for my fellow writers, they’re just an incredibly generous bunch. I think there’s often a feeling that writers are in competition with each other – and on some level we are in that we’re all going for, you know, the same Richard and Judy slots or the same supermarket promotions. But actually, we’re not in the sense that what’s good for the genre, is good for all of us. If a really, really good crime thriller comes out and the author really nails it, it makes readers go back to that section and look for other authors who might be doing something similar. And that’s really great for all of us.”
You can find out more about Ruth Ware and her work over her website: https://ruthware.com/
Ruth will appear at Bloody Scotland alongside Louise Minchin, on Sunday the 15th of September from 12pm – 1pm. You can book tickets to this event and all of our ‘sneaky peeks’, here: https://bloodyscotland.com/whats-on/
Event
Join us for a special Launch Event...
Join us for this special standalone event with the brilliant Val McDermid, who’ll be helping us to launch the 2024 Bloody Scotland programme. Val will be in conversation with Craig Robertson about her dark and bloody latest novel, Queen MacBeth.
Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history. Expect the unexpected. A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. Thursday 20th June at 1.30pm in The Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling. Tickets £6/£5
Thursday 20 June 2024, 13:30
![Ruth Stairs](https://bloodyscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ruth-Stairs-uai-800x1066.jpg)
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
SHORTLIST REVEALED FOR THE BLOODY SCOTLAND DEBUT PRIZE 2024
SHORTLIST REVEALED FOR THE BLOODY SCOTLANDDEBUT PRIZE 2024
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The Bloody Scotland Debut Prize celebrates its 5th Anniversary this year. Previous winners include Claire Askew (2019), Deborah Masson (2020), Robbie Morrison (2021), Tariq Ashkanani (2022) and Kate Foster (2023) who has gone on to be longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 and shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger 2024.
The full shortlist for the 2024 Bloody Scotland Debut Prize is:
Suzy Aspley with Crow Moon (Orenda). Suzy was born in South Shields and grew up in Tyne and Wear but she has lived near Aberfoyle in Stirlingshire for the past two decades. A regular attendee of the festival she won Pitch Perfect in 2019 with the idea that became Crow Moon.
Daniel Aubrey with Dark Island (Harper North). Daniel grew up in Cheshire but now lives in Moffat in Dumfriesshire. He first attended Bloody Scotland in 2022 when his friend, Sarah Smith, was shortlisted for the debut award and his own debut was just going out on submission. He was back in 2023 when his partner, Danielle Devlin, was selected for ‘Crime in the Spotlight’.
Allan Gaw with The Silent House of Sleep (SA Press). A medical pathologist by training Allan was a runner up in the 2023 Glencairn / Bloody Scotland short crime story competition and his story – The Last Tram to Gorbals Cross – went on to be published in Scottish Field magazine in April 2023.
Doug Sinclair with Blood Runs Deep (Storm Publishing). Born in Edinburgh and now living in Armadale, Doug first visited Bloody Scotland in 2014 to attend the Masterclass. He has attended every year since and credits the encouragement of the friends and authors he’s met at the festival with the reason he finished the book, signed with an agent and secured a three-book deal.
Martin Stewart with Double Proof (Polygon). A former English teacher and middle grade author, Martin supported the festival in 2017 by delivering schools events in Balfron and Stirling. He also made his debut in goals for the Scotland v England football match. He has represented Scotland twice since and is proud that all were Scottish victories. He lives in South Ayrshire.
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Event
Join us for a special Launch Event...
Join us for this special standalone event with the brilliant Val McDermid, who’ll be helping us to launch the 2024 Bloody Scotland programme. Val will be in conversation with Craig Robertson about her dark and bloody latest novel, Queen MacBeth.
Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history. Expect the unexpected. A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. Thursday 20th June at 1.30pm in The Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling. Tickets £6/£5
Thursday 20 June 2024, 13:30
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
Bloody Scotland Newsletter - May 2024
Bloody Scotland Newsletter - May 2024
Bloody Scotland Newsletter - May 2024
Bloody Scotland Newsletter - April 2024
Hello, and welcome to our May issue. This latest edition is jam packed with news! We’re bringing you our programme launch date, information about our brand new website and an exclusive interview with our Festival Director Bob McDevitt, who’s giving us some fascinating insights into this year’s programme. So, without further ado, let’s crack on with this month’s issue.
Event
Join us for a special Launch Event...
Join us for this special standalone event with the brilliant Val McDermid, who’ll be helping us to launch the 2024 Bloody Scotland programme. Val will be in conversation with Craig Robertson about her dark and bloody latest novel, Queen MacBeth.
Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history. Expect the unexpected. A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. Thursday 20th June at 1.30pm in The Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling. Tickets £6/£5
Thursday 20 June 2024, 13:30
Apply to Volunteer
Bloody Scotland wouldn’t run without the dedication of eager volunteers, keeping the crowds safe, the tech running and the authors guided. Every year we look for Front of House Assistants, Author Hospitality Assistants, Author Signing Assistants and Festival Marketing Assistants to help out our busy team.
2024 applications will open soon.
Support Us
Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s international crime writing festival is an independent, not for profit charity, established in 2011 to present the very best of Scottish and international crime writing. We rely on a combination of sponsorship, grants, box office and donations to support our activity.
Val McDermid - Queen Macbeth
Event
Join us for a special Launch Event...
Join us for this special standalone event with the brilliant Val McDermid, who’ll be helping us to launch the 2024 Bloody Scotland programme. Val will be in conversation with Craig Robertson about her dark and bloody latest novel, Queen MacBeth.
Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history. Expect the unexpected. A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. Thursday 20th June at 1.30pm in The Golden Lion Hotel, Stirling. Tickets £6/£5