Crime Time: Scots Whay Hae!’s Top 10 Picks Of Bloody Scotland 2025...
- Alistair Braidwood
- Aug 28
- 6 min read
As we move towards Autumn (and the nights fair draw in), thoughts turn to chestnuts, cardigans, and crime with the Bloody Scotland festival - Scotland's International Crime Writing Festival - running between 12th - 14th September.
One of SWH!'s favourite festivals, Bloody Scotland manages to cram an incredible amount of events into just three days, and, as always, the quality matches the quantity. With many events online as well as in situ across Stirling, it can be daunting trying to work out who to see and when, so we have put together a tight ten of our picks of this year's festival.
Click on the highlighted event titles to learn more and get tickets.
Click on the book titles to order copies.
The psychological scars of war are felt far from the frontline, and long after the final shot is fired, in three terrific and insightful novels
Gunner, the first in a gripping new series from Alan Parks, sees Joseph Gunner back from the front and fighting the war on the streets of 1941 Glasgow. Dominic Nolan’s highly-acclaimed White City is an extraordinary tale of gangsters and violence, poverty and dreams in the ruins of post-war London. David F. Ross’s The Weekenders is a fearless tale that rages from war-torn Italy to debauched 60s Glasgow in search of a dark truth.
Hot off the press: Three terrific writers, all of whom have journalists as their central protagonists, set the standard as they create page turning thrillers perfect for these troubled times.
The Other Side of Fear is the latest thrilling outing for Douglas Skelton’s investigative journalist Rebecca Connolly as murder haunts the island of Stoirm. The Diary of Lies sees the return of Phillip Miller’s defiant reporter Shona Sandison to an insidious conspiracy within the UK’s most powerful institutions. Charlotte Philby’s stylish Dirty Money introduces journalist turned private investigator Ramona Chang in a plot shimmering with menace and effortless cool.
Meet the five finalists for the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year as they’re interviewed by festival co-founder Alex Gray. See the stars of tomorrow today.
David Goodman’s ingenious espionage novel A Reluctant Spy features arms dealers, elite hackers, and a rogue Russian general. There are bodies in the barrels of a Kintyre distillery in Natalie Jayne Clark’s hilarious debut The Malt Whisky Murders. Foday Mannah’s The Search for Othella Savage is a compelling tale of corruption set among Scotland’s Sierra Leonean community. Claire Wilson’s assured debut, Five By Five, is an unbearably tense and claustrophobic prison drama. Richard Strachan's The Unrecovered is a richly atmospheric gothic tale of madness, war and all-encompassing obsession set in Scotland.
Meet three authors of intriguing and powerful novels whose protagonists excel despite – and sometimes because of – their brains working differently from what is considered “typical”.
Freya Sinclair, Daniel Aubrey’s autistic and fearless journalist, returns in The Dying Light, set against the unrelenting sunshine of an Orkney summer. DCI Win de Silva is suffering from PTSD but must catch the killer of teenage girls in Liverpool in Sean Watkin’s compelling Black Water Rising. Trevor Wood’s sensitive portrayal of Early Onset Dementia sufferer DCI Jack Parker gets a reprise in the enthralling new thriller The Inside Man.
Join us for a late-night dram with a blend of lively banter and songs – or some cratur, some craic and some chantin’ – in the company of Sir Ian Rankin and guests.
Singer-songwriter James Yorkston and Mull Historical Society’s Colin MacIntyre have both turned their hand to crime novels with Tommy the Bruce and When the Needle Drops respectively. Natalie Jayne Clark’s hilarious debut The Malt Whisky Murders sees bodies in the barrels of a distillery in Kintyre. There will be whisky for the audience too (from an exclusive single cask bottling courtesy of Fib Whisky), so leave your car keys at home and get into the spirit of things.
Three tremendous writers; three forceful and fascinating female protagonists who changed the world around them; three riveting reads of historical crime fiction.
Would-be doctor Sarah Fisher uncovers the systematic and brutal exploitation of young women in Ambrose Parry’s harrowing new novel The Death of Shame. Lesley McDowell’s Love and Other Poisons is a beautifully crafted reimagining of the later life of Madeleine Smith, 50 years after her sensational murder trial acquittal. S.J. Parris unveils dazzling new heroine Sophia de Wolfe who investigates the murder of an heiress in Traitor’s Legacy, set late in the reign of Elizabeth 1.
Police detectives form the bedrock of the crime novel. Meet four of the best.
In Acts of Malice, the latest in Alex Gray’s hugely popular Lorimer series, rivalries and ambition lead to the death of a wealthy actor. DS Max Craigie hunts the killer who’s committed the perfect crime in Neil Lancaster’s bone-chilling When Shadows Fall. Hostage negotiators must use all their skills to keep guests and themselves alive in the edge-of-your-seat thriller The Castle by John Sutherland. A Case of Matricide is the concluding part of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s wonderful Chief Inspector Gorski trilogy set in smalltown France.
Take a trip through the dark, broken minds of psychopaths, safe in the company of three authors who know the way.
A serial killer’s unpublished manuscript is key to the frantic search for a missing child in Tariq Ashkanani’s dark masterpiece The Midnight King. A journalist seeks answers to a fatal plane crash in Carole Hailey’s compulsive thriller Scenes from a Tragedy but instead finds monsters living in plain sight. RD McLean’s The Friday Girl, set in 1970s Dundee, tells of the hunt for a killer whose progression from family pets to larger prey terrorises a city.
What more could you ask for? Two gifted writers, two entertaining raconteurs, and an hour to enjoy listening to them.
Actor and author Richard Armitage, the star of Spooks, The Hobbit Trilogy and Obsession, topped the bestseller chart with his sensational debut thriller Geneva and his new cold case novel, The Cut, has already earned rave reviews. Denise Mina has collected a shelf load of awards in a glittering career, including the McIlvanney Prize, CWA Daggers, and two Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year awards. Her new novel, The Good Liar, is a chilling and highly intelligent thriller.
Scottish crime fiction is the broadest of churches, albeit often awfy sacrilegious. We round off the 2025 festival with three very different but excellent books to prove the point.
The murders of several young men form the grim premise of Dead Man’s Shoes, the ninth instalment of Marion Todd’s hugely popular DI Clare Mackay series. Scotland’s Sierra Leonean community is shocked by a callous murder in Foday Mannah’s compelling tale of corruption The Search for Othella Savage. Paperboy, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Callum McSorley’s fabulous McIlvanney Prize winning debut Squeaky Clean, is a darkly comic tour-de-force.
"Fantastic list of crime reads! I love how Scots Whay Hae! captures the essence of Bloody Scotland 2025 with such thrilling picks. These books are perfect for anyone who enjoys gripping mysteries and unexpected twists. By the way, speaking of exciting opportunities, exploring a tender in Saudi Arabia can be just as strategic as solving a good crime story!"