Crime writing is evolving, explains the organiser of Bloody Scotland 2024, as the successful literary festival returns to Stirling. Bob McDevitt believes the genre’s ability to reinvent itself and attract new authors is central to its enduring success and appeal.
“Crime writers tell great stories with inventive plots that allow detailed exploration of psychological, social, familial and political issues,” he explains. “They also encourage the readers to make acquaintance with a returning cast of characters and follow them over a series of novels, sharing in their ups and downs and keeping them guessing about what might come next.”
Bob, who worked in bookselling and publishing before taking the helm of both Bloody Scotland and Glasgow’s book festival Aye Write, adds: “The Scots do seem to punch way above their weight in this genre and what I find really interesting is more and more Scottish writers are diversifying from the traditional hard man police procedurals to deliver great historical crime novels, speculative thrillers, domestic, psychological thrillers and topical, socially-aware stories.”
Bloody Scotland, which takes place from September 13 to 15, is in now in its thirteenth year and continues to attract big names of crime-writing from around the world. Bob notes: “This year we are hoping to finally put to rest the challenges of the pandemic and the couple of years afterwards, when all arts organisations struggled through their digital and hybrid versions, and finally return to a big, busy and fun weekend in Stirling. Prior to 2020 the festival had been growing year on year, driven both by the phenomenal new crime writing talent coming from Scotland and the continuing popularity of the genre internationally.”
Bloody Scotland prides itself on being the “literary festival where you can let your hair down and enjoy a drink at the bar with your favourite crime writer”, and its international focus means huge bestsellers, such as David Baldacci and Lynda LaPlante, often rub shoulders alongside homegrown big names such as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, and new names, including Alan Parks and Kate Foster.
“We strive to put on entertaining as well as informative events – and we are always looking to introduce people to crime writing talent they may not have heard of,” says Bob.
“The weekend delivers a real gathering of friends and colleagues who genuinely enjoy each other’s company and come together over food and drink to talk – about books, yes, but also about whatever else comes to mind.”
Highlights
Bloody Scotland 2024 is a heart-stopping thrill-ride of a festival through the minds and books of the best crime-writers around. The packed programme includes old favourites and new names, author chats, prize panels and the return of the popular True Crime walking tour around Stirling, plus criminal karaoke and The Wickedest Link quiz show.
Authors from as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the US, France, Iceland, India and Ireland, as well as across the UK, join the line-up. Highlights include actor Richard Armitage in conversation with TV and radio presenter Bryan Burnett at the Albert Halls on September 13.
Richard, who has appeared in a string of successful films and TV shows, including The Hobbit, North and South, Into the Storm and Spooks, has written his crime fiction debut, Geneva, about a Nobel Prize-winning scientist with Alzheimer’s who attends a biotech conference where technology will be unveiled that could save her life.
Bloody Scotland co-founder Lin Anderson, famous for her Rhona MacLeod series of books, is in conversation with Ann Cleeves at the Albert Halls on September 14. As the creator of three outstanding crime series, two much-loved television dramas, Vera and Shetland, and 36 novels translated into more than 20 languages, Ann is one of the world’s best known crime writers. She will be discussing her latest adventure with DI Vera Stanhope, The Dark Wives.
Cosy crime is the somewhat negative-sounding label attached to a certain raft of crime books but its chart-topping explosion in recent years has exposed its wit, inventiveness and charm. In Cosy Killers: Sally Smith, Ian Moore, Orlando Murrin, at the Golden Lion on September 13, this trio discuss their own books and the rise of the genre. The event will be chaired by the “king of Indian cosy”, Vaseem Khan.
Mid-Nineteenth century Edinburgh was a time of world-leading medical advances but also a place of dark deeds and capital crimes, providing rich pickings for writers of historical crime fiction.
Auld Reekie: Ambrose Parry and Mairi Kidd, at the Albert Halls on September 13, brings together Mairi Kidd and the husband-and-wife team behind the Parry pen-name, Chris Brookmyre and Dr Marisa Haetzman, to take a delicious dive into the dark world of the anatomists and bodysnatchers.
Agatha Christie will forever be the grand dame of British crime fiction and her enduring influence on contemporary writers is unquestionable. Some follow her lead unwittingly, but others proudly pay homage with devilishly twisty Christie-like plots – and in New Age Agatha, on September 13 at the Golden Lion, we meet three of the best: Benjamin Stevenson, Frances White and Ragnar Jónasson. Other authors appearing at this year’s festival include Peter May, Louise Minchin, Frank Gardner, Abir Mukherjee, Chris Hammer, Tove Alsterdal, Irvine Welsh, Ruth Ware and Chris Carter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here