Leading crime authors are vying for book prize
The McIlvanney Prize longlist for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2018 has been announced by Bloody Scotland.
Judges will pick one of 12 books for the much-coveted prize, with the winner being announced at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling as the annual crime writing festival gets underway. The longlist features a mix of previous winners, established crime writers, some emerging talent and a debut, with the victor taking home a prize of £1000 and securing a nationwide promotion in Waterstones. Previous winners include Chris Brookmyre with Black Widow, Denise Mina with The Long Drop and Craig Russell with The Ghosts of Altona.
Two years ago the award was renamed the McIlvanney Prize in memory of William McIlvanney who established the tradition of Scottish detective fiction – and this year his son Liam has made the shortlist.
Chair of the judges Craig Sisterson said: “Forty-one years ago William McIlvanney rocked the British literary world with Laidlaw, a gritty and socially conscious crime novel that brought Glasgow to life more vividly than anything before.
“This year’s longlistees for the McIlvanney Prize demonstrate how modern Scottish crime writing has flourished from those seeds.
“From debutants to authors with more than 20 books, spy thrillers to long-running detective series’, nineteenth-century mysteries to futuristic space station noir, there’s an amazing range of talent on show.”
The longlist, which was chosen by an independent panel of readers, is as follows: Follow in the Dead, Lin Anderson; Places in the Darkness, Chris Brookmyre; Presumed Dead, Mason Cross; The Man Between, Charles Cumming; The Loch of the Dead, Oscar De Muriel; Perfect Death, Helen Fields; Now She’s Gone, Alison James; The Quaker, Liam McIlvanney; No Time to Cry, James Oswald; The Suffering of Strangers, Caro Ramsay; The Hunter, Andrew Reid; The Photographer, Craig Robertson.
Judges for the next round will be chaired by Mr Sisterson and include comedian Susan Calman and crime reviewer Alison Flood. The finalists will be revealed in September but the winner will be kept under wraps until the ceremony itself.
The winning author will lead a torchlight procession, accompanied by Denise Mina and Val McDermid, to the Albert Halls for the first event of the crime writing festival.