I’ve been a fan of Christopher Brookmyre for a number of years now. It was the funny titles such as Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks and All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye which first attracted me to the books and the black humour kept me hooked…
Hour of Darkness
18 November 2014 by Leave a Comment
When I wrote my first Top Ten Crime Writers article one of the names I included was Quentin Jardine, creator of Edinburgh cop Bob Skinner. I adored the first few books in the Skinner series. Skinner’s Rules and Skinner’s Festival are among the best Scottish crime fiction I’ve ever read…
Soulseeker
19 February 2013 by Leave a Comment
Just over a year ago I reviewed Sinclair Macleod’s The Reluctant Detective, the first in his series of crime novels set in Glasgow with an insurance investigator who gets caught up in murders. I mentioned in that review that while The Reluctant Detective wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a cosy mystery nor was it quite dark enough to be categorised as a “tartan noir”…
Aberystwyth Mon Amour
15 February 2013 by Leave a Comment
In my own personal backlash against the influx of Scandinavian crime fiction I was determined to read more British thrillers this year and did relatively well. I may have been last to the party in discovering the brilliance of Mark Billingham but at least I discovered it. I took a tour of some M.C. Beaton cosy mysteries..
The Reluctant Detective
29 November 2011 by Leave a Comment
I was first drawn to Scottish crime novel The Reluctant Detective by the tweets of its author Sinclair Macleod who uses social media to promote this book and its follow up The Good Girl. He claims that his novels are as “Scottish as Irn-Bru and Haggis” and offer “Crime with a Scottish accent” …
Top Ten: Books On My Christmas List
18 November 2011 by Leave a Comment
Christmas is coming, Santa’s nearly here. Hooray. I’ll try not to get too excited too early and frustrate everyone but it’s mid-November, perfect timing to start thinking about the festive season. I’m now getting daily text messages from my mum updating me on her shopping…
Top Ten: Crime Writers
19 August 2011 by 9 Comments
Every so often I worry that I’m not a “serious” enough reader. I don’t scour the new literary releases looking for the critics’ choice as my next purchase. I don’t obsessively plough my way through the shortlists of the highbrow book prizes. That’s not to say that I don’t read any literary fiction at all, but offered the choice of a Booker Prize winner or a good crime thriller I’d pick the latter any day of the week.
There is a wealth of enjoyable crime fiction available and hundreds of new and established crime novelists but I tend to find myself returning to the same authors over and over again. Here, in alphabetical order, are my top ten crime writers.