Authors Electric

It was the day after the Scottish referendum when half of Scotland had been sorely disappointed, while the other half rejoiced, and I was off to Bloody Scotland at Stirling. I’ve been there before, but I wondered if this year it would be bloodier than ever. Bloody Scotland in case you’ve never heard of it is a crime writing convention for readers and writers of crime fiction. It’s a fabulous event attended by many of the better known, and a smattering of the lesser known, crime writers, and a massive choice of events with over fifty authors giving talks and interviews. The convention is spread over three days, and this year it was from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st September (the voting on the referendum was on the 18th September). As well as the speakers there was a masterclass on crime writing, a cinema presentation aptly named, Bloody Cinema, in the Old Town Jail, a courtroom drama in Stirling Sheriff Court, Medieval Murder in Stirling Castle, and a gala dinner where the ...

I’m very happy to announce the release of my new novel, Agency Woman, on Kindle! I haven’t released a book since late 2012, so I was quite surprised to find out how exciting it was to do this again. Thanks very much to everyone who has already downloaded, you helped get Agency Woman to Number 21 in the “International Mystery and Crime” chart on Amazon UK (nearly knocking on Ian Rankin’s door at Number 1, though I don’t think he lost any sleep over this! I did, though, because I kept refreshing the screen to check my progress in the charts…) I quite enjoyed being in an “International Mystery” chart, made me feel just like Austin Powers for five minutes! Thanks again…and here is a wee description of Agency Woman: ************************************* A lost, wandering and damaged man finds himself drafted back into the world he thought he had escaped, when the local branch of a powerful, international Agency needs a mysterious job done in the remote Highlands o...

Chris Longmuir You’ve probably come across references to Tartan Noir on the internet and various other places, and if you walk into a bookstore in Scotland , the chances are you’ll see a display labelled Tartan Noir. But what is Tartan Noir? The name is an odd mix. The tartan part of the name smacks of tourism, kilts, heather and bagpipes, all the stuff that attracts people to Scotland , although it is not all that relevant in today’s modern world. The second part of the title –Noir – is more reminiscent of blood and gore, and all the horrible things that happen in the darkest of crime fiction. So it is an odd mix indeed. It was actually the American crime writer, James Ellroy who coined the name when he referred to Ian Rankin as the King of Tartan Noir in the 1990s. Since then it seems to have been taken up to describe Scottish crime fiction in general, and has now been given historical antecedents. The origins of Tartan Noir in Scottish literature are claimed to be ro...