Edinburgh author Doug Johnstone is among the contenders for this year’s prize for the best Scottish crime book.
Johnstone, 53, who lives in Portobello, is one of 12 novelists nominated for the McIlvanney Prize, to be awarded on the opening night of the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling on 13 September.
The prize, which recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing, is dedicated to the late William McIlvanney, “the father of Tartan Noir”
The longlist, selected by an “academy” of booksellers, librarians, bloggers and broadcasters, features some of Scotland’s leading fiction writers.
Johnstone, who has been shortlisted three times since 2014, is nominated once again for his latest novel, science fiction thriller The Collapsing Wave.
Val McDermid at The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Picture Charlotte Graham
Also included are previous winners Chris Brookmyre for his masterful murder mystery The Cracked Mirror and Charles Cumming for his new spy novel Kennedy 35.
“Queen of Crime” Val McDermid, who lives between Edinburgh and her native Fife, is nominated for her latest Karen Pirie novel Past Lying, which is also set in the capital.
Others on the longlist include Doug Skelton (The Hollow Mountain), D V Bishop (A Divine Fury), Andrew James Greig (The Girl in the Loch), S G Maclean (The Winter List), and C S Robertson (The Trials of Marjory Crowe).
Abir Mukherjee (Hunted) and Kim Sherwood (A Spy Like Me) are listed for the first time, while first-time author Doug Sinclair features for his novel Blood Runs Deep, which is also listed for the festival’s debut prize.
The 2024 winner will receive a Glencairn Crystal Decanter, £1,000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones.
Johnstone, who has lived in Edinburgh for over 30 years, said: “It’s amazing to be on the list for the McIlvanney Prize, which is the most important prize for crime fiction in Scotland.
“The longlist shows the real strength and depth of Scottish crime fiction and the variety of what’s going on.
“The Collapsing Wave is a science fiction novel but it’s also a crime novel and a thriller, but the longlist has all different kinds of books.
“That is all to the good because crime fiction is a very wide genre and a very welcoming community.”
Kirsty Nicholson, of sponsors Glencairn Crystal, said: “It’s always incredibly exciting to find out who has made it onto the McIlvanney Prize longlist.
“We congratulate all the authors and wish them all the best of luck, and we look forward to seeing who wins in September.”
The Bloody Scotland festival is unique in that it was set up by a group of Scottish crime writers along with the prize for Scotland’s best crime book of the year.
In 2016, the award was named after William McIlvanney, the novelist, short story writer and poet regarded as “the father of Tartan Noir” who died, aged 79, on 5 December 2015.
