Meet the Author
Bury Them Deep James Oswald, Wildfire £16.99
Fife farmer and crime author James Oswald started out writing comics and fantasy novels. But it took a wise word from Aberdeen crime-writing ace Stuart MacBride to get him into print.
James, pictured below, tells P.S.: “Stuart and I were great friends in Aberdeen in the 1990s. A mutual friend who ran a comic shop in Aberdeen introduced us. Stuart is a very good artist, and I was writing comic strips.”
He laughs: “We got on well and we wrote a send-up of the children’s character, Mr Benn, together.
“When Stuart had his first break with Cold Granite he phoned me and told me to give up fantasy because crime fiction was where it was at.
“He pointed me to R.D.Wingfield who wrote the Frost books, and Val McDermid. I had already read Ian Rankin because my dad had his books.”
It was sound advice. Natural Causes, Oswald’s debut launched Detective Inspector Tony McLean who first appeared in his comic strips. It was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’Association Debut Dagger.
The author – who breeds Highland Cattle on a 350-acre sheep farm – will see the 10th in the series, Bury Them Deep, out in shops on Thursday. An 11th in is in progress, and will be his 17th book overall.
He says: “It is exciting and bewildering. I can’t understand how I have managed to write 10, but somehow I have.
“I wrote Natural Causes in 2006 but self-published it eight years ago. I was too busy working the farm to write anything new. I put two books out on Kindle at the time and everything took off.”
The first two ebooks shifted more than 300,000. The rest is history.
Oswald says: “It took 20 years to get the big break. I still consider myself to be a bit of a cheat and that I don’t belong in crime fiction, but I
think all authors feel they are a bit of imposter.”
James revealed the new book probes the disappearance of a police technical support officer during a major investigation. Police think she has sold out to criminals, but Tony McLean isn’t so sure.And the deeper he digs the more he discovers a weird link with the Scots legend of Sawney Bean, a 16th Century cannibal who with his clan is said to have eaten 1,000 people.
It’s tipped to be yet another bestseller with Oswald dubbed “the new Ian Rankin”. He says: “I had met Ian Rankin but I didn’t know him terribly well, so it was a bit embarrassing. But I have met him many times since and he is very nice about it. It was a lovely comparison to make but doesn’t bear much scrutiny because my books are very different to his.
“And I think Tony McLean and John Rebus would not get on because they are from different ends of the social spectrum. Tony is old money, Edinburgh aristocracy almost, and Rebus is a miner’s son from Fife.”
James will be on tour across Scotland from tomorrow starting at Waterstones in Newton Mearns and culminating with an appearance at Elgin Library on February 28.