Having written for children and young adults, Martin Stewart is fulfilling a dream by being part of Bloody Scotland with his new novel

It was always Martin Stewart’s dream to be part of the programme at crime-writing festival Bloody Scotland, explains the Glasgow-born author. “It’s so exciting – it’s one of those things you think other people do, so to get the chance to be involved is fantastic,” he explains.

“I’ve actually been at the festival before – as part of the football tournament, the Bloody Cup, where the Scottish crime writers take on the English crime writers.” He adds, modestly: “I have been on the winning side every time I have played…” Martin’s novel, Double Proof, is one of the contenders for this year’s Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year, alongside Suzy Aspley’s Crow Moon; Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey; Allan Gaw’s The Silent House of Sleep; and Blood Runs Deep by Doug Sinclair.

“The football tournament is a lot of fun, even if it does feel a bit like parents’ race on school sports day – middle-aged people being slightly optimistic about physical activity – but to be at Bloody Scotland as a writer was always my lodestar, my ambition,” adds Martin. “Writing is such an isolating job and the festival reminds you that you are part of a community.

"Book people are nice people in general and the Scottish crime-writing community is especially welcoming. It’s a competitive industry, of course, but there is a real sense there is room for everyone.”

Former English teacher Martin, who lives in Troon with his wife and two young children, is better known as the author of children’s books and young adult fiction, including his Bridget Vanderpuff series – “cosy crime and skulduggery for kids,” he says, smiling – and Riverkeep, a captivating fantasy adventure story.

“I was 19 when I started taking writing seriously, and it took me 12 years to get anywhere,” he says. “I always wanted to write a crime book, although that is not to do a disservice to the books I have written for children and young adults. I love writing for young people – as soon as I became a teacher, I wanted to write for them. But Double Proof is the book I always expected to write.”

Double Proof is a darkly comic tale of stolen whisky, drug dealers, bent cops, social influencers and yakuza mobsters, with belligerent, disgraced reporter Robbie Gould caught in the middle.
Inspired by Chris Brookmyre’s early books, in particular A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away, Martin set the book in Glasgow.

“It was amazing to me that someone could write a crime novel that was so Glaswegian,” he says, smiling. “That idea that crime books didn’t have to be set on the mean streets of Chicago was fascinating to me.

“Setting my book in Glasgow was a challenge, because previously I’ve always built my own worlds, and I was nervous about using real-life geography and the constraints of that. But I loved it.”