It’s a welcome return to Bloody Scotland for journalist and author Frank Gardner after he appeared before a huge crowd here in 2018. The popular Security Correspondent continues to cover the war on terror for the BBC despite being partially paralysed after being shot while filming. Invasion is the fourth novel in Frank’s acclaimed series featuring SBS officer-turned MI6 operative Luke Carlton. Making full use of his experience in the world’s hotspots, Frank has crafted brilliantly unnerving thrillers. In Invasion, Carlton must find a missing agent as tensions rise between China and Taiwan. 

Frank Gardner will be interviewed by journalist and broadcaster Ruth Wishart.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from David Goodman.

Sponsored by the Open University in Scotland 

It’s a welcome return to Bloody Scotland for journalist and author Frank Gardner after he appeared before a huge crowd here in 2018. The popular Security Correspondent continues to cover the war on terror for the BBC despite being partially paralysed after being shot while filming. Invasion is the fourth novel in Frank’s acclaimed series featuring SBS officer-turned MI6 operative Luke Carlton. Making full use of his experience in the world’s hotspots, Frank has crafted brilliantly unnerving thrillers. In Invasion, Carlton must find a missing agent as tensions rise between China and Taiwan. 

Frank Gardner will be interviewed by journalist and broadcaster Ruth Wishart.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from David Goodman.

Sponsored by the Open University in Scotland 

Take the world’s greatest detective, the daughter of the world’s most famous jilted bride, and a literary superstar turned sleuth, and you have all the ingredients for a classic crime fiction panel. Gareth Rubin’s dazzling Holmes and Moriarty sees Conan Doyle’s great adversaries face up to a fiendish foe with their lives on the line. Estella’s Revenge by Barbara Havelocke is a captivating reimagining of Great Expectations as Miss Havisham’s troubled daughter embraces the darkness within her. In Jessica Bull’s sparkling Miss Austen Investigates, young Jane uses her sharp wits to uncover the killer and clear her beloved brother Georgy.

Kemper Donovan, author of The Busy Body, will chair this session.

This panel features three extraordinarily powerful stories about three very different periods of history, each rich in detail, frighteningly real, and peopled with remarkable characters. Eleni Kyriacou’s impressive novel The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou is based on the true story of a Cypriot grandmother accused of murder in 1950s London. The visceral Columba’s Bones by leading playwright David Greig sees a bloody search rage for sacred Christian relics on Iona in the year 825. AJ West’s atmospheric The Betrayal of Thomas True, simmers with temptation and traitors on the hidden streets of Georgian London.

Author DV Bishop will chair this event. 

To create thrillers which are both page turners and profound is a skill so rare that it borders on alchemy, yet these supremely talented authors somehow square that circle with practiced ease. 

Abir Mukherjee’s new novel is the outstanding and groundbreaking Hunted, a perfectly paced story of parents thrown together in a race to find their fugitive children before they’re complicit in a terrorist catastrophe. Chris Whitaker’s much-anticipated new book All the Colours of the Dark is a truly epic tale – rich in character and heart – of love, murder, missing children, and the hunt for those who took them. 

Chaired by Jenny Brown.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Claire Wilson.

To create thrillers which are both page turners and profound is a skill so rare that it borders on alchemy, yet these supremely talented authors somehow square that circle with practiced ease. 

Abir Mukherjee’s new novel is the outstanding and groundbreaking Hunted, a perfectly paced story of parents thrown together in a race to find their fugitive children before they’re complicit in a terrorist catastrophe. Chris Whitaker’s much-anticipated new book All the Colours of the Dark is a truly epic tale – rich in character and heart – of love, murder, missing children, and the hunt for those who took them. 

Chaired by Jenny Brown.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Claire Wilson.

Author Alex Gray introduces her choice of the year’s best debuts as she showcases four authors with glittering futures in crime fiction. A thirteen-year-old girl with an obsession for roadkill is the beguiling and unusual protagonist in Marie Tierney’s remarkably accomplished Deadly Animals. A deadly treasure hunt is the intriguing premise for CL Miller’s hugely enjoyable debut, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder. Tom Baragwanath’s mesmerising Paper Cage is a beautifully written thriller exploring racial tensions in small town New Zealand. Fatal fires and hidden secrets make for a pulsating thrill ride in Deadly Spark, the first novel from Roxie Key. 

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The art of the psychological thriller is to put ordinary people in ordinary circumstances then do unimaginable things to them. These three talented writers execute that effortlessly. The perfect place to live is too good to be true in AA Chaudhuri’s Under Her Roof, a voyeuristic thriller with a twist to die for. CM Ewan’s One Wrong Turn is a masterclass in deadly consequences as a young couple pick up a stranded family late at night. The Guest who comes to stay but never leaves is the nightmare at the dark heart of BA Paris’s mesmerising rollercoaster of a novel. 

Award-winning author Tariq Ashkanani will chair this event. 

The art of the psychological thriller is to put ordinary people in ordinary circumstances then do unimaginable things to them. These three talented writers execute that effortlessly. The perfect place to live is too good to be true in AA Chaudhuri’s Under Her Roof, a voyeuristic thriller with a twist to die for. CM Ewan’s One Wrong Turn is a masterclass in deadly consequences as a young couple pick up a stranded family late at night. The Guest who comes to stay but never leaves is the nightmare at the dark heart of BA Paris’s mesmerising rollercoaster of a novel. 

Award-winning author Tariq Ashkanani will chair this event. 

Saturday kicks off in style with two of Tartan Noir’s finest in conversation. Both Denzil Meyrick and Marion Todd have skilfully blended the police procedural with atmospheric (and lesser used) Scottish locations, gaining legions of fans in the process. 

Denzil’s latest novel is a gripping, twisty standalone in which the surviving members of the mega-rich Pallander family fight to the death to get their hands on The Estate. In Marion’s nail-biting new novel. Bridges to Burn, DI Clare Mackay is faced with two suspicious deaths and sinister emerging truths. 

Chaired by the crime writer Douglas Skelton.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Brian Cook.