As publication date approaches on 28 June, there's been some encouraging early coverage of The Quaker. The Sunday Times Scotland ran an interview conducted by the excellent Stephen McGinty, which you can read here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-bible-john-still-stalks-my-imagination-0bqpjqcmz Laura Wilson in the Guardian's crime fiction roundup has some nice things to say about the novel: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/15/mick-herron-blood-road-stuart-macbride-quaker-mcilvanney-poison-fremantle-shot-lynne-truss But the pick of the bunch is a … [Read more...]

The Kiwis are on the march! (Can you march in jandals?) Delighted to be part of 'The Kiwis are Coming!' panel at Bloody Scotland 2018 with Fiona Sussman, Paul Cleave and Denise Mina. See you in Stirling on 22 September... https://bloodyscotland.com/event/the-kiwis-are-coming-fiona-sussman-paul-cleave-denise-mina-and-liam-mcilvanney/ … [Read more...]

Totally stoked to be appearing at the the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival this July alongside Eva Dolan, Abir Mukherjee and Kate Rhodes, in a session chaired by the great Lee Child. If you find yourself at a loose end in Harrogate on Saturday 21 July at 2pm, I'll see you down The Old Swan... http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/theakston-festival/what-happened-next/ … [Read more...]

To someone growing up in the West of Scotland in the 1970s and 80s, the words ‘Bible John’ had a special resonance. You might overhear your parents saying the name in guarded voices, or bigger kids in the playground discussing the murders, how three women got killed in the big bad city on the other side of the Fenwick Moor. The Bible John murders took place in Glasgow in 1968 and 1969. There were three killings. In each case, the victim was picked up at the Barrowland Ballroom in the East End of the city, and then raped, strangled and dumped within a few hundred yards of … [Read more...]

There’s been a good old-fashioned stushie recently, on Twitter and elsewhere, about a new literary prize for crime novels that eschew violence against women. The Staunch Book Prize, launched earlier this year, will be awarded to a ‘novel in the thriller genre in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered’. In part, the award builds on a Radio 4 Documentary, ‘Body Count Rising’, written and presented by Doon Mackichan, one of the inaugural judges of the Staunch Prize. In the documentary, Mackichan argues that women in crime dramas are too … [Read more...]