Tartan Noir on Open Book

Here's another podcast I missed until recently, where Dreda Say Mitchell interviews Allan Guthrie and Denise Mina and goes round Aberdeen with Stuart MacBride. Download it or listen to it at the Open Book website.

26 August 2012
"Dreda Say Mitchell presents a special Open Book programme on Tartan Noir, exploring the appeal of the Scottish crime novel. Glasgow based author Denise Mina joins Edinburgh writer and publisher Allan Guthrie to discuss the importance of place in this increasingly popular genre, while Stuart MacBride, writer of the DS Logan McRae books, takes us on a tour of his inspirational Aberdeen setting."

Harrogate - Crime in Another Dimension

The second panel of the day at Harrogate was Crime in Another Dimension. Talking cross-over novels were Ben Aaronovitch, (Euro Crime favourite) Christopher Fowler, Stuart MacBride and Charles Stross, moderated by David Quantick.

This was a chatty and funny panel with a running joke about changing your name by adding a letter or calling yourself  S J.

Here are my notes:

BA writes cross-overs due to laziness as he couldn't decide what genre to write so put it all in one novel. He's not sure if it is easier, but you have to write what you enjoy writing. Writers' ego believes that people will want to read what you've written.

CF start where you are most interested, Bryant & May contain supernatural but against the mythic background that is London. 2000 years of history. Asked why B & M not aging properly - because they're like the Simpsons, it's fiction! Addresses issue in new book (Bryant and May and the Invisible Code) though Bryant avoids answering.

BA made his hero 25 deliberately to avoid the Rankin problem (retirement age).

SM calls Halfhead a near future thriller not SF. He wrote it before the Logan books and would like to do something different but publishers not keen.

CS Rule 34 , set 15 years ahead. 90% of near future is here today. 9% is new stuff 1% unimaginable. As part of research he discovered that anything you can imagine - there's pornography about it.

David Tennant  was to narrate Cold Granite but got cast as Dr Who so didn't. (Some discussion about Michael Moorcock's Dr Who book - The Coming of the Terraphiles - apparently he didn't want to do it but they kept throwing money at him) SM available for Dr Who book project as loves Dr Who.

BA - book was originally a tv project, cliches bolted together, originally level entry role for a Jamaican woman but then wrote the name Peter Brant and background developed. You can pay police for info (300 pounds) and speak to a currently serving officer rather than a retired one.

CF - a bitter WPC sent him her notebooks, which seem to be in code with all the police acronyms!

CS - suggests looking for blogs of serving cops.

( I think BA said this) Wallander has no reason to be depressed, 1 murder every few years he should just be pleased when there's a murder!

Audience question:

Which book of their would the authors recommended you try

CS: The Atrocity Archives
SM: Currently unpublished novella, Ring of Githa (from sound of it won't get pubbed!)
CF: Kalabash
BA: Rivers of London

New Reviews: Cotterill, Crouch, Griffiths, Johnstone, MacBride, Marston, Nykanen, O'Brien, Staincliffe & new Competition

New month, new competition. During May (closes 31st) you can enter a competition to win a copy of Tessa Harris's The Anatomist's Apprentice. The competition is open to UK residents. Answer the question and fill in the form here.

Here are this week's reviews of which there are 9 again. There are also more updates to the new releases pages (see below):

Michelle Peckham reviews the delightfully named Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach by Colin Cotterill, the second in the Jimm Juree series set in present-day Thailand;

Susan White reviews last month's competition prize, Every Vow You Break by Julia Crouch set in New York state;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the paperback release of Elly Griffith's A Room Full of Bones the fourth in this North-Norfolk set series;

Amanda Gillies may have found her top read of 2012 in Doug Johnstone's Hit & Run, set in Edinburgh;

Staying in Scotland, Lynn Harvey reviews Stuart MacBride's standalone, Birthdays for the Dead;

Down in Devon, Terry Halligan reviews Edward Marston's The Stationmaster's Farewell where railway detective Robert Colbeck is sent to Exeter;

Moving to Finland, Maxine Clarke reviews Harri Nykanen's Nights of Awe, tr. Kristian London the first in the Ariel Kafka series, set in Helsinki;

Terry also reviews Martin O'Brien's The Dying Minutes the seventh in the Jacquot series set in the South of France

and Maxine also reviews Cath Staincliffe's Split Second.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year. Titles by Tony Black, Bernadette Calonego, Alexander Campion, Rebecca Cantrell, Donato Carrisi, Karen Charlton, Alys Clare, Lesley Cookman, A J Cross, Victor del Arbol, Thomas Glavinic, J M Gregson, Wolf Haas, Max Kinnings, Priscilla Masters, Carol McCleary, Catriona McPherson, Barbara Nadel, Ann Purser, Pauline Rowson, Gerald Seymour, Linda Stratmann, Stefan Tegenfalk, Will Thomas, Kerry Tombs, Morley Torgov, Peter Tremayne, Neil White and Edward Wilson have been added to these pages this week.

Blind Eye - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Stuart MacBride's Blind Eye.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK HB & pb (RHS & Below) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Stuart MacBride?

If you have read it, how well do the covers match the story?

Read the Euro Crime review by Craig of Blind Eye.

New Reviews: Dawson, Griffiths, Lackberg, MacBride, Pastor, Sigurdardottir & a New Competition

One new competition (so far) for January and it is open to UK residents. It closes on 31st January:
Win Assassins of Athens by Jeffrey Siger

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Adrian Dawson's Codex which took him a bit of getting into it, but worth it;

Maxine Clarke reviews the third in this increasingly popular series by Elly Griffiths, set in North Norfolk: The House at Sea's End;

I recently reviewed the audio book of Camilla Lackberg's The Stonecutter, tr. Steven T Murray;

Pat Austin reviews the new Stuart MacBride DS Logan McRae outing - Shatter the Bones writing that it's "definitely not for the faint-hearted, this one";

Norman Price reviews Lumen by Ben Pastor and writes that is is an example of "how the crime fiction novel can be used to address historical, religious, and moral questions" (and it's published by Bitter Lemon Press - say no more...)

and also over the Christmas break I reviewed Yrsa Sigurdardottir's My Soul to Take, tr. Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates also on the blog.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Billingham, Black, Campbell, Ellory, Harper, MacBride

One competition for October and it is open internationally closes 31st:
Win one of five copies of Someone Else's Son by Sam Hayes

Here are this week's reviews (in all but once case the author or the reviewer is Scottish, and in one case both! Plus two of the non Scottish authors are Brummies (where I live)):

The tv series Thorne, starts tonight with the adaptation of the first Thorne book, Sleepyhead. Geoff Jones reviews the ninth in this series, written by Mark Billingham: From the Dead;

Paul Blackburn reviews the fourth Gus Dury from Tony Black - Long Time Dead set in Edinburgh;

Maxine Clarke is in Glasgow with Karen Campbell's Anna Cameron in her third outing: Shadowplay;

Pat Austin is impressed with R J Ellory's latest standalone: Saints of New York;

Amanda Gillies enjoys Tom Harper's latest thriller, which involves the Holy Grail: The Lazarus Vault

and Craig Sisterson reviews Stuart MacBride's most recent DS Logan McRae book: Dark Blood set in Aberdeen.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Eastland, French, Grimes, MacBride, Parot, Stanley

This month's competitions:
Win a copy of Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley (Worldwide)
Win a copy of Bad Penny Blues by Cathi Unsworth (UK only).

Here are this week's reviews:

Rik Shepherd reviews Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland, the first in the Inspector Pekkala series;

Maxine Clarke reviews the latest from Nicci French: Complicit;

Terry Halligan reviews the twenty-second outing for Richard Jury in Martha Grimes's The Black Cat;

Paul Blackburn reviews Dark Blood by Stuart MacBride, the sixth in the Logan McRae series;

Laura Root reviews the latest in the Nicolas Le Floch series, The Nicolas Le Floch Affair by Jean-Francois Parot, tr. Howard Curtis

and Michelle Peckham reviews one of this month's competition prizes: A Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Reviews: Cleave, Cole, Frimansson, Knight, MacBride, Williams

Here are the new reviews that have just been added to the website:

Michelle Peckham reviews a New Zealand crime novel - Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave;

Amanda Gillies reviews GodSword by Emerson Cole;

Maxine Clarke reviews Good Night, My Darling by Inger Frimansson;

Terry Halligan reviews the paperback release of Crowner Royal by Bernard Knight;

Craig Sisterson reviews Halfhead by Stuart B MacBride

and Norman Price reviews the Ellis Peters Award contender, The Interrogator by Andrew Williams.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

New Reviews: Egeland, Gregorio, MacBride, McDermid, Millar, Rankin, Smith

There are two competitions running in September. One is for 2 children's adventure-thriller books by Andy Briggs and is open to the UK, and the other is for A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio (reviewed below) which is open world-wide. Details on how to enter can be found on the competition page.

Here are this week's reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews The Guardians of the Covenant by Tom Egeland concluding with "[it] should keep you hooked from cover to cover";

Norman Price reviews this month's competition prize, A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio;

Paul Blackburn reviews the futuristic crime novel Halfhead by Stuart B MacBride;

Maxine Clarke reviews the newest in the Tony Hill series by Val McDermid - Fever of the Bone - beginning her review by writing that "it is written with multi award-winning Val McDermid's usual professionalism, dependability, style and apparent effortlessness";

Michelle Peckham reviews Sam Millar's The Dark Place;

Pat Austin has no complaints about Ian Rankin's The Complaints

and I recently reviewed (on this blog), the audio book version of The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

New Reviews: Cain, Frimansson, Jones, MacBride, Mariani, Nadel

A new competition is running (open to all!); win a copy of My Last Confession by Helen Fitzgerald.

Here are this week's globe-trotting reviews:

Paul Blackburn reviews Assassin by Tom Cain, the third of the 'Sam Carver' thrillers;

Maxine Clarke reviews Island of the Naked Women by Inger Frimansson writing that it is "a strong candidate for my "best of" list for this year";

Laura Root reviews The Salati Case by Tobias Jones the first of a new PI series set in Italy;

Craig Sisterson reviews Blind Eye by Stuart MacBride the fifth in the DS McRae series set in Aberdeen;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Doomsday Prophecy by Scott Mariani which is the third in the Ben Hope, ex-SAS, series

and Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the Turkish Cetim Ikman series from Barbara Nadel - River of the Dead - which is now out in paperback.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

Take a chair...

Mark Pearson's Hard Evidence will be out in January.



Mo Hayder's Ritual is reviewed here.












and Stuart MacBride's Dying Light is reviewed here.

New Reviews: Mike Ripley's Crime File, Hill, Krajewski, MacBride, Mills and Tursten

Here are this week's new reviews and details of an extra competition:

Latest Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's latest crime file he reviews: The Death Maze (aka The Serpent's Tale) by Ariana Franklin, Inspector Ghote's First Case by H R F Keating, Spider by Michael Morley and Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin (to win the latter see the competitions below);

Maxine Clarke reviews the newest in the Simon Serrailler series by Susan Hill, The Vows of Silence - a book which put her through the wringer, but was worth it;

Norman Price reviews Marek Krajewski's Death in Breslau writing that Krajewski is "a master at recreating an atmosphere of fear, darkness, creepiness and foreboding";

Pat Austin reviews the new offering from Aberdeen's Stuart MacBride Flesh House which manages to be both gruesome and funny;

Karen Chisholm was hooked by Crow Stone by Jenni Mills which is set in Bath

and Maxine has the highest of praise for Helene Tursten's Detective Inspector Huss (which I'm pleased about as I recommended her via my review of The Torso) saying that "this book is as near to perfection as you can get in this genre".


Current Competitions:

Win a copy of Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin*

* no restrictions on entrants


NEW: Win a copy of Blood Lines by Grace Monroe**

** UK/Europe only