Lin Anderson and The Special Dead

I was having dinner with a prospective director for my upcoming film Dead Close, which is based on a long short story of mine of the same name. He was reminiscing about his early career when he and a friend had been out on the town, celebrating a short film they’d just completed. They met two girls who professed to be witches, which seemed very sexy at the time. I immediately thought, beware of what you wish for, and thus the opening scene of The Special Dead was born.

My former Professor of Astronomy at Glasgow University, Archie Roy was an authority on the paranormal in Scotland. A scientist who was willing to investigate, that which we don’t yet understand. He told me about the famous Ferguson Collection on the occult housed in Glasgow University Library, which features in the story, along with the practice of witchcraft, or Wicca. Number patterns are important too. The quote on the front of the book,  “If you are reading this then I am dead”, is exactly nine words long, for a reason. And 9 is the square of 3…

They say bad things come in threes.   But good things can too. Being nominated for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year with Paths of the Dead, followed by the launch of The Special Dead, and a spectacular Bloody Scotland to look forward to in September is definitely a good threesome.

The Special Dead by Lin Anderson

If you are reading this, then I am dead!

When Mark Howitt is invited back to Leila's flat and ordered to strip, he thinks he's about to have the experience of his life. Waking later he finds Leila gone from his side. Keen to leave, he opens the wrong door and finds he's entered a nightmare; behind the swaying Barbie dolls that hang from the ceiling is the body of the girl he just had sex with.

Rhona Macleod's forensic investigation of the scene reveals the red plaited silk cord used to hang Leila to be a cingulum, a Wiccan artefact used in sex magick. Sketches of sexual partners hidden in the dolls provide a link to nine powerful men, but who are they?  As the investigation continues, it looks increasingly likely that other witches will be targeted too.

Working the investigation is the newly demoted DS Michael McNab, who is keen to stay sober and redeem himself with Rhona, but an encounter with Leila's colleague and fellow Wiccan Freya Devine threatens his resolve. Soon McNab realises Freya may hold the key to identifying the men linked to the dolls and the Nine will do anything to keep their identities a secret.

The Special Dead by Lin Anderson is out on 13 August 2015 (£12.99 HB/ £8.99 Ebook Macmillan)

An extract from The Special Dead can be read over on the Shots website here.

Lin Anderson has published several novels and one novella featuring forensic expert Dr Rhona MacLeod, which has been widely translated. Her short story Dead Close was chosen for the Best of British Crime 2011 and is currently in development as a feature film. Also a screenwriter, her film River Child won a student BAFTA and the Celtic Film Festival best fiction award. Currently Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland, she is also co-founder of Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival.

For more information about Lin Anderson and her work can be found on her website.  You can also follow her on twitter @Lin_Anderson and find her on Facebook.

Why a crime fighting elephant in Mumbai needs courage, curiosity . . . and chocolate

Today’s guest blog is by debut author Vaseem Khan. By day he is the Business Development Director for the Department of Security and Crime Science and the national Security Science Doctoral Research Training Centre at University College London (UCL).  The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra is the first in the series of the Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels set in India.

The long and varied history of the crime novel has witnessed crime fighters of every shape, size and disposition, ranging from a fastidious little Francophone Belgian whose head was ‘exactly the shape of an egg’ to a ‘rotund, badly-dressed Catholic priest’. Both Poirot and Father Brown are established stars in the literary firmament, but in my debut novel The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, Mumbai police Inspector Ashwin Chopra - forced into early retirement and unable to relinquish the final case of his career – the death of a poor local boy - is confronted by the somewhat surreal dilemma of taking in a baby elephant, sent to him by his enigmatic uncle. The elephant – one-year-old Ganesha - soon proves to be a more than useful ally as Chopra sets off to tackle the case, and thus becomes the latest in a long line of colourful crime fighters to have graced the genre.  

Fans of the novel have asked me why I chose an elephant as Chopra’s sidekick. Aside from the fact that I am passionate about these amazing animals, there are some very practical reasons why a pachyderm makes a more-than-competent crime-fighter.

Elephants are supremely intelligent creatures, one of just a few who are legitimately classified as being ‘self-aware’ (meaning that, at the least, they pass the ‘mirror test’). They also possess excellent memories, a trait that has been well documented, and amply employed by such renowned detectives as Inspector Morse – elephants really do not forget. Elephants are also known for their complex social interactions and ability to feel empathy. As a writer this emotional range is important to me – part of the charm of my series (as readers have expressed to me) lies in the relationship that gradually develops between the somewhat rigid and stiff-shelled Chopra and the, at first, despondent infant elephant that has been vouchsafed to his care.

Of course, we mustn’t forget that Ganesha is a child and like all children skates along on an ocean of emotional turbulence, which provides plenty of scope for melodrama. For instance, he is endowed with an unbridled sense of curiosity. As we shall see, this occasionally leads him into trouble, at which point his other singular and endearing quality will stand him in good stead – courage.

And in the city of Mumbai Chopra and Ganesha will require courage in spades. Like most Indian metropolises Mumbai is facing a cultural onslaught from westernisation – which brings both good and bad, as I describe in my novel. Mumbai is the city of dreams. People come to Mumbai to make their fortune, to become famous on the sets of the world’s most prolific movie industry, to start micro-businesses in the city’s slums.

But where there are dreams there are also nightmares.

Chopra stands on the shadow line between old and new India. Old India is tradition, religion, the caste system, ubiquitous poverty; new India is wealth, skyscrapers and western sensibilities eroding the ancient way of life. The sights, sounds, smells, and even tastes of this modern India flesh out my canvas as Chopra and Ganesha pursue an exotic gallery of villains and evildoers.

It has been tremendous fun writing these novels, imbuing them with the warmth and colour of India from the ten years I lived there. Finding time from my job at University College London’s Department of Security and Crime Science has been tricky – but I’m an insomniac so I guess there is a silver lining to sleepless nights after all!

One questions remains to be answered . . . Do elephants really love chocolate?

Elephants are herbivores and as such their diet consists of bark, grass, shoots, leaves, and fruit. But urban elephants – often faced with lean pickings – have been known to widen their palates in the pursuit of survival. And besides, every crime-fighter needs an addiction. Holmes had his morphine, John Rebus has his whisky. Is it so hard to accept that our crime-busting little elephant needs his chocolate fix before embarking on another gruelling day on the mean streets of Mumbai?

After all, of all places in this world, India is where the impossible becomes merely improbable – such as the existence of a very gifted, crime-fighting, chocoholic baby elephant.

More information about the author and his writing can be found on his website or you can follow him on Twitter @VaseemKhanUK and find him on Facebook.


The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra

On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries.  The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved.  And the second is a baby elephant.  As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought.  And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs...

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan is published on 13 August 2015 (£12.99 Mulholland Books)

Bloody Scotland Blog Tour - Author Interview: Allan Guthrie

Today on the blog I am joined by Allan Guthrie as part of the Bloody Scotland Blog Tour which is taking place between 11 to 13 September 2015. Allan Guthrie is an award-winning Scottish crime writer and ebook bestseller. His debut novel, Two-Way Split, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger award and went on to win the Theakston’s Crime Novel Of The Year in 2007. He is the author of four other novels: Kiss Her Goodbye (nominated for an Edgar Ward, Anthony Award and Gumshoe Award), Hard Man, Savage Night and Slammer and three novellas: Kill Clock, and Kindle bestsellers Killing Mum and Bye Bye Baby.

Al Guthrie will be at Bloody Scotland in Stirling.  For more details please click here and here.  His latest book is the Kindle bestseller Bye Bye Baby.  He is also the co-founder of digital publisher Blasted Heath.

Describe your writing in a sentence?

Can I do it in a word? Stuttering.

Do you have any literary influences, or writers that you admire?

When I first started trying to write crime novels my main influences were Christopher Brookymre, Douglas Lindsay and Charles Higson. As time went by and I realised I wasn’t capable of being even one-tenth as funny as Brookymre, Lindsay or Higson, I started reading a lot more American noir fiction from the 30s through to the 60s. So my influences tend to come from there – James M Cain, Horace McCoy, David Goodis, Jim Thompson, et al.

When you are writing, which has the slight edge plot or character?

For me, character tends to drive plot. Having said that, a great character with a dull plot is a terrible waste of a great character.

What made you decide to write standalone novels instead of a series?

It wasn’t so much a conscious decision as me just writing some novels back-to-back that happened to be standalones. I also don’t write the kind of novels (at least not so far) that lend themselves to a series. In most of my novels, the few characters who remain alive at the end of the book are too traumatised to go through something similar again. Having said that, I do have a recurring character in Gordon Pearce, who pops up in a few books, sometimes in a central role and sometimes as more of a peripheral figure. He’s a fairly robust kind of guy and apparently quite hard to traumatise. I do try, though.

When can we expect the next book from you?  The last book (If I am not mistaken) was Bye Bye Baby back in 2010.

That’s quite true. I did co-write a novella, Replacing Max, with Stuart MacBride (anthologised in Dark Duets (HarperVoyager)), which is slightly longer than Bye Bye Baby. But that was a while ago too. I’ve made several predictions as to when there might be a new book, but they’ve all been horribly wrong. So I’ll not make any more bold pronouncements for now, other than to say that there are a couple of books in the works that might see the light of day sometime soon. Possibly. But don’t quote me on it.

You have also written a number of short stories and contributed an essay to one of my favourite books of all time Books to Die For.  Which do you prefer, writing novels or short stories?

Novels are seriously hard work. It should get easier, but I find it gets harder with each book and becomes increasingly labour intensive. So short stories make sense if you don’t have a lot of spare time or write slowly (or especially if both are true). I’ve always been a big fan of novellas, though. Both as a reader and a writer. I like to be able to see the end when I start and then hold the entire book in my head when I’m finished. Novellas are perfect for that.

On the one hand I love Hard Case Crime not solely because of the books that they publish but also because of their covers.   The downside is that I have had to stop reading them on public transport because I keep on getting really weird looks.  They published Kiss Her Goodbye.  How did you feel about being published by them?  They are in their own way a unique publisher.

At the time Kiss Her Goodbye was commissioned, Hard Case Crime was brand new, so I had no idea what to expect. But I took to Charles Ardai, the man behind HCC, straight away. He’s one hell of an editor and taught me a lot about the craft. I loved the cover they commissioned for my book too. Some publishers ask for ideas for covers and then proceed to ignore them. Charles asked which scene from the book I’d like to see painted, I mentioned a couple, and one of those ended up as the basis of the cover art.

Of all your books which is your favourite and why?

Slammer. It’s the one that achieves the closest approximation of what I set out to do. I think it’s possibly the most affecting too. But authors are notoriously bad judges of their own books, so although it’s my favourite, it’s quite probably not the best one.

You started Blasted Heath back in 2011 along with Kyle MacRae. What was the reason for this? One has to admit that you have some pretty outstanding books and authors on your list.

Thank you! I think so too. Kyle broached me out of the blue with some fascinating suggestions about how to help authors in this new digital age (as it was then). We talked for a while and then ended up deciding the logical next step was to set up our own publishing company. And Blasted Heath was born. It happened very quickly. We first spoke in July, and launched the company in November. I said at the time that we were insane to be even contemplating becoming publishers. I was right!

England or Scotland for the Crime Writers football rematch?

If last year is anything to go by, you’d want to stake your mortgage on Scotland.

How do you manage to juggle the day job as a literary agent with your writing?

I’ve been doing a lot of editing in the last couple of years, to the point where it’s now become the day job (if the day job is defined as the one that takes up most time). I’ve done a lot of freelancing for various publishers, as well as the bulk of the editing for Blasted Heath, but since March I’ve been working as an executive editor for a fascinating new joint venture between Imperative Entertainment, a Hollywood production company, and Bastei Luebbe, a big German publisher. They’re highly innovative and we’re working on some exceptional projects. I’ve worked part-time as an agent with Jenny Brown Associates for ten years now. I maintain a small but extremely talented client list there. Finding time to write can be a challenge, but it’s usually possible to find an hour or so at the end of the day.

Do you have a favourite recurring crime fiction hero/ detective?

I’d have to go with Charlie Williams’s Royston Blake, the nightclub doorman “hero” of the Mangel series. Royston Blake is an original and Charlie Williams is a comic genius.

Which five crime novels (not necessarily your favourites) would you encourage a new reader of the genre to read?

A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr, – because it’s the book that got me into crime fiction. (Even though some would call it science fiction.)

The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell, – because it does happen to be one of the best

The Missing And The Dead by Stuart MacBride, – because it’s technically brilliant, multi-layered, authentic and ambitious

Double Indemnity by James M Cain, –  because it’s beautifully streamlined.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett – this one’s for writers as well as readers. It’s the best-known example of a technique I’ve heard referred to as “behaviourist”, in which an author chooses to avoid describing any of his characters’ thoughts or feelings. It also explodes the myth that PI novels have to be written in first person.

For those that have never been to Edinburgh describe your Edinburgh?

Ah, but that would be cheating. If you want to know what my Edinburgh’s like, you’ll have to pick up one of my books!

The state of Scottish writing especially Scottish crime writing is amongst the best and is in a buoyant state.   What do you think is the reason for this and how do you feel about being seen as part of the Tartan Noir rank and file?  What do you think of the term?

It’s an oft-asked question, but I don’t know that anyone’s come up with a terribly good answer. I suspect a large part of the success of Scottish crime writing is down to the early practitioners. William McIlvanney, then Ian Rankin and Val McDermid made Scottish crime writing very attractive to publishers, and canny writers write what publishers find attractive. And we’re a canny bunch up here. I’m happy to be called part of the tartan noir rank and file, but it’s mainly just a useful term that’s used by other people for marketing purposes.

Bloody Scotland has only been around for 4 years now but it has firmly established itself as one of the crime festivals to attend why do you think it has become so successful?

I don’t think there’s any one factor, but it’s more of a combination of the great organisation, the excellent programming, the tremendous writing talent on offer, the financing, the location, the publicity, and most importantly, the readers. It’s great that there’s so much enthusiasm for a celebration of the best of crime fiction from Scotland (and elsewhere) in our own back yard. Long may it continue!

Thanks to Allan for a wonderful interview.

Follow the blog tour at #bloodyblogtour