May 2007
What is it with the Scots apparently insatiable desire for crime literature? Is it simply, as the mother of one of my writers says, ‘I just love a good murder’? Scottish readers are catholic in their tastes as far as crime is concerned – it can be real or imagined, contemporary or period, preferably gristly but cosy is also acceptable. Take a look at the current Waterstone’s Scottish bestseller list which is dominated by home-grown crime fiction. Allan Guthrie is in top position with his Edinburgh noir, Two Way Split (Polygon), followed by Christopher Brookmyre’s A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil (Abacus), then Ian Rankin’s Naming of the Dead (Orion), and, at positions 9 and 10, crime novels by Stuart McBride and Quintin Jardine. Alexander McCall Smith’s gentler, Botswana-based series makes an appearance too with Blue Shoes and Happiness. It’s now a bookselling tradition that at Christmas Scottish readers’ tastes turn to true crime. According to a Glasgow bookseller, the first titles always to be stolen from his shelves are those by Paul Ferris, former king of the Glasgow underworld.
Not content with our current complement of fictional crime- busters, new detectives continue to materialise at an alarming rate. Mercat has published the first Alice Rice, a police-procedural novel by advocate Gillian Galbraith. Joining Alice on the Edinburgh streets in November will be Brodie McLennan, appearing in a new series by Grace Monroe, from HarperCollins Avon list. Polyon brings out two Victorian crime thrillers by David Ashton this month, based on an actual detective, James McLevy,‘ a sort of Presbyterian Morse with a heart’, according to Financial Times . Ashton has already written four McLevy series of for BBC Radio 4 and a 90-minute film of McLevy has been commissioned by STV. Even St Andrews is not safe – no sooner has Prince William graduated than, in Frank Muir’s debut novel Eye for an Eye for Luath, it’s home to the most vicious serial killer ever known in the UK.
Val McDermid wrote in last week’s Sunday Herald about the celebrated Madeline Smith case. The case may be150 years old, but its fascination holds. Two new books have just been published, The Shadow of a Doubt by Joan Brittain (Upfront Press) and The Strange Affair by Douglas MacGowan (Mercat). They follow a graphic novel version by Rick Geary published last year by NBM/Comics Lit. Madeline Smith, the daughter of a wealthy Glasgow architect, was tried for murdering her lover, an immigrant clerk named Emile L’Angelier . The case had everything – ‘scandal, mystery, intrigue’ , and, and its centre, a beautiful young woman unable to defend herself as Scots law forbade an accused giving evidence in their own defence. Madeline walked free from a Glasgow court when the jury returned a Not Proven verdict. In the article, McDermid explores readers’ and writers’ passion for crime fiction, and puts forward the idea that crime books act as ‘ a sort of safety valve for our unacceptable desires’. She cites Sue Grafton who admitted that she spent the years of her divorce and custody battle thinking of ways to kill her ex, and finally sublimated those fantasies in A is for Alibi. McDermid believes that ‘crime fiction and notorious real cases (like the Smith one) have a genuine part to play in the sublimation of our darker desires’.
As a new production of The Hound of the Baskervilles opens in Covent Garden, Scotland’s most famous crime writer is remembered at a conference this weekend. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh and studied medicine in the city. Conan Doyle’s apprenticeship to Joseph Bell, surgeon and President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh led to the development of his famous character, the scientific detective, Sherlock Holmes. Speakers at the conference will look at the author’s early years in the city, and the influences on his medical career.
Finally, a new literary festival in the city capitalises on rising interest in the latest fictional genre, paranormal suspense. Writers with Bite! is a strand within the Mary King’s Ghost Festival this month, and features fantasy and crime writers. Brave souls can even take a literary tour called City of the Dead which explores the city’s darker side.
Posted on May 07, 2007 - 07:22 PM