I Is For...

Iain McDowall - grew up in Scotland and now lives in the Midlands. He's the author of six books in a police procedural series featuring DCI Jacobson and DS Kerr of Crowby CID. He chooses as his themes issues affecting the UK today. In his own words:
"Crime fiction – mine included – exists primarily as an entertainment genre. But that shouldn’t mean that the reader has to check-in their brain or their interest in the real world at the door. My novels are designed to be ‘realist’ and thought-provoking as well as entertaining – and in most of them I’ve fictionalised crimes of the kind that really do happen in modern Britain. Race killings (Killing for England) and familicides (Perfectly Dead) for instance unfortunately come under that heading – and so do miscarriages of justice. So I’ve always had it in mind that one of the Jacobson/Kerr books would need to focus on that topic – and Envy The Dead has turned out to be that book."
"Scores on all fronts - good writing, good characters, solid plotting, highly readable and politically astute." Mat Coward, Morning Star, UK

Ian Pattison - the writer of the comedy TV series Rab C Nesbitt, as well as other TV series. He has written two novels, one featuring Rab C Nesbitt, and the other - SWEET AND TENDER HOOLIGAN - which features a criminal who lives in London and returns for the funeral of his mother. However, while he's been away he's written a tell-all exposé and some people aren't very happy.
"...a spectacular novel, prompting unease and admiration in almost equal measure... sort of American Psycho with a Paisley accent." Glasgow Herald

Ian Rankin - who I am certain needs no introduction! Apart from the Rebus series, 3 Jack Harvey novels and a couple of standalones, his new novel THE COMPLAINTS is due to be published in the first week of September. In Ian's own words from his newsletter:
"...the title is shorthand for Complaints and Conduct, this being the department that investigates misdemeanours within the police. My main character is a detective who spends his time rooting out bad cops. This makes him an unpopular figure within his own force. When he himself comes under investigation, there are plenty of people looking for payback. Is that whetting the appetite? The hero is in his early-forties and doesn’t drink. Yes, that’s right, he doesn’t drink. He really doesn’t. Not a drop. (The research, needless to say, was hell…)"
"Throughout the entire series, Rankin's strength has been his ability to get under the skin of Edinburgh's pyschogeography: he vividly describes 'a city...of banking and brothels, virtue and vitriol' where underworld meets overworld. Deftly plotted and awash with sarky one-liners Exit Music is no exception."- Metro

Irvine Welsh - another author who needs little introduction. Author of 7 novels and 4 short story collections, including the most recent - REHEATED CABBAGE - as well as theatre and film scripts. The synopsis of REHEATED CABBAGE is:
"Enjoy Christmas dinner with the Begbies, and see how warmly Franco greets his sister's boyfriend and news of their engagement. A televised Hibs-Hearts game means more to Malky than the life of his wife, while two guys fighting over a beautiful girl come to realise, after a few pills and pints, that their friendship is more important. In the novella I Am Miami, 'Juice' Terry Lawson meets his old nemesis, ritred schoolmaster Albert Black, under the strobe-lights of a Miami Beach nightclub."
"A snarling epic of a book...ugly, devastatingly funny, unremittingly nasty and pulls no punches...for my money, this is one of the best things Welsh has written to date and it's right up there with Trainspotting. Don't dare miss it." Kevin Williamson, The Scotsman (about FILTH)