Stuart MacBride in London

I have admired Stuart Macbride’s Detective series set in the Granite city of Aberdeen for many years now. While at the LBF last week, I bumped into Phil Patterson, MacBride’s agent and congratulated him on the news of MacBride’s new contract as reported at The Bookseller –

Logan McRae's sleuthing in the Granite City of Aberdeen will continue into the next decade as HarperCollins has signed a new four-book deal with author Stuart MacBride.

Deputy publishing director Sarah Hodgson signed the deal with Philip Patterson of Marjacq Scripts. Two of the books will continue the Logan McRae series and the remaining two books are likely to be standalone thrillers. HarperCollins will publish the fifth McRae novel, Blind Eye, next month which MacBride will be promoting on a four-week tour across the UK.

The sixth McRae book, already under contract, will follow in 2010. The newly acquired books are projected to be published once a year then from 2011. Hodgson said: "This new deal means that we can make long-term plans for the future growth of his career in a structured and sustainable way."

I have bumped into MacBride many times on my travels, and despite the darkness in some of his detective fiction; MacBride does exude a very funny side, so I was delighted that he is appearing next week in London to promote the 5th in his Logan Macrae thriller series – Blind Eye

The new Logan McRae thriller set in gritty Aberdeen, from the bestselling author of Cold Granite and Flesh House. It's summer in the Granite City, but even the sunshine can't improve the mood at Grampian Police Headquarters. Aberdeen's growing Polish community is under attack from a serial offender who leaves mutilated victims to be discovered on building sites -- eyes gouged out and the sockets burned. Detective Sergeant Logan McRae is assigned to the investigation, codenamed Operation Oedipus, but with the victims too scared to talk, it's going nowhere fast. When the next victim turns out to be not a newly arrived Eastern European, but Simon McLeod, owner of the Turf n' Track bookies, Logan suddenly finds himself caught up in a world of drug wars, prostitution rings and gun-running courtesy of Aberdeen's oldest and most vicious crime lord - More Information - Blind Eye

Stuart is speaking at WATERSTONE'S PICCADILLY on Thursday, 7 May 2009, at 7:00PM
Tickets £3, redeemable against purchase of the promoted title on the night

Further details available here or call the store direct - 0207 851 2400

For more information why not follow Stuart MacBride’s Blog here; and for those of who haven’t caught up with this award-winning novelist -

Stuart MacBride was born in Dumbarton near Glasgow but grew up in Aberdeen. After a series of jobs including working off-shore, graphic design, voiceovers for local radio and web design he started to write fiction.

His first novel, Cold Granite, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers' best debut novel [at Left Coast Crime 2006] and won the Barry Award for the best first novel. Both Cold Granite, and its follow-up, Dying Light, have made the shortlist of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Stuart won the CWA Dagger In the Library Award for a body of work at the CWA Dagger Awards 2007. Dying Light, Broken Skin and Flesh House were all top ten bestsellers. Stuart won Breakthrough Author of the Year at the the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards in 2008. Stuart lives in north-east Scotland with his wife Fiona, cat Grendel, and a vegetable plot full of weeds.

Photo © 2009 Ali Karim [Taken at the CWA 2007 Dagger Awards] Cover © 2009 HarperCollins