Barossa Street coming soon

 Barossa Street, my follow-up to Cuddies Strip, will be published on 11th May by Ringwood Publishing.

It is available for pre-order here. 

20th January 1936, and King George V is dying.

The same day, Bob Kelty accompanies a friend to the house of a local recluse. There, they find Hugh Smithson brutally murdered in his bed. 

Horror turns to nightmare as Bob’s friend, Richard Hamill, comes under suspicion of the murder and Bob reluctantly becomes embroiled, once more, in the investigation of a terrible crime in 1930s Perth. Gradually, he begins to uncover the truth, and it is something nobody expected... 

Set against the backdrop of the abdication crisis and the looming shadow of war, Barossa Street examines the prejudice of 1930s society and its impact on the justice system. Will this lead to the police jumping to conclusions and prosecuting the wrong man? Or will Bob save the day?

Barossa Street

 I am delighted that Ringwood Publishing have contracted to publish my next novel, Barossa Street.

Barossa Street is the follow-up to the CWA John Creasey Golden Dagger Award-longlisted Cuddies Strip, which was described by Val McDermid as "highly recommended". It features once more, Bob Kelty, the shy but dogged policeman from Cuddies Strip. Now, much to his relief, out of the police force, he is nonetheless embroiled in another vicious crime when a friend of his is arrested and charged with a murder that Bob is convinced he didn't commit. He sets off in pursuit of the real culprit and uncovers some nasty truths in the process...

Barossa Street will be published in Spring 2022.

New Scottish Writing 39

 I am delighted to have been published by New Scottish Writing, in their 39th anthology. This is a volume I've been trying to get into for years.

"Fresh Watter" is a prequel of sorts to Cuddies Strip, my novel published by Ringwood Publishing. It tells of the childhood of Cuddies Strip's central character, Bob Kelty, living in rural Perthshire in the early 1930s.

You can purchase New Scottish Writing here

1930s Crime - Fact and Fiction

 Last night I did a talk with Tom Wood, former Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders on crime in 1935.

Tom is the author of Ruxton: The First Modern Murder and that case came to trial the same week as the trial of John McGuigan for the Cuddies Strip crimes, which were the basis for my novel Cuddies Strip.

Some of the police officers involved in the Ruxton case also offered assistance to the Perthshire force and the two crimes were heavily reported side-by-side in the newspapers.

The criminal investigations are fascinating: in the Ruxton case, as Tom expertly explains, we saw the beginnings of a scientific, professional approach to policing. The Cuddies Strip investigation, by contrast, was undertaken by a police force that was under-resourced and not set up to manage a complex and detailed investigation.

You can view the talk here.

Barossa Street

 I finished the final draft of Barossa Street, the follow-up to Cuddies Strip tonight.

Bob Kelty, having recently resigned his commission with the Perth City Police force, immediately becomes embroiled in another murder investigation when he discovers the brutality murdered body of Hugh Smithson in a house in Barossa Street, Perth.

Once more, Bob finds himself operating alone, with the police seemingly content to pin the blame on Richard Hamill, an early suspect in the Cuddies Strip murders the previous years.

Set against the backdrop of the death of King George V and the ensuing abdication crisis, plus the looming threat of war and despotism in Europe, Barossa Street follows Bob's attempts to prove that Richard is innocent and to bring the culprit to justice.

Barossa Street will be published later this year.

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Longlist

I'm delighted to have been nominated for this year's Crime Writers' Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for the best first novel published in the year for my novel Cuddies Strip.

The Cuddies Strip website is here.

Copies of Cuddies Strip can be purchased here.

Scottish Book Week

I'm very excited to be speaking with fellow Ringwood Publishing authors, Simon McLean and Tom Wood at a Scottish Book Trust Book Week Scotland event on 16 November. We will be discussing the future of policing.

My forthcoming novel, Cuddies Strip, although set in 1935, has much we can learn from today.

Tom Wood is an ex-Deputy Chief Constable (Lothian and Borders) and has written a superb account of the Ruxton Murders, dubbed the first modern murder case.

Simon McLean is a former detective and the author of the forthcoming The Ten Percent.

Pre-order a signed copy of my new novel

My new novel, Cuddies Strip, will be published by Ringwood Press later this year.

You can pre-order a signed copy and have guaranteed delivery by publication date.

I am available for any blog spots or interviews. Just leave a message here and I'll get back to you.

Runner-up in the Raven Short Story Competition

My story, Zoroman's Cave, was runner up in the 2019 Raven Short Story Competition. The judges said of it:

‘Zoroman’s Cave’ is a throwback with the hyper intelligent yet sinister narrator reminiscent of Lovecraft’s high-pulp style narrators. The volume of verbiage and contortion of the narrator’s thoughts can come across as quite dense, high falutin’ even, yet it flowed. It made for a smooth read. For that I thought it should be recognized as a standout and a great nod to the classic weird story genre.

I've been on a decent run recently. Some joy with the novels would be good now...

Darling Axe First Page Challenge

I'm delighted to have won the Darling Axe First Page Challenge for the opening page of my novel Cloudland. Having seen the stories that came second and third, I can see the standard was very high.

Harbinger in print

I have a flash piece published in the new volume by Palm-Sized Press.


It's adapted from my first novel, which I'm currently rewriting, and features the introduction of one of the main characters, old man Disdain. 

You can order it here:
 
 http://bit.ly/PSVol1 

Harbinger

A flash piece, "Harbinger", adapted from my first novel Cloudland, has been accepted by Palm Sized Press for their latest edition.

The treadmill

Figures for the past two days:

Rejections: six
Queries to agents abandoned with no reply: two
Submissions: thirteen

And I still have a few sub-3000 word stories without an obvious home.

Flash 500 Flash fiction competition

I'm pleased to have won third prize in the latest Flash 500 flash fiction competition with my story, Momma.

This is a story that is circling round in my head at the moment. It's adapted from my first novel, Cloudland, but written first person in my protagonist's voice, rather than the third person of the novel. It makes it more intimate. I have a longer version of the story as well, and I'm working on a longer story at the moment which expands on the same scene, too. It's becoming a bit of an obsession.

Bedford International Writing Competition

I had a wonderful evening on Friday when I attended the prize giving for the Bedford Interational Writing Competition, for which I had two stories shortlisted.

The competition was judged by Sue Moorcroft, I'm delighted that I won it with my story Joss'n'Jules Forever, which is adapted from my first novel Cloudland.

Many thanks to all the judges, readers, committee and fellow entrants. This is a brilliantly run competition and the awards ceremony was a terrific event.

(Pictures borrowed from the BIWC Facebook page)

Bradford Literary Festivel Northern Noir Crime Writing Competition

I'm delighted to have been chosen as one of ten winners of a week-long crime writing residential course in the Bradford Literary Festival Northern Noir Crime Writing Competition. This is for my second novel, Cuddies Strip, a crime novel set in 1930s Perth, Scotland.

The residential course in at the Ted Hughes Writers' Centre, Lumb Bank, Yorkshire, so that will be fascinating anyway. And leading the course are AA Dhand and literary agent Simon Trewin, so it's bound to be an experience to treasure.

London Independent Story Prize

My flash fiction, The Gamekeeper's Telling, was Highly Commended in the London International Story Prize and there is an interview with me on their website.

Bedford International Writing Prize

I have two stories short listed in the Bedford International Writing Prize this year - Joss'n'Jules Forever and The Weight of Snow. The prize giving is in January and I may attend, so if you're there, say hello.

Joss'n'Jules Forever is adapted from my first novel, Cloudland, and The Weight of Snow is a story I wrote back in about 2005, but completely changed. What is now the story was originally only half of the 2005 version. I focused in on the one event and I think it's much stronger as a result. Hopefully, the judges will agree...

HISSAC Short Story Competition

Please to have won third place in the HISSAC Flash competition 2018 for my story Peewit, and to have been highly commended in the Short Story Competition for my story Sequela.

I won the flash competition last year as well, and I placed in the short story competition a number of years back under a pseudonym, so there must be something about my writing style that appeals to the judges. It's a very well run competition as well, and very friendly. Definitely worth a try next year if you're thinking about entering competitions.

Segora Short Story Competition

I'm very pleased to have won second place in this year's Segora Short Story Competition for my humorous story, The Birth of God. Here is the opening section:

In an ordinary green field, in middle England, a cow surveyed its surroundings and wondered whether there should be more to life. The grass in the neighbouring field looked a delicious shade of green, rich and vibrant, evidently full of nutrients. For the past week, her daydreams had been filled with the vicarious delights of eating that grass. That must be, she had thought, the acme of experience. She slowly chewed on air, pretending the virgin grass was on her tongue, between her teeth, sliding down her throat into her rumen, there to soften up before passing into her reticulum, omasum and abomasum.

But now she wasn’t so sure. What if it was a trick of the light? What if that grass wasn’t all she imagined it do be? What if – and this was highly likely, the more she thought about it – what if beyond that field there was another field with even richer, greener grass? And beyond that another one? And yet another one? It was too much to contemplate. She might walk two miles in search of the perfect grass and never find it. And what if it was here all along, beneath her hooves, only she wasn’t intelligent or cultivated or educated enough to recognise it?

Then, in confusion and growing distress, she began to wonder whether the quest for perfect grass should be the summit of her ambition anyway? Couldn’t she aspire to something grander than the consumption of monocotyledonous plantlife? Was this as good as it got? So began the cow’s existential crisis.