September 2021

One of the main things I would like to achieve with my blog is to introduce you to authors and characters that you may not have heard of but might like to try and I hope I have done that already. Of course, I also want to know what you think of them and how […]

Robert Goddard’s first novel ‘Past Caring’ was published in 1986 and I think that it must have been shortly after that when my wife and I discovered him. He has since published more than twenty books and they tend to come out every eighteen months to two years. Strangely, he fits the profile of a

I’ve really no idea how I came across Jake Needham but I bought the first of his books in 2014. I imagine the route was through a search of ‘if you like books by…try this’ but I’m afraid I just can’t remember. He spends a lot of his time in Asia and his stories are

As they used to say on Monty Python’s Flying Circus (Google it!), ‘and now for something completely different’! I really don’t remember how I discovered Martin Walker and his local French policeman, Bruno Courreges, but someone must have introduced me to him and I am very grateful that they did! The only thing that worries

Well, there was up until recently – me! I don’t know why because I really like and admire her and enjoy listening to her on radio and TV. She’s had a wonderful career but remains very down to earth and, of course, she’s Scottish, a football supporter and plays in a band! She supports the

If you’ve read my ‘Tartan Noir’ post, you’ll know about William MIlvanney and his books about the Glasgow detective, Jack Laidlaw, who was an inspiration for Ian Rankin’s creation, the Edinburgh detective, John Rebus. You may also recall that McIlvanney’s widow found an unfinished draft of a fourth Laidlaw book and asked Rankin if he

This post is about Tony Parsons and the main reason for posting about him is because his series of five novels and a couple of novellas about DC Max Wolfe are terrific and fit extremely well into what the blog is all about. So, I could just give you a little bit of background and

So, I think this is quite an important post! Why on earth would I say that? First of all, when I mention Rebus or James Patterson, maybe Harry Bosch or David Baldacci, I know that you all know about them and, at best, I’m looking for your views about them or, possibly, alerting you to

First of all, an admission. I have never read a Harry Potter book and I don’t intend ever to read one! No offence intended to Edinburgh resident, JK Rowling, and I must say that I have queued at eight o’clock in the morning outside a bookstore with my daughter to be first to buy a

Okay, twenty-three books since 1987 about an Edinburgh policeman and perhaps more to come! Its almost impossible to find anyone who hasn’t read a Rebus book and I’m sure it is impossible to find anyone who hasn’t heard of Rebus or his creator, Ian Rankin. You might say I’m biased because of the Edinburgh connection,