The dead, the dead, the dirty old dead
On the Radar — Remember when we thought Harry Hole was dead, but he came back to feature in subsequent novels? More recently, we thought Val McDermid had put Carol Jordan and Tony Hill to sleep – not like pets but more like characters who…
Harrogate 2019 – from the scene of the crime...
Catherine Turnbull reports on the 2019 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate Who’d have thought it? Turns out Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon could have had a career as a comedian if her interview with Val McDermid is anything to go by. The…
Vicki Weisfeld: Top five books of 2018
December – that time for crime fiction lovers to look back at the mayhem of the past year and turn our heads forward, Janus-like, to gleefully anticipate the disorder of the coming year. In 2018, I reviewed 44 books here, across the wide crime fiction spectrum,…
A report from Bloody Scotland 2018
There was plenty of near bloodshed going on at the annual Caledonian shindig with the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers band murdering songs for a laugh, England crossed the border for a 6-3 victory over Scotland in the authors’ football match and fake news triumphed in…
A body in the Highlands
On the Radar — Crime fiction is great. It can take you to just about any setting. So if you want to relish the Scottish Highlands, you can grab Val McDermid’s new Karen Pirie novel. But if you want to catch a wave, maybe the…