The Haunting of Minnie Ward by Bridget Walsh

Since the publication of my third novel, I’ve been asked a few times whether or not I believe in ghosts. Once you know the plot of that novel, the question won’t come as that much of a surprise. ‘The Spirit Guide’ is the third in the Variety Palace Mysteries, following on from ‘The Tumbling Girl’ and ‘The Innocents’. The novel opens in London, 1879, where my crime-detecting duo, Minnie Ward and Albert Easterbrook, areinvestigating two mysterious deaths. The trail leads Minnie to a grand country house in the Suffolk countryside, home of a spiritualist group. Once there, she finds herself isolated from everyone she loves and is confronted by some decidedly unsettling events that defy rational explanation. Mysterious visitations in the night, unexplained odours, screams in the darkness. Your classic ghost story fodder.

So, back to the question of whether or not I believe in ghosts. The short answer is ‘no’, simply because I’ve never seen any evidence to support their existence. But, strangely, I’ve lived in a house that other, perhaps more receptive, friends insisted was haunted. And I taught for several years in a school that was apparently inhabited by a spectral ‘Grey Lady’, a nun who broke her vows for a romantic relationship. In both instances, if I was living or working alongside supernatural beings, they were decidedly uninterested in me and never made their presence known.

But whilst I have no personal investment in spiritualism, the same can’t be said of the Victorians. The second half of the nineteenth century in particular saw intense interest in the paranormal, the strange, the unexplainable. The Victorians were fascinated by the idea of communicating with the dead, perhaps as a result of high infant mortality rates, perhaps as a reaction to the attacks on more conventional religious belief triggered by Darwinian thinking. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was famously a firm believer in the ability to communicate with the dead. Harry Houdini thought it was all a load of hokum. Houdini’s theatrical background might have been what triggered his scepticism. Victorian seances had a distinctly performative air about them, with a series of set pieces and a high level of trickery and illusion, something Minnie is quick to spot when she attends one with Albert.

My focus in ‘The Spirit Guide’, though, was not so much on whether or not ghosts existed, but more on why people would want to believe they do. Having lost both my parents, and other loved ones, I would give a great deal to have just one more day with them. An hour, even. So, I understand why people want to believe in the possibility of talking to the dead.

That desire for communion is, however, ripe for exploitation. In ‘The Spirit Guide’ Minnie insinuates herself into The Spirit Sisterhood, a spiritualist group targetting wealthy young women. The Sisterhood is a cult in all but name, a group of young women who believe themselves specially chosen, but who are actually being hideously manipulated. As someone once said ‘no-one sets out to join a cult’, and yet so many people find themselves part of one, often when it’s too late to extract themselves without great personal cost. Cults, initially at least, often offer something profoundly attractive to those they are targeting. The Spirit Sisterhood positions itself as a kind of proto-feminist organisation, empowering young women to abandon their corsets in favour of what was termed Rational Dress, to spend their money as they see fit, and lead a life not dictated by the expectation of marriage and motherhood. 

And Minnie can see the appeal. Despite having her head firmly screwed onto her shoulders, a street-wise young women who grew up in one of the poorest districts of London and learned to survive — indeed, flourish — within a society aimed at suppressing working-class women, even Minnie isn’t immune to the initial allure of the Sisterhood. Although the delights of a bucolic existence in the wilds of Suffolk are entirely lost on her. She’s decidedly uncomfortable outside of London, distrusting the existence of cows and finding the quiet and immersive darkness as oppressive as the noise and bustle of London might be to others. 

While undercover within the Sisterhood, Minnie is forced to confront events from her past, most notably the murder of Rose Watkins. Rose was Minnie’s best friend, whose murder in ‘The Tumbling Girl’ was the catalyst for Minnie’s alternative career as a private investigator. In the intervening years, Minnie has never fully come to terms with this loss. It’s in ‘The Spirit Guide’ that she finally reaches a resolution which enables her to move forward. And that resolution is only reached by coming face-to-face with her own particular ghosts and laying them to rest.

 The Spirit Guide by Bridget Walsh (Pushkin Press) Out Now

Tragedy strikes Minnie Ward's beloved Variety Palace Theatre when a man is found dead in suspicious circumstances. Along with private detective Albert Easterbrook, she investigates. The trail leads them from the streets of London to a grand country house in the Suffolk countryside, home of the shadowy Spirit Sisterhood, who promise their clients an audience with the deceased. Minnie isn't buying it. She goes undercover within the Sisterhood and enters an eerie world of seances and mediums. But unravelling their secrets will bring Minnie face-to-face with ghosts from her own past. Can she get to the truth before the murderer kills again?

More information about Bridget Walsh and her books can be found on her website.

Photo © Trevor Watson

Callum McSorley on Lockdown and leg work – finishing the trilogy

In 2020 I was living in Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, in lockdown with my wife – who as a paediatrician continued to work through the pandemic – and my then one-year-old son. To get him to nap I would roll him about in his pram in the garden then get a little writing done while he was parked up snoozing.

On our one allowed trip outside, I would take him around the neighbourhood, often down to the flood plain – an expanse of untamed grass and wildflowers by the River Urie – where there was a nice walk.

This part of the Urie isn’t particularly wide or deep, more a burn than a river, so it was a laugh to spot a group of young lads trying to row down it in a dinghy one day. Lockdown was getting to us all by then, I guess.

Not the only mad thing people were getting up to. I read a story online about drug dealers using their allotted exercise hour to meet customers in parks, dressed in jogging gear as cover. With plenty of people on furlough, business was good.

This stuck in my head. I even pitched a story to my agent inspired by it, but this was in 2021 and she rightly pointed out how uncertain the future still was. It would be hard to see the end of the book when we didn’t really know what was coming just weeks and months ahead of us. So it went into the kitchen drawer in my brain like the one where you keep all the random cables, bits of twine, corn on the cob holders, (flat?) batteries, tea towels printed with pictures of Cliff Richard… The usual shite.

And as with the ideas which became my previous two books – Squeaky Clean (2023), about a car wash worker who ends up cleaning more than just cars when gangsters take over the business, and Paperboy (2025), about a confidential waste technician selling secrets to cover his gambling debts – it took a few years for me to get back to it.

Jump forward to 2024. My debut Squeaky Clean had come out the year before and won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year and so I’d begun working on a trilogy starring Squeaky’s star copper, Alison ‘Ally’ McCoist (“Glasgow’s least popular detective”), who bungles and scraps her way through investigations causing plenty of mess and mayhem along the way. The middle part, Paperboy, was finished and with my publisher, coming out in March the next year, and it was time to bring the whole thing home.

But what to write about? Squeaky Clean was inspired by things I’d squirrelled away from the years I worked in a car wash as a student, Paperboy by nuggets of information smuggled from my pal who worked in confidential waste disposal. And this was when the idea churned back up to the top of my head: lockdown, parks, drug dealers.

Stars aligned – I was awarded the Loch Long Crime Writing Residency at the incredible artists’ retreat Cove Park in Argyll, so in the autumn of 2024 I drove to its idyllic surrounds, put myself in lockdown again and began writing what became Rat Race, my third book and the final part of the McCoist trilogy:

Fran Forbes is sixteen and leaving school. He’s a quick lad, a sharp-minded entrepreneur. Some people might call him a drug dealer. Whatever, he’s just secured a couple of kilos of top-quality nose hair dandruff and is about to take a big step up the career ladder. BUT (there’s always a but) it’s March 2020. Lockdown. He’s holding jailtime amounts, he owes big returns.

Not stymied for long, he reasons “the market’s still there – it’s distribution that’s the problem” and has a good idea: he’ll use his government sanctioned outdoors time to meet customers in parks. Fran runs all over Glasgow, covering miles and miles. He gets a taste for it, the running. More than that, he’s good at it. Competitive good. Before long he’s doing marathons, winning sponsorships and leaves the crooks of Glasgow behind.

BUT (see?), the dream doesn’t last for long. Where chapter one picks up, it’s 2026 and Fran’s knees are, according to the doctor, “fukt”. He wants to travel to the US for an operation by a specialist and that is going to cost a whole lot of readies.

Again, Fran won’t be stymied for long and he has another good idea: he goes back to his former boss and agrees to one last job in exchange for enough money to sort out his injured gams.

If you want to find out how that works out for him (probably well, you might guess), Rat Race is out now.

Rat Race by Callum McSorley (Pushkin Press) Out Now

DCI Alison McCoist is up to the oxters in Glasgow's shadiest police unit, with a list of guilty secrets growing longer by the day. Fran Forbes has just bolted from the scene of a gangland massacre with only a shite-stained tracksuit and a memory stick full of cryptocurrency to his name. Ally is tasked with looking into this latest underworld rammy and ends up working with some bampots even dodgier than her polis pals. Can she keep Fran from being turned into mince by a Russian OCG and finally free herself from the fankle of police corruption she's caught in? An enemy from Ally's past is determined her story won't have such a happy ending...

More information about Callum McSorley can be found on his website. Callum McSorley can also be found on Instagram at @callumrmcsorely on Facebook @callummcsorleyauthor

Forthcoming Books from Pushkin Press

January 2025

A Japanese mystery horror bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective - from the Youtube sensation Uketsu. A series of drawings by a pregnant woman conceal a chilling warning. A child's picture of his home contains within it a dark secret message. A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth into a terrifying investigation. Can you find the hidden clues in these strange pictures and discover what connects them all? When you do, a sinister truth will be revealed.

February 2025

One True Word is by Snæbjörn Arngrímsson. Why did she do it? After a day of simmering tension on a trip to an uninhabited island, Júlia snaps and leaves her husband Gíó marooned in the middle of a freezing fjord in the depths of the Icelandic winter, with night drawing in. When she regrets her decision and returns, he is nowhere to be found. The police launch a manhunt, but soon their suspicion falls on his wife. She spins them a story to hide her involvement, but she can feel the net closing in. Is Gíó alive or dead? In hiding or hunting her down? And can Júlia get to the truth before it destroys her?

Everyone is talking about it: a serial killer is on the loose. Women are being slain across the countryside surrounding the isolated Warren mansion where Helen has taken up a domestic position. And each murder is closer to the house than the last... When the body of a local girl is discovered in the nearby village, Professor Warren orders the mansion be locked up overnight for the residents' safety. But as a storm rages outside and tensions mount within the home. Helen begins to wonder whether the murderer isn't already inside, stalking his next victim... The Spiral Staircase is by Ethel Lina White.

March 2025

DCI Alison McCoist is back: newly promoted and even less popular. Chuck Gardner is the proud owner of both a confidential paper-shredding business and a serious betting habit. When Chuck finds some scandalous paperwork and McCoist investigates a rat-nibbled corpse under a flyover, they are both sucked into a deadly stramash of gangland wars and police corruption. Can Chuck solve his gambling and gangster problems before some heed-banger feeds him into his own shredder? And can McCoist claw herself out of this latest shitemire without her own shady dealings coming to light? It might depend on how far she's prepared to go.. Paperboy is by Calum McSorley

May 2025

Murder in the House of Omari is by Taku Ashibe. Osaka, 1943: as the Second World War rages and American bombers rain death down upon the city, the once prosperous Omari family is already in decline, financially ruined by the terrible conflict. Then the household is struck by a series of gruesome murders. Can anyone solve the mystery of these baffling slayings before the Omari line is extinguished entirely? To do so, and unravel the killer's fiendish plot, they will have to delve into the family's past, where a dark and deadly secret has been festering for decades.

Creating Constantinople: Influences on a Victorian Novel

I started writing novels at a very early age. I was twelve when I wrote my first novel (a crime-thriller told from multiple perspectives in seedy LA), and fourteen when I wrote my second (an epic revenge Western)! Growing up in leafy Golders Green, novels were an escape from normal life – and that escapist urge still motivates my writing to this day.

Murder in Constantinople follows Ben Canaan, a troublesome 21-year-old in the East End of London in 1854. When we meet Ben, he is torn between a life of petty crime under the wing of a dockland gangster, and following his father’s footsteps as a tailor in the family workshop. But an affair with a beautiful stranger and a theft gone wrong results in Ben going on the run to Constantinople: capital of the Ottoman Empire on the eve of the Crimean War. Ben quickly finds himself caught in the crosshairs of a deadly serial killer terrorising the city, and must unravel a series of brutal murders in order to survive.

Murder in Constantinople began life when I graduated as an English student at Cambridge. My literary passions were the Russian giants of the nineteenth century – Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev – as well as specialists in serialised storytelling including Dickens and Henry James. I particularly loved the Bildungsroman genre: coming-of-age stories such as David Copperfield and Great Expectations, focused on the personal growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. 

I wanted to bring this type of storytelling to the detective genre. Our hero Ben is not a detective when we meet him, but over the course of the story, he becomes one. This explodes the conventional trope of detective novels: usually, we meet the detective once he already has his bag of tricks, his modus operandi, his view of the world (think Sherlock or Poirot). But in Murder in Constantinople, we see Ben start to fill his bag of tricks – we are watching the formation of a detective in real time.

The nineteenth century fascinated me not just because of my literary influences, but also because of my family history. Similar to the Canaan family of my novel, my ancestors were Jews who fled to London from Vienna in the mid-nineteenth century, setting up shop as milliners in the Jewish ghetto of London’s East End. I wanted to explore what it must have been like growing up in that world as an immigrant, but told from the perspective of a young man with my mindset: wanting to break free from these confines and chart his own course.

Ben, like many children of immigrant families, is saddled with his family’s rigid expectations – especially his father, who demands that he joins the family business. For Ben, the alternatives are stark: either he fully embraces life in London’s criminal underworld, or he embarks on an unexpected adventure into a warzone. Murder in Constantinople tells the story of how Ben makes this choice, and in the process finds his calling.

A major theme of Murder in Constantinople is colonialism and its legacy. Ben’s adventures are set against the backdrop of colonial conflicts, allowing us to see colonialism at work – its perpetrators, its winners and losers, the roots of modern conflicts, and how the practices of colonialism persist even today in a post-colonial age. 

The Crimean War is a powerful example of this which still resonates today. In the 1850s, Crimea was the epicentre of a violent clash between the Russian Empire and the empires of Europe. And now, in the 21^stcentury, that same region is the focal point for another violent clash between the “modern empires” of the Global East and the Global West.

A significant part of my research was devoted to understanding Constantinople, the location of modern-day Istanbul, as it existed in the 1850s. To do this, I read travel books from the 19^th century – old Baedekers and Murray’s Handbooks – to develop a nuanced sense of life in all its facets: the city’s topography, its rich array of languages, peoples and cultures, its architecture, its political hierarchies, its local economy, its laws. The goal was to portray Constantinople not as a place in history, but as a place that feels as present for readers as it is for the characters inhabiting it.

Murder in Constantinople is the first in a planned series of five novels, each exploring Ben’s adventures as a globe-trotting detective. I am currently writing the second book in the series – titled Death on the Pearl River, also for Pushkin Press – which takes an older Ben into even darker territory. The Ben Canaan Mysteries will chart the course of Ben’s entire life over several decades. So, on some level, these detective novels taken together will be a biography both of Ben and the century he lived in, as much as a series of crimes to be solved.

Murder in Constantinople by A E Goldin (Pushkin Press) Out Now. London, 1854. Twenty-one-year-old Ben Canaan attracts trouble wherever he goes. His father wants him to be a good Jewish son, working for the family business on Whitechapel Road, but Ben and his friends, the 'Good-for-Nothings', just want adventure. Then the discovery of an enigmatic letter and a photograph of a beautiful woman offer an escapade more dangerous than anything he'd imagined. Suddenly Ben is thrown into a mystery that takes him all the way to Constantinople, the jewel of an empire and the centre of a world on the brink of war. His only clue is three words: 'The White Death'. Now he must find what links a string of grisly murders, following a trail through king making and conspiracy, poison and high politics, bloodshed and betrayal. In a city of deadly secrets, no one is safe - and one wrong step could cost Ben his life.

More information about Aron and his work can be found on his website. You can also follow him on X @A.E.Goldin and on Instagram @a.e.goldin and also on Facebook.

Pushkin Vertigo to Publish Japanese Crime Phenomenon: Strange Pictures

 

Pushkin Vertigo, an imprint of Pushkin Press, is to publish Strange Pictures, the first novel by Uketsu, a masked Japanese Youtuber turned bestselling novelist. Pushkin Senior Commissioning Editor Daniel Seton bought World English Rights in this and a second title from Kenny Okuyama at Japan Uni Agency. Strange Pictures will be published, in a translation by Jim Rion, in trade paperback and eBook on 16^th January 2025.

 

Published in Japan by Futabasha in autumn 2022, Strange Pictures has already sold 800,000 copies, making Uketsu one of the most talked-about young crime writers in the country. Two further novels by the author have been published by Asukashinsha, with total sales for the books now approaching 3 million copies.

 

Emily Books Agency and Casanovas & Lynch coordinated the sale in Europe during and after the London Book Fair and received over 50 offers from 20 different countries, a record for Futabasha’s 76 years of history. Foreign rights have now been sold in 29 territories and film/tv requests have been pouring in. In the United States Ruth Logan sold rights on behalf of Pushkin Press to HarperVia in a highly competitive auction. They will also publish Strange Pictures in January 2025.

 

Strange Pictures is an intriguing new style of crime novel, in which the reader is encouraged to play detective and solve the mystery behind a series of unsettling drawings. On a seemingly innocuous blog, a pregnant woman’s sketches conceal a chilling warning; a child's picture of his home contains within it a dark secret message; a sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth into an investigation that will reveal a terrifying reality...

 

The book will be launched with an innovative and ambitious marketing and publicity campaign. An exclusive run of early proofs are currently landing with select readers, with a wider proof run planned for the autumn. Further activity will be largely video based, to closely align with Uketsu’s own creative and unique content.

 

Daniel Seton said: ‘I’m delighted to have acquired this highly innovative and brilliantly creepy mystery. It feels like an exciting new kind of crime writing, involving the reader in solving the puzzle in a way few authors have done before. It has already been a sensation in Japan and I think it will soon be one all over the world.’

 

Translator Jim Rion said: ‘As a genuine fan, I can't wait to share Uketsu's crafty tales of the macabre with readers around the world’

 

Uketsu is an enigmatic Youtuber and author, specializing in horror and mystery. He always appears in videos wearing a white mask and black body stocking, with his voice digitally distorted. His true identity is unknown. Strange Pictures was Uketsu’s debut novel.

Forthcoming Books from Pushkin Press.

 

February 2024

Harlequin Butterfly is by Toh Enjoe. Successful entrepreneur A.A. Abrams is pursuing the enigmatic writer Tomoyuki Tomoyuki, who appears to have the ability to write expertly in the language of any place they go. Abrams sinks endless resources into finding the writer, but Tomoyuki Tomoyuki always manages to stay one step ahead, taking off moments before being pinned down. But how does the elusive author move from one place to the next, from one language to the next? Ingenious and dazzling, Harlequin Butterfly unfurls one puzzle after another, taking us on a mind-bending journey into the imagination.

The Trials of Lila Dalton is by L J Shepherd. 'I look up to find twelve strangers staring back at me... I realise I'm the one they're waiting for.' Lila Dalton has no memory of how she got to this courtroom. The man in the docks is accused of mass murder, and she's his barrister - but she can't remember anything about the case. She can't remember anything at all. Lila is stranded on an island hundreds of miles from the UK, where the most serious crimes go to trial. The next plane out doesn't leave for days. And she's being watched. Someone keeps breaking into her hotel room to leave cryptic notes, threatening her with deadly consequences if she doesn't get her client off... Can Lila Dalton win her case and solve the mystery of her own identity?

March 2024

'We all have our secrets...' Renowned therapist Clarissa Virtanen is not afraid to look at the darkest side of humanity. Haunted by the death of a young patient, she will do whatever it takes to save the most vulnerable. But when Ida - angry, damaged and seemingly suicidal - walks into her office, Clarissa may have met her match. For Ida has secrets. Murderous secrets, which mark her like a bloodstain. Secrets which drive her to kill. And kill again. Somehow, Clarissa must find the key to unlock her past. So she makes a bargain with Ida - six months to try and stop her taking her own life. But what if she has entered a game more deadly, and more evil, than she could ever imagine? Follow The Butterfly is by Marta Kaukonen.

April 2024

Blessed Water is by Margot Douahy. Tattooed from her neck to her toes and sporting a gold tooth as sharp as her wisecracks, Sister Holiday struggles to stay on the righteous path. She's committed both to taking her permanent vows with the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and joining Magnolia Riveaux's latest venture, Redemption Detective Agency-both in service of satisfying her eternal quest for answers. When Sister Holiday and Riveaux set out to bust a philandering husband, they instead find the body of a priest floating in the Mississippi river, and with it, Redemption's next case.  As a torrential rainstorm drowns New Orleans for three harrowing days over Easter weekend, Sister Holiday and Riveaux follow the clues. With the stakes rising alongside the relentless floodwaters, our favourite punk nun-sleuth throws herself into the deep end yet again.

Strange things are happening in the Chizurui mansion... At night, a figure clad in a Hannya mask is spotted wandering around the house. The amateur crime fiction writer, Akimitsu Takagi, is sent to investigate, but then tragedy strikes. The head of the Chizurui family is found dead inside his study, locked from the inside, with only a Hannya mask and the scent of jasmine as clues to his mysterious death. As Takagi delves deeper into the case, can he discover the link between the family and the curse of the Hannya mask? Who was the person who called the undertaker and asked for three coffins? And how many buried secrets lie behind the inexplicable murder? The Noh Mask Murder is by Akimitsu Takagi a gripping masterpiece of a locked-room mystery written by one of Japan's most celebrated crime writer.

May 2024

The Mystery of The Crooked Man is by Tom Spencer. Meet Agatha Dorn, cantankerous archivist, grammar pedant, gin afficionado and murder mystery addict. When she discovers a lost manuscript by Gladden Green, the Empress of Golden Age detective fiction, Agatha's life takes an unexpected twist. She becomes an overnight sensation, basking in the limelight of literary stardom. But Agatha's newfound fame takes a nosedive when the 'rediscovered' novel is exposed as a hoax. And when her ex-lover turns up dead, with a scrap of the manuscript by her side, Agatha suspects foul play. Cancelled, ostracised and severely ticked off, Agatha turns detective to uncover the sinister truth that connects the murder and the fraudulent manuscript. But can she stay sober long enough to catch the murderer, or will Agatha become a whodunit herself?

The Little Sparrow Murders is by Seishi Yokomizo. An old friend of Kosuke Kindaichi's invites the scruffy detective to visit the remote mountain village of Onikobe in order to look into a twenty-year-old murder case. But no sooner has Kindaichi arrived than a new series of murders strikes the village - several bodies are discovered staged in bizarre poses, and it soon becomes clear that the victims are being killed using methods that match the lyrics of an old local children's song... The legendary sleuth investigates, but soon realises that he must unravel the dark and tangled history of the village, as well as that of its rival families, to get to the truth.

McIlvanney Prize and Bloody Scotland Debut Prize announced!!

 

WINNERS REVEALED FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2023 & THE BLOODY SCOTLAND DEBUT PRIZE

Sponsored by The Glencairn Glass

We're thrilled to reveal the 2023 winners of The McIlvanney Prize and The Bloody Scotland Debut Prize. The finalists for both prizes led the iconic torchlit procession from Stirling Castle through the historic old town this evening accompanied by the pipes and drums of the Stirling and District Schools Pipe Band. On stage at The Albert Halls Kenny Tweeddale, from sponsors The Glencairn Glass, presented the winner of The Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year to Kate Foster for The Maiden (Mantle) and The McIlvanney Prize Scottish Crime Book of the Year to another debut author, Callum McSorley for Squeaky Clean (Pushkin Press).

The judges for The McIlvanney Prize were unanimous in their praise for Squeaky Clean which beat off competition from previous McIlvanney Prize winners Craig Russell and Denise Mina and previous Bloody Scotland Debut winner, Robbie Morrison, to be named Scottish Crime Book of the Year.

Bryan Burnett from BBC Radio Scotland said:

‘A wonderfully rich and funny new voice in Scottish crime. McSorley has created characters you invest in and a plot that keeps you hooked right from the start. Although it’s dark and gruesome it’s full of laugh out loud lines that still bring you pleasure long after you’ve finished the book. A novel I couldn’t wait to recommend to friends. ‘Glasgow’s least popular detective’ is about to hit the big time.’ 

Jason Allardyce, former editor of Sunday Times Scotland described it as:

‘A fresh new voice brings a Brookmyre-esque beauty that sparkles like a motor straight out the car wash. Full of unforgettable, three-dimensional characters and laugh out loud moments in every chapter to offset the violence among the valets.’

Angie Crawford Category Manager for Waterstones called it:

‘A thoroughly astonishing brutally brilliant novel written with wit and verve and laced with a very black humour that betrays a vulnerability and gets right under the skin. Callum McSorley’s writing is fresh and exciting, I can’t wait to read more.’

Squeaky Clean (Pushkin) features DI Ally McCoist the least popular detective in the Glasgow police who has been demoted. It’s a contemporary thriller packed with black humour and hints of Breaking Bad. Like Tim in the book, Callum McSorley worked at a carwash to make money while he was a student which has informed some of the colourful characters.  He is from East Kilbride (as is the original footballing Ally McCoist) and graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2013. His stories have appeared in Gutter magazine and New Writing Scotland.

The judges for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize selected The Maiden by Kate Foster (Mantle) as the best Debut of the Year.

Pauline McLean from BBC Scotland said:

‘The Maiden is a finely crafted, multi layered story. I didn’t want it to end, and certainly not in the way I knew it did, being based on a true-life case. A rare and poignant female perspective in a decidedly male world, told with passion and humour. Much more than a crime novel, and apt that its own development began at Bloody Scotland in 2020.’

 Kenny Tweeddale, New Product Development Manager from The Glencairn Glass said:

‘I thought The Maiden was a terrific bodice ripping tale that kept you guessing till the end.  The fictional story was built around factual characters and a historical incident from the chequered past of Auld Reekie. Bouncing between two strong female characters it demonstrates how women had to strive to survive in a male orientated world.’

Journalist and Editor Arusa Qureshi said:

‘The Maiden is a fascinating and immersive debut, that places you in an imagined yet historically familiar time and space. Stories about women in history are so often lost or forgotten so it’s refreshing to read something based on a true case that is skilfully constructed and utterly gripping, with a woman’s voice front and centre.’

Kate Foster has come full circle at Bloody Scotland. She first appeared on the virtual stage at Pitch Perfect during lockdown in 2020. She won the pitching panel with an outline of The Maiden and went on to get an agent and publisher. The Maiden (Mantle) is set in the 17th Century and is a reimagining of true historical events in which Lady Christian Nimmo is charged with the murder of her lover - and uncle - James Forrester. Kate Foster is a journalist and lives in Edinburgh.

Kirsty Nicholson, Design and Marketing Manager at Glencairn Crystal, said:

‘We’re raising a celebratory dram in our Glencairn Glass to salute Callum McSorley and Kate Foster for winning this year’s awards. A massive congratulations to them both on their success. We’re very proud of our Scottish heritage and it has been a huge honour to sponsor the awards over the past few years that showcase the diverse array of talent that currently exists in the world of Scottish crime fiction.’

A huge congtulations to both winners!

Books to Look Forward to From Pushkin Press

 

January 2022

Detective Kosuke Kindaichi arrives on the remote Gokumon Island bearing tragic news–the son of one of the island’s most important families has died, on a troop transport ship bringing him back home after the Second World War. But Kindaichi has not come merely as a messenger–with his last words, the dying man warned that his three step-sisters’ lives would now be in danger. The scruffy detective is determined to get to the bottom of this mysterious prophesy, and to protect the three women if he can. As Kindaichi attempts to unravel the island’s secrets, a series of gruesome murders begins. He investigates, but soon finds himself in mortal danger from both the unknown killer and the clannish locals, who resent this outsider meddling in their affairs. Gokumon Island is by Seishi Yokomizo.

All Was Lost is by Steven Maxwell. The cash is gone. The hunt is on. How far would you go for your family? Orla McCabe has found a case of money. Willing to do almost anything to give her family a better life, she flees with her husband and baby daughter - and the money. Meanwhile, detectives Lynch and Carlin are investigating a botched human trafficking deal on the isolated northern moors. They find piles of bullet-riddled bodies, but no cash. The owners of the money are on the hunt, and soon a world of brutal violence envelops Orla and the detectives. To secure her daughter's future, Orla will never stop running. It's just a matter of who she drags into the dark with her. . .

April 2022

Caleb's addict brother, Anton, has been missing for months, still angry about Caleb's part in his downfall. After almost giving up hope of finding him, Caleb receives an anonymous message alerting him to Ant's whereabouts and warning him that Ant is in danger. A man has been shot and Ant might be next. Caleb reluctantly leaves his pregnant wife's side and tracks his brother to an isolated island where Ant has been seeking treatment. There, he finds a secretive community under threat from a sniper, and a cult-like doctor with a troubling background. Caleb must hunt for the sniper to save Ant, but any misstep may ruin their faltering reconciliation, and end in death. When body parts begin to wash up on shore, it looks like the sniper is growing more desperate... Those who Perish is by Emma Viskic.

June 2022

London in Black is by Jack Lutz. London 2027, terrorists deploy a highy sophistcated nerve agent called London Black at Waterloo station – for an unfortunate section of the population, what follows is agonising physical deterioration and usually death. London 2029, Dr Lucy Stone is called to investigate the gruesome murder of the scientist who developed an antidote to the nerve agent. It is a daily boost making life bearable for the 'Vulnerable' – but isn't a cure. Lucy suspects the scientist might have been working on a permanently end the bane of London Black for herself and the other Vulnerables. But is the antitdote real or a figment of Lucy's desperation. 

Books to Look Forward to from Pushkin Press

July 2021 

Some girl dies. Film editor Marissa has read better loglines for films, but still jumps at the chance to travel to a small island to work with the legendary - and legendarily demanding - director Tony Rees. But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it seems. There are rumours of accidents and indiscretions, of burgeoning scandals and perilous schemes. In the midst of this chaos, Marissa is herself drawn into an amateur investigation of the real-life murder that is the movie's central subject. The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished. Pretty as a Picture is by Elizabeth Little.

October 2021

Punishment of a Hunter: A Leningrad Confidential is by Yulia Yakovleva. 1930s Leningrad. As a mood of fear cloaks the city, Investigator Vasily Zaitsev is called on to investigate a series of bizarre and seemingly motiveless murders. In each case, the victim is curiously dressed and posed in extravagantly arranged settings. At the same time, one by one precious old master paintings are going missing from the Hermitage collection. As Zaitsev sets about his investigations, he meets with suspicion at practically every turn, and potential witnesses are reluctant to provide information. Soon Zaitsev himself comes under suspicion from the Soviet secret police. The embittered detective must battle increasingly complex political machinations in his dogged quest to uncover the truth.

December 2021

Nestled deep in the mist-shrouded mountains, The Village of Eight Graves takes its name from a bloody legend: in the sixteenth century, eight samurais, who had taken refuge there along with a secret treasure, were murdered by the inhabitants, bringing a terrible curse down upon their village. Centuries later a mysterious young man named Tatsuya arrives in town, bringing a spate of deadly poisonings in his wake. The inimitably scruffy and brilliant Kosuke Kindaichi investigates. The Village of Eght Graves is by Seishi Yokomizo.

Books to Look Forward To From Pushkin Press

 January 2021

A cry for help. Anna Aune is on a scientific expedition to the North Pole, when the pitch black of the polar night is lit up by a distress flare. A vision from a nightmare. At a nearby research station Anna discovers a massacre - mutilated bodies strewn about the base. Then, a fierce Arctic storm blows in, cutting of any possibility of escape. A killer loose on the ice. Anna races to find the killer before he gets to her. But a secret lurks under the ice - one that nations will kill for... Can she stay alive until help arrives? The Ice is by John Kåre Raake.

March 2021

The Eighth Girl is by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung. One woman, many personas. But which one is telling the truth? Alexa Wu is a brilliant yet darkly self-aware young woman whose chaotic life is manipulated and controlled by a series of alternate personalities. Only three people know about their existence: her therapist Daniel; her stepmother Anna; and her enigmatic best friend Ella. When Ella gets a job at a high-end gentleman's club, she is gradually drawn into London's cruel underbelly. With lives at stake, Alexa follows her friend on a daring rescue mission. Threatened and vulnerable, she will discover whether her multiple personalities are her greatest asset, or her biggest obstacle.

April 2021

They would rather die than become mothers. A serial killer is on the loose in Tel Aviv. Each victim is found tied to a chair with a baby doll glued to their hands, the word 'mother' carved into their forehead like a mark of Cain. Stowed away between the wax figurines of the Bible museum where she works, Sheila Heller knows both victims. She suspects the killings have something to do with a pact their group all made at university - to never have children. What Sheila doesn't know is who is committing these gruesome acts of ritualistic violence, and whether she herself might be the next target. The Others is by Sarah Blau.

A Man Named Doll is by Jonathan Ames. Happy Doll is a charming, if occasionally inexpert, private detective living just one sheer cliff beneath the glass houses of Mulholland Drive with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll now works through the night at a local Thai spa that offers its clients a number of special services. Armed with his sixteen-inch steel telescope baton, biting dry humour, and just a bit of a hero complex, the ex-cop sets out to protect the mostly undocumented immigrant women who work there from clients who won't take "no" for an answer. Doll gets by just fine following his two basic rules: bark loudly and act first. But when things get out-of-hand with one particularly violent patron, even he finds himself wildly out of his depth.

May 2021

Prague, 1995: Vera Foltynova, a widow in her late 50s, claims to receive visits from the ghost of great composer Frederic Chopin. What’s more, she declares that Chopin has dictated dozens of compositions to her, to allow the world to hear the sublime music he was unable to create in his own short life. Many dismiss her story as a ridiculous hoax, while others swear that the music has the same beauty and refinement as the work of the dead master. Ludvik Slany, a secret police agent-turned-tel- evision journalist, is assigned to make a doc- umentary debunking Vera’s claims. He arrives in Prague ready to uncover a scam, but the more he subtly tries to trick her into giving herself away, the more he begins to think he may be witnessing a genuine miracle... The Ghost of Frederic Chopin is by Éric Faye.

June 2021

Girl, ll is by Amy Suiter Clarke The countdown has begun... True-crime podcaster Elle Castillo has been obsessed with The Countdown Killer for decades. Twenty years ago, he established a gruesome pattern of taking and murder- ing three girls over seven days, each a year younger than the last. No one’s ever known why he followed this pattern, or why they stopped abruptly after the eleventh victim. Most believe him to be dead. Elle knows he is not and is hellbent on serving historic justice. When the kidnappings start up once again, Elle must confront her responsibility in forcing the killer out of hiding. She needs to stop the deadly countdown and convince both the au- thorities and her podcast audience, before the Countdown Killer can claim his next victim.