Scotland's international crime writing festival, Bloody Scotland, has enjoyed its most successful year yet - selling almost 6000 tickets over three days.
Authors such as Martina Cole, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Peter May all featured at the festival's various events throughout Stirling city centre.
Sell out sessions included an event examining the infamous World's Ends Murders and another looking at the poisons Agatha Christie used to kill her victims, while author events with Denise Mina, Belinda Bauer and leading Nordic writers Gunnar Staalsen, Johan Theorin and Ragnar Jonasson also reached capacity.
The festival also took over famous Stirling whisky bar, The Curly Coo, for a late night session with songs and storytelling from leading writers.
Festival director Dom Hastings said: "The audience response this year has been phenomenal. We try particularly hard to create unusual and exciting events that will help bring the books off the page, so it’s gratifying to see so much enthusiasm when we try, say, taking over a whisky bar and making our authors sing for their suppers!
"There have been some truly special events this year, in what has been an exceptionally strong year for crime fiction in Scotland.
"The audience’s passion for crime writing and the kind of experience Bloody Scotland can offer is really helping to make Stirling in September a destination for internationally bestselling authors, and their readers."
The festival, which ran from September 11 to 13, also featured an England versus Scotland crime writers football match, with team captains and authors Ian Rankin and Simon Kernick leading their sides to a 5-5 draw.
New initiatives this year included Crime in the Spotlight - a programme offering emerging Scottish novelists a chance to read their work ahead of headlining acts, while there was also a rally to demonstrate solidarity with refugees called Bloody Scotland sees Syria.
More than 75 authors attended the festival in total, the largest number to date.
The award for Crime Book of the Year went to Craig Russell’s The Ghosts of Altona.
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