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The Collapsing Wave – Doug Johnstone is LONGLISTED for the McIlvanney Prize

BLOODY SCOTLAND REVEALS THE LONGLIST FOR THE 2024 McILVANNEY PRIZE

sponsored by The Glencairn Glass

Winner to be presented on Friday 13 September 2024 on the opening night of the festival

The 2024 McIlvanney Prize winner will be announced in the ballroom of The Golden Lion Hotel on the opening night of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival and lead a procession of The Stirling and District Schools Pipe Band to the Albert Halls.  This year the prize will be judged by BBC Scotland presenter, Bryan Burnett; Category Manager for Waterstones, Angie Crawford and Journalist and Editor, Arusa Qureshi. 

The 2024 longlist – selected by an Academy composed of booksellers, librarians, bloggers and broadcasters – is today revealed to be:

D V Bishop – A Divine Fury (Pan Macmillan)

Chris Brookmyre – The Cracked Mirror (Sphere)

Charles Cumming – Kennedy 35 (HarperCollins)

Andrew James Greig – The Girl in the Loch (Storm Publishing)

Doug Johnstone – The Collapsing Wave (Orenda)

S G Maclean – The Winter List (Quercus)

Val McDermid – Past Lying (Sphere) 

Abir Mukherjee – Hunted (Vintage)

C S Robertson – The Trials of Marjory Crowe (Hodder & Stoughton)

Kim Sherwood – A Spy Like Me (HarperCollins)

Doug Sinclair – Blood Runs Deep (Storm Publishing)

Douglas Skelton – The Hollow Mountain (Polygon) 

Debut author, Doug Sinclair, who also features on the shortlist for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize, is up against some of the biggest names in Scottish crime fiction.  The longlist also features two previous winners (Chris Brookmyre and Charles Cumming) and a crime writer who got his first big break at Bloody Scotland when he won Pitch Perfect (D V Bishop).  Abir Mukherjee and Kim Sherwood are both new names on the list. Abir with his thriller, Hunted, set in the run up to the US presidential election and Kim with A Spy Like Me which has been described as ‘Fleming for the 21st century’.  In other stats there are three women (Val, Kim and S G Maclean), three members of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers (Val, Chris and Doug Johnstone) and three men called Douglas. 

The McIlvanney longlist and the Bloody Scotland shortlist will be promoted in bookshops throughout Scotland in the period between the announcement and the presentation at 6pm on Friday 13 September. The winners will both be interviewed on stage in the ballroom of The Golden Lion by BBC presenter, Bryan Burnett. 

Kirsty Nicholson, Glencairn Crystal’s Design and Marketing Manager, said:

“This is the fifth year we’ve sponsored the Bloody Scotland literary awards with the world’s favourite whisky glass – The Glencairn Glass – and it’s always incredibly exciting to find out who has made it onto the McIlvanney Prize longlist. We congratulate all the authors and wish them all the best of luck, and we look forward to seeing who wins in September. In the meantime, the summer holidays provide the perfect chance to relax and read your way through one or all of these excellent crime books!”

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Crow Moon – Suzy Aspley shortlisted for the McDermid Debut Award!

Suzy Aspley’s Crow Moon has been included on the inaugural shortlist for the McDermid Debut Award!

The shortlist for the inaugural McDermid Debut Award, named in recognition of world-famous crime writer Val McDermid, showcases six outstanding new voices writing across a broad range of subgenres from thrillers to cosy crime, locked room mysteries and historical crime.

Food writer, broadcaster and Master Chef star Orlando Murrin is shortlisted for Knife Skills for Beginners, a delicious mystery set in an exclusive residential cookery school in Belgravia. Another shortlisted novel with a culinary twist, Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu introduces a mystery solving Indian caterer who is Slough’s answer to Miss Marple. Suk Pannu has written for much-loved TV comedy shows ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ and ‘The Kumars at No.42.’

Suzy Aspley, a former journalist who lives in Scotland, is nominated for Crow Moon, a chilling thriller centred around a mysterious disappearance, the first novel in the Martha Strangeways series. Daniel Aubrey, who also lives in Scotland, is shortlisted for Dark Island, a thriller about a neurodivergent reporter who uncovers a disturbing conspiracy after human remains are discovered on Orkney’s coast.

Manchester based Kuchenga Shenjé’s gripping historical crime novel The Library Thief explores identity and belonging as book binder’s daughter Florence sets out to uncover the dark mystery at the heart of a gothic mansion. A similarly unforgettable amateur sleuth features in Marie Tierney’s thriller Deadly Animals where a roadkill obsessed teenager embarks on a daring quest to unravel the truth behind the string of chilling deaths plaguing her Birmingham community.

Honouring internationally bestselling crime writer, Val McDermid, who helped to co-found the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in 2003 and whose dedication to fostering new voices in crime fiction through the New Blood panel is legendary, this new Award seeks to continue her legacy, celebrating and platforming the best debut crime writers in the UK. The Shortlist was selected by an academy of established crime and thriller authors and the Winner will be chosen by a panel of industry experts, without a public vote. All shortlisted authors receive a full weekend pass to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and the Winner will receive a £500 cash prize.

Val McDermid said: ‘Curating the New Blood panel over twenty years exposed me to an extraordinary range of crime fiction I might otherwise have missed. I’m hoping that this new award will do the same for the army of avid readers out there looking for new talent.’

The full McDermid Debut Award 2024 shortlist (in alphabetical order by surname) is:

• Crow Moon by Suzy Aspley (Orenda Books)
• Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey (Harper Collins)
• Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin (Bantam, Transworld)
• Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu (Harper Collins)
• The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé (Sphere, Little Brown)
• Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney (Bonnier Books)