Agatha Christie will forever be the grand dame of British crime fiction and her enduring influence on contemporary writers is unquestionable. Some follow her lead unwittingly, but others proudly pay homage with devilishly twisty Christie-like plots – and these are three of the best. Benjamin Stevenson tips his hat to the Orient Express in the gloriously inventive Everyone on This Train is a Suspect. Frances White’s Voyage of the Damned is a mind-blowing fantasy murder mystery with Agatha (and some Tolkein) in its DNA. Simon McCleave’s Last Night at Villa Lucia uncovers the shocking secrets of the guests in a luxury Tuscan villa after one of them is found murdered in the villa’s infinity pool. 

This event will be chaired by author Vaseem Khan. 

Agatha Christie will forever be the grand dame of British crime fiction and her enduring influence on contemporary writers is unquestionable. Some follow her lead unwittingly, but others proudly pay homage with devilishly twisty Christie-like plots – and these are three of the best. Benjamin Stevenson tips his hat to the Orient Express in the gloriously inventive Everyone on This Train is a Suspect. Frances White’s Voyage of the Damned is a mind-blowing fantasy murder mystery with Agatha (and some Tolkein) in its DNA. Simon McCleave’s Last Night at Villa Lucia uncovers the shocking secrets of the guests in a luxury Tuscan villa after one of them is found murdered in the villa’s infinity pool.

This event will be chaired by author Vaseem Khan. 

Mid-19^th century Edinburgh was a time of world-leading medical advances but also a place of dark deeds and capital crimes. Breathtaking breakthroughs in surgery and anatomy were cheek to jowl with bodysnatching and murder, thus providing rich pickings for writers of historical crime fiction.Ambrose Parry’s Voices of the Dead, the fourth rip-roaring adventure in the brilliant Raven and Fisher series, sees body parts unaccounted for in the bowels of Surgeons’ Hall. The Specimens by Mairi Kidd takes a deliciously dark dive into the world of the anatomists, and two men named Burke and Hare who provided them with bodies.

This event will be chaired by Teddy Jamieson.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from TY Garner.

1986: The body of an undercover British agent is found by the side of a lane in Northern Ireland, a rope tied around his wrists and tape over his eyes. 2016: A police detective probes reports that the killer was another undercover British agent, a man known as ‘Stakeknife’. The largest murder investigation in British history begins.

Henry Hemming is the author of Four Shots in the Night, an extraordinary work of investigative journalism that reads like a thriller as it exposes the parallel worlds of the IRA and British Intelligence and tells the story of one detective’s pursuit of justice.

This event will be chaired by Frankie Burr.

‘Cosy’ was – shamefully – a bit of a negative label in the crime writing world until its incredible, chart-topping explosion in recent years exposed its wit, inventiveness and charm for all to see. Here are three of its best executioners. Sally Smith’s A Case of Mice and Murder is a delightfully cunning mystery set in the world of London’s law courts in 1901. Ian Moore’s Death in Le Jardin is un libre fantastique as a housekeeper is accused of murder in rural France. Knife Skills For Beginners is a delicious slice of murder mystery from former MasterChef semi-finalist Orlando Murrin.
This event will be chaired by the king of Indian cosy, Vaseem Khan.

Our 2024 festival gets off to a rip-roaring start with two hugely popular authors who have found their own routes to success. JD Kirk and Rachel Abbott both started their careers by self-publishing their novels and have grown enormous fan bases as they’ve raced to the top of the bestseller charts. In J D Kirk’s latest heart-pounding thriller, A Killer of Influence, DCI Jack Logan traverses the Highlands and the Internet to catch the killer of a group of social media influencers. Rachel Abbott’s 16th novel in a remarkable career is the gripping page turner The Last Time I Saw Him.

This event will be chaired by author Ed James.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Simpson Grears.

We are delighted that one of the world’s best-loved crime writers is making a welcome return to Bloody Scotland. Ann Cleeves is the creator of three outstanding crime series, two much-loved television drama in Vera and Shetland, and 36 novels translated into over 20 languages. Vera returns in The Dark Wives, as two bodies and a missing teenager set DI Stanhope onto a dark path where fact and folklore collide.
Ann will be in conversation with Bloody Scotland co-founder Lin Anderson. The latest in Lin’s Rhona MacLeod series, Whispers of the Dead, features a gangland slaying and a missing movie star in Glasgow.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Nina Bhadreshwar.

We are delighted that one of the world’s best-loved crime writers is making a welcome return to Bloody Scotland.

This is a long-awaited return for one of Scotland’s favourite sons. The hugely popular Peter May is back on the Stirling stage for the first time since 2017 and is guaranteed a warm welcome. As a journalist, television writer and producer, and multi-award-winning author, Peter has had a remarkable career. From his first novel, The Reporter in 1978, through the Enzo series, the China thrillers, and the Lewis Trilogy, he’s delighted readers across the world. Now we eagerly await the publication of The Black Loch, the much-anticipated fourth Lewis book. It doesn’t disappoint! 

Peter will be in conversation with author Craig Robertson.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Donna Morfett.

We welcome one of the UK’s most popular actors to Bloody Scotland in his latest role as bestselling author. Richard Armitage’s string of stellar acting credits include The Hobbit, North and South, Into the Storm, and Spooks, but he’s now turned his talents to writing crime fiction with his outstanding debut Geneva. A Nobel Prize-winning scientist with Alzheimer’s attends a biotech conference where technology will be unveiled that could save her life. But with her memory failing, Sarah Collier knows only that she can trust no one. Not even herself.

Richard will be interviewed by TV and radio presenter Bryan Burnett.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Jake Bowen-Bate.

We are delighted that one of the world’s best-loved crime writers is making a welcome return to Bloody Scotland.

This is a long-awaited return for one of Scotland’s favourite sons. The hugely popular Peter May is back on the Stirling stage for the first time since 2017 and is guaranteed a warm welcome. As a journalist, television writer and producer, and multi-award-winning author, Peter has had a remarkable career. From his first novel, The Reporter in 1978, through the Enzo series, the China thrillers, and the Lewis Trilogy, he’s delighted readers across the world. Now we eagerly await the publication of The Black Loch, the much-anticipated fourth Lewis book. It doesn’t disappoint! 

Peter will be in conversation with author Craig Robertson.
Crime in the Spotlight reading from Donna Morfett.