2026 McIlvanney Prize Longlist

 

Bloody Scotland today reveals the longlist for the 2026 McIlvanney Prize which will be judged by author and broadcaster, Sally Magnusson, radio and podcast presenter, Nicola Meighan and crime blogger, Gordon McGhie.

The 2026 longlist includes last year’s winner, Tariq Ashkanani and last year’s debut winner David Goodman. It also includes two other former McIlvanney Prize winners, Chris Brookmyre and Callum McSorley and FOUR of the five women crime writers who have been shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize 2026:

The Hollow Boys by Tariq Ashkanani (Viper)

138 Main Street by Gavin Bell (S&S)

Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre (Abacus)

A Bab, Bad, Place by Frances Crawford (Bantam)

Unknown by Heather Critchlow (Canelo Crime)

Solitary Agents by David Goodman (Headline)

We Know What We Did by Kirsty Lockwood (Orion)

Rat Race by Callum McSorley (Pushkin Vertigo)

The Diaries of Lies by Philip Miller (Polygon)

The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill)

The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin (Viper)

Liar Thief by May Rinaldi (Black Spring Crime)

The list features eight authors who have been or are currently shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize, indicative of the important role the Debut Prize plays in developing the careers of new Scottish writers. The longlist is rounded out by Abir Mukherjee, winner of last year’s British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year, the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the 2026 CWA Dagger in the Library; Heather Critchlow on the list for the second year in a row; Gavin Bell writing under his own name having previously been longlisted as Mason Cross and Philip Miller who previously won a major crime writing award in the US but has never appeared on the McIlvanney longlist.

Festival Director Bob McDevitt said:

“I’ve been hugely enjoying reading my way through the books that were submitted for the prizes this year and I’m excited to see that some of my favourites have made the longlist. It’s also great to see smaller independent publishers holding their own against the big guns of London.”

The McIlvanney longlist and the Bloody Scotland shortlist will be promoted in bookshops throughout Scotland in the period between the announcement and the presentation on Friday 18 September. The winner will be announced in the Church of the Holy Rude on the opening night of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival and interviewed on stage by BBC presenter, Bryan Burnett. They will then lead a procession to the Albert Halls alongside guest programmer, Denise Mina.

Kirsty Nicholson, Marketing Director at Glencairn – sponsors of The McIlvanney Prize with the Glencairn Glass, the official glass for whisky, said:

“It’s fantastic to see four of the five women shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize also recognised on this year’s McIlvanney Prize longlist alongside some of the biggest names in crime fiction. Congratulations to all the authors who have made the longlist – it’s a tremendous achievement and we look forward to celebrating this year’s winner.”

Forthcoming books from Canelo Crime

 

January 2024

Unburied is by Heather Critchlow. The police. They’re digging in the scrapyard.’ Cal Lovett has spent half his life telling other people’s stories on his true crime podcast. But the police are close to solving the mystery of his sister’s disappearance – now he might finally get to tell Margot’s story. A desperate relative begs for his help. Cal seeks respite on a holiday in the Scottish Highlands, but is dragged into a new cold case: an unsolved murder that shattered a family fourteen years ago. An isolated community wary of outsiders. Eyes follow Cal everywhere. And someone makes it very clear that they don’t want him snooping around… How far will he go to find justice? And how far is far enough?

Directions for a Dark Thing is by Stephanie Sowden. There was a history in this house, secrets he hadn’t even got close to scratching the surface of…’ Something peculiar is going on at The Lloyd Estate. The enormous house and its vast grounds are rarely seen by outsiders. Only Audrey Lloyd – the cantankerous elderly owner and only daughter to the famed movie mogul who built the mansion – knows of the suffocating darkness that has settled on the place. Property developers have come to Audrey over the decades. Countless times they have been rebuffed. Now, she agrees to sell to ambitious broker Terri Nicholls. But Terri has to trade something of her own in return. Detective Don Vernon is on the brink of retirement. Instead, he is about to be caught in a web of lies; one which Audrey has been spinning for decades. Can those who cross the threshold make it out again intact?

February 2024

England, 1716. The only certainty in a thief’s life… is death. Christopher Templeton is a lawyer whose conscience troubles him. He knows many of the secrets of The Fellowship, the shadowy group profiting from the civil unrest in the nation, and has intimated to the Company of Rogues that he is willing to share them. The problem is, he has vanished. Jonas Flynt – thief, gambler, killer – still recovering from a duel with death upon the frozen Thames, is tasked with finding him. The trail takes him from the dark slums of London to a quiet village in the north of England, where all is not as it seems. But while he hunts for the missing man, someone else may be stalking him… someone with murder in their heart. A Grave for a Thief is by Douglas Skelton.

March 2024

As the Nazis roll into Warsaw, a serial killer is unleashed… September 1939. A city ruled by fear. A population brutalised by restrictions and reprisals. Amid the devastation, another hunter begins to prowl. What are a few more deaths amid scores of daily executions? Former chief investigator Jan Kalisz lives a dangerous double life, forced to work with the occupiers as he gathers information for the fledgling Polish resistance. Even his family cannot be told his true allegiance. When the niece of a Wehrmacht general is found terribly mutilated, Jan links the murder to other killings that are of less interest to his new overlords. Soon, he finds himself on the trail of a psychopathic killer known as The Artist. But, shunned as a Nazi collaborator, can he solve the case before another innocent girl is taken? Blood Roses is by Douglas Jackson.

Bridges to Burn is by Marian Todd How can DI Clare Mackay uncover the facts if nothing is what it seems? DI Clare Mackay is called to Albany High, where the body of a girl has been found. A suspected suicide – yet Sophie Bakewell was by all accounts a cheerful, talented student. Could she really have been hiding a darker side? It’s not the only disturbing case to land on Clare’s desk. Across town, an elderly man is in danger. Yet before the police can determine the facts, everything changes and they are presented with two suspicious deaths to investigate. As Clare and her team face the possibility that anything they believe to be true about the deaths is wrong, they might find that a killer can lurk behind the most innocent of faces…

Ten years ago, in the pine-shaded town of Savage Ridge, Nick, Emmy, and Pete murder their high school classmate, Sammy Saint John. His body is never found, and no arrests are made. The three friends make a pact to leave Savage Ridge and never return… Now, each is drawn home, seemingly by chance or fate. But it’s neither: Private Investigator Sloane Yo has brought them back to finally answer for their crime. The noose begins to tighten. But with each stone turned over in pursuit of justice, the long-buried secrets of Savage Ridge, and Sloane’s employers – the ruthless Saint John family – start to come to light. What aren’t they telling Sloane? Is Sammy Saint John the only victim? And when the truth is finally revealed, whose side will she choose? Savage Ridge is by Morgan Greene.

On The Run is by Max Luther. Framed for murder. Out for revenge. Private bodyguard Alex Drayce is on assignment in the States, tasked with protecting a wealthy businessman under threat of assassination. He is presented with the opportunity to make some quick cash for a week’s work, aiding one Carlos Garcia in finding his daughter, who has gone missing in Las Vegas. A seemingly simple task... As events soon spiral out of control, Alex must go on the run, hunted down by the combined might of the Las Vegas police department, fronted by Detective Naomi Ocean, and a ruthless gang out for blood. But his pursuers should be wary. Alex Drayce is not a man to be taken lightly…

Heather Critchlow on The Rise of the True Crime Podcast

©Photography by Helen Rosemier

Ever since the first series of US podcast Serial aired in 2014, millions have been fascinated by true crime podcasts and the dynamics behind them. That series, which ultimately led to an innocent man being released from jail, lit a spark and inspired countless others to follow.

These podcasts form a steady backdrop to my life. I take them walking, running and driving, cook and clean with them as the soundtrack. The voices trickle into my mind and the stories they tell stay there, haunting, terrifying, raging with injustice. 

The podcast has breathed new life into audio and the beauty of it is that it’s a democratic medium. There are media organisations making slick and well-funded series, but the barrier to entry is low and plenty start out as a couple of people with an iPhone. The sheer number of true crime podcasts out there means families of victims have a greater chance to be heard, with an audience invested in finding answers and fresh sets of eyes on the way their loved one’s case was handled.

My preferred type of true crime podcasts are those that dive into cold cases and attempt to find new evidence to solve these decades-old mysteries. To do this, podcasters travel to remote places, doorstep unlikely and uncommunicative people and lend a voice to those who have been forgotten by the wider world. The Teacher’s Pet, an Australian podcast about missing woman Lynette Dawson, led to a conviction, while US series Up and Vanished has help solve the mystery of what happened to missing teacher Tara Grinstead. It’s heartening that people who think they’ve got away with murder now have something else to fear.

Unlike TV documentary series, which are usually commissioned for a set number of episodes, true crime podcasts have been known to go on much longer than originally planned, with podcasters returning to review developments in ad hoc episodes. Some spend years working on the cases they investigate, often becoming far more drawn into a case than they expected when they set out. What drives them to do this and what is the impact on their own lives?

That is one of the questions at the heart of Unsolved, my debut novel about a true crime podcaster. In the first book, Cal Lovett travels to Aberdeenshire to investigate the cold case of a missing woman who rode her horse into the woods thirty-five years ago and never came out.

I’ve taken inspiration from the real world in creating him. David Ridgen, the Canadian journalist behind podcast Someone Knows Something is a master at delving into complicated cases that remain unsolved. Ridgen has a poetic style of narration and tenacity backed with kindness that I wanted my protagonist to emulate. He has also been known to take his son with him when investigating cases and in Unsolved Cal’s teenage daughter Chrissie accompanies him for a time.

And then imagination takes flight. Cal has particular reasons for seeking justice in cold cases – his own older sister vanished when he was nine years old and has never been found. Like those of us who listen to true crime podcasts, Cal desperately wants to know the truth. For him, it is deeply personal.

Time changes everything: people age and perspectives alter, allegiances shift and guilt seeps through relationships where someone knows something. As well as scientific advances moving things on, sometimes the simple truth is that people are now just ready to talk. 

When I started writing Unsolved, I was interested in this willingness to speak, the motivations behind people opening up years on from events and the possibility that even in the present day they have their own agenda, shame about their actions and secrets they want to hide. How do we know those opening up are telling the truth? These are themes I am keen to explore in the series.

Undoubtedly, the true crime podcast taps into our burning desire to know. It’s not only the podcaster that becomes entwined in the search for the truth – they take the audience with them, creating an unofficial workforce and network of investigators. The best of them give voices to the families of victims who have been forgotten by the wider world, shining a light on corruption or ineptitude. If we’re lucky, then they also deliver justice to those who have been waiting a very long time for it.

Unsolved by Heather Critchlow (Canelo Books) Out Now. 

He won't rest until he finds out the truth... Cal Lovett is obsessed with finding justice for the families of missing people. His true crime podcast is his way of helping others, even if he can't help himself. His sister, Margot, disappeared when he was a child. Only one man seems to know something. But he's behind bars and can't be trusted. So when the family of a missing Scottish woman begs for his help, he heads to Aberdeenshire in search of the truth. Does Cal have what it takes to unearth the secrets hiding in the hills? And what if he finds something that leads him back to the heart of his own family's past?

More information about Heather Critchlow and her writing can be found on her website. She tweets @h_critchlow and can also be found on Instagram @heather.critchlow