#Review by Lou of The Fracture by Morgan Cry @GoJaBrown @RandomTTours #CrimeFiction #Thriller #TheFracture

The Fracture
By Morgan Cry

Review by Louise Cannon

This Fracture is the second book in the Blake Glover series, but the first I have read and reviewed in this series. For a new series, it’s definitely worth spending time with this former police constable, now taxi driver.

Blurb

Ex-police officer Blake Glover’s past threatens to catch up with him and destroy his small town life in this second instalment of the Blake Glover Crime series by Bloody Scotland co-founder Gordon Brown writing as Morgan Cry.

‘The Cost is a decidedly moreish thriller that will leave you hankering for just one more chapter’ Ian Rankin

Ex-police constable and now taxi driver Blake Glover thought retiring to his hometown of Fraserburgh would be calm – until, while attending a local funeral service, he notices something disturbing: did the sturdy expensive coffin split as it was lowered into the grave? How could this be possible? Is there a cruel scheme taking place?

As if this wasn’t enough, one of Blake’s customers from the night before has gone missing and Blake is the last person to have seen him alive.

To make matters even worse, Blake is contacted by his old colleague-turned-nemesis, Mitch Campbell – now imprisoned in Glasgow’s HMP Barlinnie. Mitch is threatening to frame Blake unless he agrees to a dangerous request.

Torn between helping friends, confronting a past enemy and uncovering dark deeds, Blake is dragged into a toxic world of small-town tragedy and big-city drama. As he tries to untangle the truth, he underestimates just how deadly things will become . . .

An intricately plotted, twisty and clever Tartan noir thriller by Scottish crime writer Morgan Cry – perfect for fans of IAN RANKIN, VAL McDERMID, DENISE MINA and WILLIAM McILVANNEY!

Review

Fractures appear in Fraserburgh, Scotland in this fast-paced, on the edge of your seat thriller.

Former or present police often have a moment of their past catching up with them, but the story that surrounds this happening to Blake Glover feels original for how this comes from his life in Glasgow.

Former police constable, Blake Glover took on a rather different job, as a taxi driver at ailing company, Doddy’s Taxis that needs life support injected into it to survive.
He soon discovers some dark things happening with one of his customer’s, but what’s really going on? It’s far from the quiet life Blake was hoping for.

There’s something not right about a funeral coffin and how it is lowered that becomes very mysterious, so much so that it keeps those pages turning.

The Fracture has great characterisations, intriguing relational observations and built tension that leaves you wanting more of this series.

About the Author

Gordon Brown, also writing as Morgan Cry, has twelve crime and thriller books published to date, along with a novella and a number of short stories.

Gordon is a founding director of Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival and runs a strategic planning consultancy. He lives in Scotland (and when Brexit rules allow, Spain) and is married with two children – who have long since flown the nest.

In a former life Gordon delivered pizzas in Toronto, sold non-alcoholic beer in the Middle East, launched a creativity training business, floated a high tech company on the London Stock Exchange, compered the main stage at a two-day music festival and was once booed by 49,000 people while on the pitch at a major football Cup Final.

#Review by Lou of In Conversation: Belinda Bauer and Elly Griffiths #BelindaBauer @ellygriffiths @BloodyScotland #TheImpossibleThing #TheFrozenPeople #CrimeFiction

In Conversation: Belinda Bauer and Elly Griffiths
A Bloody Scotland Event

Review and pics by Louise Cannon

This concludes my reviews of Bloody Scotland event reviews for 2025, since returning from Stirling, I’ve had many family things to handle, so, the reviews have taken a little longer than normal to all be written out. So, last but not least, here is my review of Belinda Bauer and Elly Griffiths talking about their latest books and more… The Crime In The Spotlight author was Allison Meldrum with Keep Me Safe.

Listening to Elly Griffiths and Belinda Bauer talk about books, films and more, was very insightful, especially when it came to book adaptations and their latest books. If you ever have the opportunity to see them together, they entertain in their expertly, flowing chat.

Belinda Bauer has previously won the CWA Gold Dagger with her debut, Blacklands and the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year for Rubbernecker. She now has a new novel called, The Impossible Thing.
For this latest thriller, Belinda Bauer was inspired by a guillemot’s egg and bird egg crimes being committed. She weaves, what was a real mystery about what happened to this valuable egg, into her thriller.
Her thrillers are stand-alone in a sense, but she does sometimes, overlap some characters as she builds her worlds.

Belinda Bauer has worked on major films and has some interesting anecdotes about Jaws. It was insightful about how she turns books into films, since so many are adapted.

Elly Griffiths (you will also find books under Domenica de Rosa, Elly isn’t her real name), is best known for The Ruth Galloway books. Fear not, readers of this series, she will return someday to them, for now, she has a brand new exciting sounding series to get your teeth into. It all starts with The Frozen People. Central to this series is Ali Dawson, a detective working on cold cases. She has travelled back in time, but the book also has a grounding in the present day. It sounds intriguing. I bought the book and will some time get chance to read an review it. Currently other family members have snatched it away to read…

They talked about writers and publishers can never quite guess the market. From an author’s point of view, they write what they’d like to read themselves.
They spoke about constantly having to play off the book and the reader in the process, making the relationship between reader and writer an active one.
Their drive to write never disappears, they divulged, even after all these years.

There was much laughter in the room, and I’d heard this at another panel too, that someone, in their case a different book festival, mistaken the words plotter and pantser for Otter and Panther. I’ll leave it up to you readers to guess which author is which.

Belinda Bauer talked about watching films and reading The Famous Five before turning to writing novels.

Elly Griffiths also read Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Nancy Spain, Wilkie Collins, Kate Atkinson, William Shaw and more…

#Review by Lou of In Conversation: Richard Armitage & Denise Mina an @BloodyScotland Panel @RCArmitage @author_denise #RichardArmitage #DeniseMina #TheCut #TheGoodLiar #CrimeFiction #BloodyScotland

In Conversation: Richard Armitage & Denise Mina

Review by Louise Cannon

Firstly, author, Andrew Raymond was the author for Crime In the Spotlight reading a section from one of his new books from the DCI Lomond series. He sounds an author worth checking out. I have a book to review and he informed me there’s another on the way… Now, onto the main event…

Sitting and watching a conversation between Richard Armitage and Denise Mina is fascinating. It just flows and instantly captivates. They know how to hook you, not only into their books, but a little into their worlds. They make you think, some of the talk was highly relatable, some of that, for me, on sad notes, but still…
That’s the beauty and skill of their conversation, whether they were talking about easy topics or more difficult, heart-rendering ones, they made you feel it, they made you understand a time, a place, a person.
They’re highly talented and together are a powerhouse, ultimately, giving a powerful, moving talk about their books and also incredible insights through their experiences…

Richard Armitage, known for screen and on the page. He’s known for Spooks, The Hobbit Trilogy and Obsession, topped the bestseller chart with his sensational debut thriller Geneva and his new cold case novel is The Cut.

Denise Mina has collected a shelf load of awards in a glittering career, including the McIlvanney Prize, CWA Daggers, and two Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year awards. Her new novel is The Good Liar. She studied forensic science for cross examining in the lawyers world. It was insightful how she talked about some forms of evidence now not being considered reliable, such as bite marks and blood splatters and such things used pre-DNA. She also pondered why so many people in prisons are of the working class. More about her book later…

After being very impressed by the story-telling of Geneva, liking it more than I expected, I remembered Richard Armitage mentioning The Cut last year. It’s now published and is an excellent book. His talk about The Cut is heart-rendering and sincere. If you were bullied in the 90’s you’ll really feel the emotion of what was an incredibly powerful and moving talk. The Cut takes place between 1993 and present day and sounds pacey and atmospherically intense as he delves into the corrosive nature of bullying and sounds like there are many twists and turns along the way…

Richard Armitage talked about how he is interested in the person you’d say was the villain of the piece, what caused the effect. Perhaps, refreshingly and original, he said he would like people to be divided by that particular character in the book.

Denise Mina’s novel, The Good Liar, is about a Glaswegian in London, as well as examining this, also looks at the effects of a chaotic family structure and climbing the social ladder to find safety, but is that all a pretence? Is it really a safer place in life to be?

There was interesting chat about how Scots in London downplay their Scottishness, in a way that then no one can quite place you. I found this recognisable when in London, but then again, I don’t have the accent of my home town either, even when coming from there, so it can be fun playing “guess where I come from,” or, I’ve just thought, could be used more mysteriously and not just for a bit of entertainment.

Both books involve young people and flawed characters, but the authors also, interestingly discussed families in present day with chaotic lives and how children are desperate to get those “Likes” on social media platforms. Then, how some parents also like to live vicariously through their children instead of leading their own lives… It was a thought-provoking discussion they had.

Whilst talking about audiobooks, Audible in-particular and then going to book format, Richard Armitage talked about the musicality of writing for audio format and stripping back to present scenes and more, which, like accent descriptions etc are added in the printed book. He disclosed how he had to present a manuscript to Audible before they signed everything off. It shows, even with a celebrity status, it wasn’t an instant yes, nor was it just for the sake of it.

Denise Mina has done an audio piece as well that had to be read in a P.G. Wodehouse like rhythm. Having just seen the fabulous Wodehouse In Wonderland play starring Robert Daws, I knew exactly what she was talking about. I had to smile at this unexpected linkage.

This fascinating talk concluded with the excitement that Geneva and The Cut are optioned for TV. It’s one of many stages which may or may not go ahead, but it’s a start and something for you to perhaps remember he felt confident enough to mention it at Bloody Scotland.

There will be more books to come from both authors…

#Review of Bloody Scotland Panel – Watching the Detectives featuring Alex Grey, Neil Lancaster, John Sutherland, Graeme Macrae Burnet @BloodyScotland @neillancaster66 @GMacraeBurnet #AlexGray @policecommander @HQstories @OrionBooks #BloodyScotland #CrimeFiction

Watching the Detectives
Featuring Alex Grey, Neil Lancaster, John Sutherland, Graeme Macrae

Crime in the Spotlight debut novelist before the main event was Reme Kone who has previously worked on producing Killing Eve, Lewis and more… The book sounded mysteriously dark and gripping.

The main event

This was an insightful talk into the minds of crime writers, viewers and readers of crime fiction, hostage negotiation situations, forensics and the human condition.

The authors were compelling to listen to and chose interesting slants about how they approached the topics they wanted to speak about.

The authors talked about people fascinating them and celebrating scenic locations such as The Highlands of Scotland. You could just imagine them drawing upon experiences and people watching, taking everything in for their next books, including the darkness of humans, such as incels, having to negotiate hostage situations and more…

They mentioned how now, people think they are experts in the field of crime. Now, most of these authors have worked in this field, such as in the police. Now, and you see it when people watch or read detective novels, people assume they’re experts because they read everything that they deem to be true. There is a great deal of detail and truth, but as previous people have mentioned, such as Sue Black, not all the details go into a book as it is also there for entertainment. I thought this an incredibly important point they made, perhaps to have people re-assess their position when they are reading or watching crime dramas unfold.

They dug around the reasons for such a thirst for crime fiction at the moment and it isn’t all because we are a blood-thirsty society. We like to explore the human condition, dig beneath the surface into the psychological make-up of a person, they observed. Characters are pushed to extremes and unlike in real life, when an end result could take years, it’s done all in one or a few sittings, so a lot faster for a resolution.

Each have books newly published and a book in the pipeline…

#Review by Lou of Murderous Media. A Bloody Scotland Panel featuring Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern @theJeremyVine @StephLunch @BloodyScotland #Deadline #MurderOnLineOne #BloodyScotland

Murderous Media
Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern

Review by Louise Cannon

Jeremy Vine is someone who lots of us have listened to on the radio on BBC Radio 2 over many years. I practically grew up listening to Ken Bruce’s Popmaster, a bit of music and then Jeremy Vine, even when young on the radio on long car journeys to a UK holiday destination. He truly likes Agatha Christie.

Steph McGovern is known for doing some of the financial news on BBC Breakfast, who knew someone could actually make that watchable?! She has also done Steph’s Packed Lunch and has something else lined-up.

They are both highly entertaining and joyous on a panel together.

Both have debut novels published and have another on the way. These ones are set where they know, but in the case of Steph, she informed that she will be moving away a bit from the tv studio world in her second…

Jeremy’s is Murder on Line One and takes place at places where the radio listeners are tuning in… It sounds mysterious and entertaining. I’ll review in due course.

Steph McGovern’s is set on a tv set when the earpiece gets hacked and turns out there is an abduction… It sounds intriguingly immersive and I will review in due course…

The talk was illuminating and very entertaining. The insight behind the scenes, that they can carefully fictionalise through their experiences and what they’ve seen sounds interesting. They have terrific anecdotes about workplaces, Trump, Archer and more… They also talked about fiction being freedom from fact-checking to the same intensity and discipline you need to for the news, but there were some details they did check to ensure they were giving their readers correct information. They also gave insight into the beginnings of their careers and in Steph’s case, also the construction industry and the fact she dispelled the myth of needing a “BBC accent” to be on the telly.

They talked about their authentic selves and how they felt they needed to be their authentic selves on both the page and on-screen. What I often find interesting is that people who act or present, look confident, perhaps even a bit loud in that role, but in real life can be quite shy, something I have witnessed from some people I’ve had the privilege of meeting too. I think it gives hope for people and shows courage to be so exposed even when naturally shy and to be that honest with a room full of people too.

If you ever get the chance to see Jeremy Vine and Steph McGovern do a talk, I highly recommend it.

#Review by Lou of Dark Islands featuring Morag Pringle, Ronnie Turner, Chris Barkley @BloodyScotland #BloodyScotland #CrimeFiction #psychologicalthriller @ronnie__turner @TufferBarkley #MoragPringle @PolygonBooks @OrendaBooks #ReadingCommunity

Bloody Scotland Panel – Dark Islands
Featuring Morag Pringle, Ronnie Turner, Chris Barkley

review written by Louise Cannon

Morag Pringle’s book is The Final Truth. She used to write medical romances for Mills & Boon, which appears of higher quality writing than perhaps some readers give credit to. She mentioned about the high standards and high quality that has to be adhered to and met, which in-turn honed her skills.

Ronnie Turner’s book is Small Fires she is interested in folk lore, fairytales, nature vs nurture, identity, beauty, psychology. Now, this sounds an intriguing, yet winning combination to explore.

Chris Barkley talked of Man at the End of the Stair being a metaphysical, locked room mystery.

I read and reviewed this book and it is thought-provoking with strong themes and exceedingly atmospheric. It pulls you in with its ability to intrigue and its intensity.

They drew you into their talk of their islands, creating a sense of dark, moody atmosphere as they talked of losing phone signals, creating a claustrophobic feeling. Folklore and myth being woven together like a tapestry. Ronnie was especially interested in this and in-turn made you enter that world.

Chris Barkley brings up many thought-provoking points, such as an island being a psychological symbol.
They all mentioned how trauma and guilt is a journey. You could tell, they really examined these traits of the human condition and the what happened to a person to cause trauma.

Their books aren’t all heavy, they explained how there is a sweet innocence thread through them to lighten the themes and reading experience up a bit.

The talk was really fascinating, especially at the beginning and the middle. Some of the talk of writing experiences was interesting too, but it did feel like it lingered there a little too long, when the interest was that feeling of being or actually being on an island.