A Is For...

Well, following my Crime Facts post, it's now time for the crime fiction. On the right hand side is a list of authors who can be classed as Scottish (however tenuous the link - so if your granny once knitted a tartan scarf, or you once tried a deep fried Mars Bar, you might find yourself on the list). I thought I would take that list and give you a tiny inkling as to what they write. As it's quite a long list, I'm going to split it up and do several posts. All links are on the right if you want more information about a particular author. I would also point out that I haven't read every author's books, so if I've got it wrong, please let me know.

Alanna Knight - has written squillions of books, mostly set in 1870s Edinburgh. She writes two series - one featuring Detective Inspector Faro, and the other featuring his daughter, Rose McQuinn, who is a 'Lady Investigator, Discretion Guaranteed'.

"If Robert Louis Stevenson had written who-dunnits, Faro is just the detective he'd have created." The Sunday Post

Alastair Sim - his first book - THE UNBELIEVERS - was published on June 1st (congratulations Alastair!). A historical set in Victorian Edinburgh. The blurb says: 'Scotland's richest man has been shot dead and dumped down a well. Was the Duke of Dornoch murdered by one of the miners whose wages he cut because of 'market forces'? Was he killed in return for his part in clearing the Highlands of their people? Did a discarded lover take their final revenge? Inspector Allerdyce and Sergeant McGillivray VC must find out before the killer strikes again. But their search, from the material heights of Victorian society to its moral dregs, threatens to overturn everything Allerdyce believes and loves.'

"A ripping yarn: a page-turning, entertaining whodunnit and very satisying read. 'The Unbelievers' sings with Victorian Edinburgh's hypocrisy and corruption. We have in Alastair Sim a wonderful new Scottish crime fiction voice." Laura Marney

Alex Gray - Police procedurals set in Glasgow featuring DCI William Lorrimer and psychologist Solomon Brightman. So far, there are six in the series. The latest, GLASGOW KISS, is about a religious education teacher who is accused of raping one of his pupils. Here's an audio interview with Alex on Smooth Radio.

"Gray never rushes her story, preferring to slowly, delicately build a multi-layered, international web of drama and deceit that requires the concentration levels to stay on high from the first page until the last." - Daily Record

Alexander McCall Smith - who I'm sure doesn't need an introduction, says on his website "In Botswana, we have Precious Ramotswe and friends; in Edinburgh an amateur sleuth called Isabel Dalhousie, and also the latest from 44 Scotland Street; and at the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. This is the world as seen in my books. I hope you enjoy this offering."

"McCall Smith's greatest gift as a writer - and God knows this is just one of many - is that he can write likeable characters" New Statesman

Alexander McGregor - a news reporter from Dundee, McGregor's first book was true crime. He then followed that up with LAWLESS - a novel about investigative journalist Campbell McBride, who arrives back home to Dundee to sign copies of his true crime bestseller which is set there, he receives information that one of the convicted murderers he wrote about may have been innocent. It came out in 2006 and I can't find any trace of a follow up.

" McBride...makes a charmless hero but a dogged investigator, and McGregor weaves his mystery neatly and at a brisk pace." Sunday Telegraph.

Aline Templeton - a series of four (so far) police procedurals set in Galloway (a gorgeous area in south west Scotland - full of little villages and beautiful scenery), and featuring DI Marjorie Fleming and DS Tam MacNee. Aline Templeton has also written a number of standalones mostly, it would appear, set in England.

"This is a book for a long train journey or a wet weekend with no other demands, the better to immerse oneself in the strongly-delineated characters, complex plotting and rich allegory: a really satisfactory read. " Mystery Women magazine.

Allan Guthrie - Five books, one novella - all of them dark, warped, gritty, original, funny, and sheer genius. I love his writing and his latest, SLAMMER, is one hell of a book. It's about a prison officer who's...well, let's just say he's a tad stressed. SLAMMER grabs you by the throat, pounds your head against the wall, and then bites your nose off and spits out the gristle.
"Guthrie writes with an urgency, energy, cynical realism and mastery of casual violence that is rarely encountered in British crime writing." The Times

Aly Monroe - Aly Monroe's first novel, THE MAZE OF CADIZ, is set in Franco's Spain in 1944. Peter Cotton is working for British Intelligence, investigating the smuggling of Nazi gold. He's sent to Cadiz to relieve the agent there, but when he arrives the agent is dead.
"As in all the best espionage stories, the personal and the political are inextricably entangled. " The Spectator

Arthur Conan Doyle - need I say more?