read all year. ‘Yeah. you say that. htit you hayen‘t seen what Stuart‘s got in his hag yet.‘ says (iuthrie. with a thoroughly unthreatening grin. ‘.\'o. I'm kidding. It's all \icarious; it's all imagined.' (iuthrie‘s ttoyels trail wise-cracking. amoral tnen and spectacularly \iolent women round the darker corners of lidinhurgh. imhuing the Inspiring ('apital with all the hardhoiled tnenace of an .-\merican ptilp noyel. 'l ltaye it a lot easier than Stuart does. too procedure to follow when you're writing ahottt
therch Ito set
criminals. yott see. whereas there is a police
procedure. and recreating it requires an awful lot
of dedicated research and attention to detail' MacBride admits that he has spent time
interyiewing forensic pathologists. memhers of
(irampian l’olice. journalists. and. for his most recent ltoyel. S&.'\l enthusiasts of the Aherdeenshire area t'itis a wry lltitltlle-elass pursuit. \r'ery intellectualised ses’l in the course of researching his hooks. ‘.-\lthough I do make
loads of it up. The thing is that if you make stttff
tip and are relatively conyincing when you lie. it quite often turns ottt to he closer to the truth than you think.‘
Both writers currently haye three noyels in print. and all of these noy‘els. as MacBride mentioned. hay'e weathered the ineyitahle comparison with the Rehus juggernaut. MacBride‘s trio of noy'els featttring :\herdeen police detectiye Logan .\lcRae (he's just finished the fourth. Hes/i House. which w ill he ottt iii late 2008) come in for the most comparisons. simply hecause of his lead character‘s profession. The other thing that Scottish crime writers hear a lot is the phrase ‘tartan noir‘ first applied hy legendary American writer .lames lillroy to Rankin's work in NW. lt‘s come to denote it certain style of Scottish writing hleak. \‘icious stories of murders and rapes set in a Scotland not endorsed hy the tourist hoard - a suhject matter that e\erts a peculiar fascination for many of our writers.
And these writers are yery. yery good at mining this dark and dey'ilish suhject matter. In additioti to (ittthrie and MacBride's recent wins. the Dagger .-\ward page on the ('rime Writers Association wehsite glitters with Scottish names. particularly from the last I: years. Rankin recently reeeiy'ed a lifetime achieyement award: he and \'al .\lcl)ermid liaye hoth picked tip Various (iold and Silyer Daggers and .\lcl)ermid won (‘rime Noyel of the Year in ltltlo; Denise Mina and Louise \Velslt‘s tlehtlts lititlt receiycd l‘il‘s‘t Blood daggers. Virtually eyery author to fall into the Tartan .\'oir hracket has heen shortlisted for one of these coy'etcd awards.
How'eyer. MacBride and (illtlll'ie. hoth of
whom claitn that their influences attd sympathies lie much more with international. particularly American. writers. are not keen to accept 'tartan noit" as anything more than a com enient marketing tool once their mantiscripts are complete. ‘lt’s a useful handle] says MacBride. hat I think people realise that it’s a hrand. It's not a moy'enient.‘
But doesn't he agree that it‘s interesting. at least. that a lot of the work Scottish writers are producing at the moment esplores a much .s‘eamier side of the country"?
‘1 think crime fiction has always acted as a really good mirror for the fears in society. The crimes that are related in stories just now w ill he different from the ones that we had fiye years
‘TARTAN NOIR IS
A BRAND. IT'S NOT A MOVEMENT'
ago and the ones in the years trom now which will prohahly he different again. What you see coming ottt of Scotland is lust modern crime w ritcrs writing ahout crime in modern society.' '“e tlH haye .t \tl‘ttllg‘ sense Hi the (itttlllc‘ tradition. too. though] says (iuthrie. ‘.\lay he it's the huildings. mayhe it‘s the weather. hut you that Scottish gallows humour; our tendency towards hleakness. to look at things in a negatiye way. 'l'hose definitely
can see it allects us
come ottt in my w riting.‘
"there is a lot of that hlack. hleak humour in Scottish crime fiction. hecause we come from a culture that has deyeloped a way of laughing at disastch \lacliridc interiects. look at the performance ofotn' foothall team until recently.'
(iuthric his theme. '\\'illiam .\lc‘ll\;tlllle_\.s tl‘rif “(Hell [tilt/lint \\;Is the catalyst. I think a lot of writers prohahly picked up on that; realised that it‘s possihle to write a crime noyel that is really a social noyel. a realist noyel. 'l'hat's what Ian Rankin did with his first; he didn't think it was a crime noyel'. he‘d no intention of it heing a crime noyel. .-\t one point lili(' Scotland and Scottish Screen were deyeloping t(iuthrie's first noyeli 'lit'o lliit S/i/I'I for a moyie and they kept saying. “('an't we make it a hit se\ier'.’ ('an‘t we haye. you know. .I\merican police cars instead of liritish ones'.’" that sort of thing. It's funny. hecause l‘d dcliherately tried to make l/lt'U llilt' .S/t/I'l \ery lidinhurgh: you'ye got a yery small gang of petty thic\cs who don‘t eyen l‘tilt tt ltitllk. it‘s a post office. Not sc\_\. Post office rohhery not llolly wood:
'Yeahl' \lacliride cries. ‘|.et‘s ltayc a stick tip in Argosf‘ t.-\t this point the waitress standing hehind him looks a little alarmed.)
.-\s he‘s not L‘ott\ilteetl liy the ltlL‘it Scottish crime writing
warms to
is just so
of a
ntoyement as such. MacBride is wary of
committing to any idea of a generational shift hetween strata of crime writers. “I think that it's tnore of an elongation of themes. The stttff that Val t.\lcl)crmid) writes. for e\ample. is as \isceral. when it is needed hy the story. as anything any new writer is producing.‘
‘l’eople are asking that question hecause Rehus is now coming to an end. liyeryone wants to know what follow s. what's ne\t'.” (iuthrie says. ‘\\'hat‘s ‘following‘ is the same sort of writing that's heen around for years now. Stttart and l hoth hay c three noyels out w e're hardly dehutants anymore. although we're still hahy writers compared to \'al. or Denise .\lina. or ('hristopher Brookmyre. I don't really see it in terms of an old guard/new guard. although ohy iottsly. as you can tell. we do all hay e a great deal til~ respect for each other.‘
'\\'e hay e joined the conga line.‘ says \laclh'ide. nodding sagely. 'Yeah. I'm right at the hack. holding on to Stuart‘s hottomf adds (iuthrie. '.\lm. llands tip a hit. please. .’\nd other people will hay e their hands on our huttocks as we conga forwards; w e'll just keep going. I think. .-\ Scottish crime-w riting conga line.‘
Allan Guthrie’s novels, Kiss Her Goodbye, Hard Man and Two Way Split, are published by Polygon; Stuart MacBride’s Cold Granite, Dying Light, and Broken Skin by Harper Collins. www.5tuartmacbride.co.uk and www.allanguthrie.co.uk
WHO'S SLEUTH?
As Rebus collects his bus pass. Kirstin lnnes lines up the Scottish gumshoes poised to succeed him
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THE LIST 19