Scottish Crime Book of the Year to be announced

The longlist for the McIlvanney Prize 2019 and the shortlist for the inaugural debut Scottish Crime Book of the Year have been announced.

The winner is to be presented at the Opening Reception of Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling on Friday 20 September 2019.

Three years ago, the Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award was renamed the McIlvanney Prize in memory of William McIlvanney who is often describe as the Godfather of Tartan Noir. Last year his son, Liam McIlvanney, won the prize and led the torchlit procession through the streets of Stirling alongside Denis Mina who was appearing at the first event.

William McIlvanney is known as the Godfather of Tartan Noir.

This year David Baldacci is opening the festival and will be leading the procession flanked by the winners of the McIlvanney Prize and the inaugural debut prize for Scottish crime book of the year. The longlist for the McIlvanney and the shortlist for the debut prize are:

McIlvanney Prize 2019:

All the Hidden Truths, Claire Askew (Hodder)

No Man’s Land, Neil Broadfoot (Little, Brown)
Fallen Angel, Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
Breakers, Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
All That’s Dead, Stuart MacBride (Harper Collins)
In the Silence, M R Mackenzie (Bloodhound Books)
Broken Ground, Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
A Breath on Dying Embers, Denzil Meyrick (Polygon)
Conviction, Denise Mina (Vintage)
The Way of All Flesh, Ambrose Parry (Canongate) aka Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman
In a House of Lies, Ian Rankin (Orion)
A Treachery of Spies, Manda Scott (Transworld)
Thunder Bay, Douglas Skelton (Polygon

Of the five authors shortlisted for the debut prize, two – Claire Askew and M R Mackenzie – have also made the longlist for the McIlvanney Prize:

All the Hidden Truths, Claire Askew* (Hodder)
From the Shadows, G R Halliday (Vintage)
Black Camp 21, Bill Jones (Polygon)
In the Silence, M R Mackenzie* (Bloodhound)
The Peat Dead, Allan Martin (Thunderpoint)

Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Denise Mina at Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling in 2017. [Paul Reich]

The authors were chosen by an independent panel of readers and booksellers. The finalists for the McIlvanney Prize 2019 will be revealed by Alison Flodd, book reporter for The Guardian and a former news reporter for The Bookseller; James Crawford, chair of Publishing Scotland and presenter of BBC series, Scotland from the Sky and Stuart Cosgrove, writer and broadcaster who was formerly a senior executive at Channel 4.

The debut prize will be judged by a panel from the board of Bloody Scotland including crime writers Lin Anderson, Craig Robertson, Gordon Brown and Abir Mukherjee. Everyone on the debut shortlist will be invited to join the debut panel at the festival on Saturday 21 September.

The longlist features established crime writers and debuts, corporates and indies and intriguingly Chris Brookmyre twice (as himself and as Ambrose Parry with his wife Marisa). The award recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing, includes a prize of £1000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones.

Both the opening ceremony and the torchlit procession are open to the public but tickets are selling fast so people are urged to book them now. All longlisted authors are invited to join the procession and will get a complimentary ticket to the reception.

For more information, visit the Bloody Scotland website.