It’s a coolish Friday night. You find yourself making your way slowly, very slowly, up a steep hill to the castle. A fine mist begins to fall turning the centuries old buildings into spooky shapes. You finally reach the Church of the Holy Rude, the starting place for the 2023 Bloody Scotland. A very appropriate beginning to the weekend. The church, built in the early 15th century, was the setting for the coronation of James VI. (Holy Rude being only the second church in Britain to hold a coronation; Westminster being the other.)
Outside the church is a cemetery where the tombstones have weathered over the centuries. In the misty evening one can readily imagine the residents rising to join in the festivities.
After a refreshing glass of potent punch, we, the attendees, make our way even further up the hill, over weathered cobblestones to the castle, Stirling Castle that is. There on the esplanade we gather where everyone received a torch. Yes, a real torch with flames shooting out of the top in spite of the rain. (For the safety of my fellow crime lovers, I declined to carry one.)
As the pipes and drum begin, we form a huge column and slowly start down the winding street to the village of Stirling. Occupants of the houses along the way open their doors; some are new to this event and are wondering what is going on.
We reach the bottom safely and I personally utter a huge sigh. Tonight’s main event is the prize-giving, as the Brits say. The McIvanney Prize for the best Scottish crime book of the year goes to Collum McSorley for his novel, SQUEAKY CLEAN. The Bloody Scotland Debut Prize winner is Kate Foster for THE MAIDEN.
The next day, Saturday, my daughter Kristin and I attended a few sessions. She choose a discussion with Denise Mina and Karen Smirnoff, two authors who are authorized to pick up iconic characters and create new stories for them. Mina has written a new Philip Marlowe in THE SECOND MURDERER while Smirnoff has picked up the Salander books with THE GIRL IN THE EAGLE’S TALONS.
I attended a discussion about anthologies chaired by Abir Mukherjee, author of A RISING SON, set in 1919, Calcutta, a very good book. The title of the panel was ‘HOT BLOOD, COLD BLOOD,’ the title of a new anthology published by Amazon featuring stories written by Scottish and Bengali writers. Joined by Anita Agnihotri and Doug Johnstone, the authors explored the many ties between Scotland and Bangladesh.
Then I scurried up a smallish hill to the Golden Lion Hotel where there was a panel called ‘Without a Trace,’ a discussion of books about missing persons. Alan Parks, author of the Harry McCoy series, was the person I wanted to hear having just finished his BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER. Gillian McAllister and Liz Mistry joined him; both had just published books about people who went missing. There was a lot of laughter from the audience as the writers told of bad reviews they had received and not forgotten..
For us, the festival ended with the Fun-Lovin’ Crime Writers Band doing a two-hour performance. All the songs had a crime theme: I fought the law; Bang, Bang, Watching the Detective, Delilah and many more songs. Who knew there were so many about crime, murder, etc.! The band is composed of Val McDermid (the Queen of Crime Fiction, her t-shirt says so), Mark Billingham, Chris Brookmyre, Doug Johnston, Stuart Neville and Luca Veste. They ended the evening with a rousing rendition of, fittingly, Paperback Writer. You can find them on YouTube.
Thus ended our days in Stirling. We left with a long list of new authors to try and enjoy.
As a columnist for more than 20 years for The Cincinnati Post, The Kentucky Post and the Scripps News Service, David wrote stories about ordinary people in a way that revealed what was extraordinary about them.
With the end of 2023 in sight, I reread my