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Jul 17, 20203 min read
Quines Of Crime: A Review Of Claire MacLeary’s Payback…
Successful long-running series have a fine balancing act to pull off. Each book should work as a standalone read, with a plot which has a...
May 28, 20202 min read
Head Girl: The SWH! Podcast Talks To Olga Wojtas…
For the latest SWH! podcast Ali spoke to writer and journalist Olga Wojtas about her novels Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar...
Feb 7, 20203 min read
Comedy Of Terrors: A Review Of Olga Wotjas’ Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Vampire Menace
For those lucky enough to read Olga Wojtas’ 2018 novel Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar there are few, if any, novels more...
Dec 13, 20192 min read
That Was The Year That Was: The Best Of 2019 Podcasts – Books…
For our Best Books of 2019 podcast Ali was once again joined by Publishing Scotland’s Vikki Reilly to have a chat about their year in...
Nov 12, 20194 min read
Lessons From History: A Review Of Catherine Czerkawska’s A Proper Person To Be Detained…
Sometimes you start a book which defies your expectations to such an extent that the only thing to do is recalibrate and start again....
Apr 25, 20192 min read
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency: The Scots Whay Hae! Podcast Talks To Claire MacLeary…
Claire MacLeary For the latest podcast Ali spoke to writer Claire MacLeary about her trilogy of Aberdeen set crime novels, Cross Purpose,...
Apr 12, 20193 min read
Our Friends In The North: A Review Of Claire MacLeary’s Runaway…
One of the defining characteristics of most successful crime series is to have protagonists who readers look forward to spending time...
Oct 23, 20183 min read
Begin Again: A Review Of Douglas Skelton’s The Janus Run…
As regulars to SWH! will know, crime-writer Douglas Skelton is one of our favourite novelists. He has been a guest on our podcast, and...
Apr 23, 20183 min read
The Quines Of Crime: A Review Of Claire MacLeary’s Burnout…
One of the finest crime fiction debuts of recent years was Claire MacLeary’s Cross Purpose (right). Published in 2017 on the Contraband...
Feb 9, 20183 min read
From Russia, With Love: A Review Of Olga Wotjas’ Miss Blaine’s Prefect And The Golden Sa
This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the writer Muriel Spark. You may have noticed – you MUST have noticed – but if you...
Oct 26, 20171 min read
Happy Accidents: The Scots Whay Hae! Podcast Talk To Graeme Macrae Burnet…
Graeme Macrae Burnet. The primary reason was to discuss his latest novel, The Accident On The A35, but the conversation turns to the work...
Oct 13, 20173 min read
The Road Less Travelled: A Review Of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s The Accident On The A35…
How do you follow a cultural touchstone – something which captures a moment, stands aside from what’s around it, and which moves from the...
Jul 22, 20173 min read
Going Underground: A Review Of Michael J Malone’s Dog Fight…
Glasgow and violence – writers have played no small part in making sure the two are seen as closely related. The 1935 novel No Mean City...
Jun 22, 20173 min read
You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket: A Review Of Louise Hutcheson’s The Paper Cell…
The novella is a form of writing which has fallen out of favour in recent times, and that’s as bewildering as it is unfortunate. We are...
May 24, 20171 min read
Crime Time: The Scots Whay Hae! Podcast Talks To Writer Douglas Skelton…
In the latest podcast, Ali and Ian met up with writer Douglas Skelton, initially to talk about his Dominic Queste novels, The Dead Don’t...
May 3, 20173 min read
Return Of The Craic: A Review Of Douglas Skelton’s Tag – You’re Dead…
Among the more welcome returns in 2017 is that of Glasgow detective Dominic Queste in Douglas Skelton’s new novel, Tag – You’re Dead. If...
Mar 3, 20173 min read
Carter The Unstoppable Killing Machine: A Review Of Russel D. McLean’s Ed’s Dead…
It’s no spoiler to say that in Ed’s Dead, Ed dies. He is Jen’s boyfriend, a man who is at one-moment keen to seem her knight in shining...
Jan 9, 20173 min read
Devil’s Advocate: A Review Of Neil Broadfoot’s All The Devils…
The last few years have seen a real development in the breadth of what I’m going to loosely call Scottish crime fiction. A genre which...
Sep 6, 20164 min read
Dance Macabre: A Review Of Douglas Skelton’s The Dead Don’t Boogie…
If this subject interests you, you can still listen to the full podcast here, but the short version is this; on the one hand, if you can...
Oct 6, 20154 min read
Claret And Anger: A Review Of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project…
It is all too rare that contemporary Scottish fiction looks to its own rich past to tell us something new. James Robertson’s The...
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