#Review By Lou of Hold The Front Page with CS Robertson and Chris Hammer @CraigRobertson_ #ChrisHammer @Bloody Scotland #BloodyScotland #TheTrialsOfMarjorieCrowe #Scrublands

Hold The Front Page
CS Robertson and Chris Hammer

Craig (CS) Robertson and Chris Hammer are former journalists, turned bestselling authors. Craig Robertson’s career took him to many places, including some of the darkest, most emotional places that still resonate and reverberate around the world, such as covering someone on Death Row, 9/11 attacks, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Chris Hammer is an Australian journalist turned author who also had his fair share of human stories to tell.

It was absolutely fascinating listening to them talk about how they wouldn’t go back to journalism now. They talked about how the profession has changed so much from when they first started to the point when they decided to leave. The contrast between then and now seemed stark. They talked of a time when suddenly something newsworthy was happening in the world and how they’d be handed a wad of cash and told to go here and there across the world, wherever the story was. Now, there’s more technology and more being “chained to your desk” going on.

It isn’t hard to miss that there are many journalists who are authors and they addressed this, which was pretty good because I for one always wondered. They talked of how they were used to writing to deadlines, being reliable, had ideas, having the research skills and more…

Scottish bestselling author, Craig Robertson also writes as CS Robertson with The Trials of Marjorie Crowe and it sounds intriguing as it poses the questions, just who is Marjorie Crowe, why don’t the locals know her and is she really linked to a suspicious disappearance?
He is working on many projects, including one with his wife. He is more of plotter when he writes and says this is mostly due to his wife’s influence.

Chris Hammer writes Scrublands, set in drought striken New South Wales. Martin Scarsden, a journalist, explores how a crime has affected a town and how the official story may not be entirely accurate. This can found in both book and tv drama form. It is showing on BBC IPlayer.
He is a pantser when it comes to sitting down and writing.

#Review By Lou of Denzil Meyrick and Marion Todd Chaired by Douglas Skelton @BloodyScotland #BloodyScotland @Lochlomonden @DouglasSkelton1 @MarionETodd #BrianCookWriter #BloodyScotland #CrimeFiction

Denzil Meyrick and Marion Todd

By Louise Cannon

Denzil Meyrick knows what he’s talking about when it comes to crime and the criminal world. He’s worked in the police force before now. The police, he informed the audience, like his books, as do people in Campbell Town, especially his Daley series.

Christmas and snow comes to mind. Snow, lots and lots of snow was mentioned. That and lots of hints that there could be exciting times ahead for Denzil Meyrick’s books, but he signed NDA’s so couldn’t say exactly what. It was joked by Douglas Skelton that Denzil Meyrick needed proof-read before interviewing. Denzil Meyrick on the other-hand joked around as he told a story about convincing a publisher that Douglas Skelton had a donkey, in the attempt to help him in the publishing world. I will add that Douglas Skelton is a successful author.

What I can say is that he has a new Christmas book out called The Christmas Stocking Murders. Set in the 1950’s, Grasby and Juggers are investigating a puzzling murder in the remote village of Uthley’s Bay. Everyone’s a suspect for a murder of an innkeeper. It sounds wonderfully festive and intriguing as the village is cut off by a blizzard.
This has come off the back of the success of Murder At Holly House, which I had the pleasure of reviewing last year: Murder At Holly House

The Estate is out now. In a fantastic setting, murder happens. See my review here: The Estate

Marion Todd talked about having police approve of her Detective Clare MacKay series and how she would like Karen Gillen to play out her book series in a tv series or film, if there were ever an opportunity. I must say, I reckon she is a great Scottish actor who would be great in a crime series.

Interestingly, she talked about covers and how she likes some of the real and some of the made up world on them. She also likes the spines to look good and thinks about how they’ll sit on people’s bookshelves. So, perhaps trying out her Detective Clare MacKay series to brighten up bookcases.

They discussed the importance of settings and revealed the challenges of both real settings and made up places and how, when it’s real, they add certain things for their stories. It was a fascinating look behind the scenes of the settings of their books and what it takes to write them, sometimes it’s no mean feat if places put many rules and hoops to jump through and what makes them go with a proposal and what makes them back away from a location.

Bloody Scotland showcases new authors with a segment called “Author In The Spotlight”, giving them a chance to read an extract from their book before the main author event. This time was Brian Cook with his book, The Corsairs.
In the picture below is Marion Todd, Brian Cook and Denzil Meyrick.

#Review of The Wickedest Link game panel @BloodyScotland hosted by @CraigRobertson players were @cbrookmyre @ellygriffiths @MarkBillingham @vandasymon @TonyKent_Writes @LiljaWriter @VaseemKhanUK @MarionETodd #BloodyScotland #TheWickedestLink

The Wickedest Link

What Bloody Scotland does so well, is adding in the unexpected, the unusual to a book festival… This year it took the game show The Weakest Link and turned it into The Wickedest Link. It was so much fun as crime writers, Chris Brookmyre, Elly Griffiths, Mark Billingham, Vanda Symon, Tony Kent, Lilja Sigurdardottir, Vaseem Khan and Marion Todd pitted their wits against each other to answer general knowledge questions posed by question master – Ann-Robinson-Ranganathan-Robertson otherwise known as Craig Robertson. He stepped up to the mark and made a worthy question master, putting everyone through their paces. The results were very funny and between their own knowledge and a little help from the audience, questions were answered, but one by one they were picked off, until there were only 2 for a head to head, as the tensions mounted up…

It was just such fun, with the hilarity growing as they tried to raise money for their chosen charity. A great way to end a Friday night of relaxed entertainment.
I look forward to seeing what Bloody Scotland brings next year.

#Review By Lou of Richard Armitage Chaired By Brian Burnett @RCArmitage @bryanb1965 @BloodyScotland #BloodyScotland

Richard Armitage

Review By Louise Cannon (Lou)

What a moment! Richard Armitage in Stirling how the Bloody Scotland team did that, I have no idea, but it was amazing! It’s not so often these days that big named actors grace Stirling, not like how they used to. I was a kid when they used to, but my parents have told me. So, here he was, in The Albert Halls in Stirling.

Richard Armitage has also got a book out now called Geneva.

Actor/Author Richard Armitage has pretty much done it all now and is exceedingly successful, not that he was ever fame hungry as he talked a few times about that being a by-product to success and certain things he does being part of the deal/contract. His book is entirely his own, more about that later…

Richard Armitage has been in lots of tv dramas and films, including The Vicar of Dibley, Spooks, The Hobbit and more… He also reads audiobooks for Amazon’s Audible arm and for radio. Now he has a book called Geneva.

Fascinatingly, he’s totally clued up on how some readers seem to perceive all celebratory author, so he made it very clear that he did not use a ghost-writer. Amazon was going to give him one, but he was adamant that if he was going to produce words, they were going to be entirely his own, so he had to, I suppose, prove himself a bit and write a synopsis and submit a couple of chapters too. He went into detail about how it’s a whole sensory experience when he writes and how he’s trying to future-proof his career in case the phone stops ringing as he would like to continue in some ways in the creative industry and this is one of the ways he can do that, amongst others. He also talked about being introverted, despite all that he does in front of people and cameras. It’s interesting to me just how many actors actually are introverted, but give them a different person to be, a stage or a camera and you’d never guess.

His book, Geneva sounds curious with all the corridors in this building. It also looks at gaslighting in a medical environment. He bravely let everyone know that he has experienced gaslighting and how you think you’re going mad. It was quite a moment!

The book sounded so good that I bought a copy, sadly didn’t manage to meet the man in-person as had another event and the queue went round the signing room and doubled on itself and I had another event to go to.

I now have a copy of this book and will review at a later date.

Today’s The Day #BloodyScotland Begins in Stirling, Scotland @BloodyScotland @Brownlee_Donald #Scotland #UK #CrimeFestival #CrimeLovers

Bloody Scotland Begins

Written By Louise Cannon (Lou)

With a myriad of crime theme events, Bloody Scotland has arrived in Stirling, Scotland. I’m never bored when it’s festival time. There’s always something to do and old friends and new ones to meet. It’s an amazing time!

Bloody Scotland runs from Friday 13th – Sunday 15th September.

Meet your favourite authors, hang out at the Bloody Scotland bar at the Golden Lion Hotel, meet the reviewers, meet other readers. Swap thoughts on books, try something new or something familiar. Eat, drink and read.

Hear talks about books, get books signed, have fun at the Karioke and watch game show formats with a devilish twist.

Come for an entertaining weekend of high-jinx and chat.

For those not been before, welcome. For those who are regulars, welcome back to the city of crime writers with a historical backdrop of olde world streets and castle and so much more…

Programme and Tickets on the Bloody Scotland website here: Bloody Scotland

@BloodyScotland Write-Up by Lou – Panel – Undercover Featuring Neil Lancaster and Liam Thomas @neillancaster66 @1liamthomas

Undercover Panel
Featuring Neil Lancaster
and Liam Thomas

An interesting panel that took the audience, in part into their world of their previous careers, their inspiration/motivation and their books. Discover their books and then what else they had to say, including something absolutely brilliant that I have quoted at the end. It’ll make you smile and think… Then find out about a book that has recently had a cover reveal at the end.

The Books

Blood Runs Cold By Neil Lancaster

She was taken against her will.
She escaped once.
She won’t escape again.

Buy Link:

Waterstones

The Buyer By Liam Thomas

The Making and Breaking
Of An
Undercover Detective

Buy Link:
Waterstones

The Discussion

Neil Lancaster and Liam Thomas both served in the police service. They both have interesting stories, with unexpected details to tell about their grandfathers that led to both the intrepid authors into their own careers into the police.

Neil Lancaster’s grandfather joined the police in 1919. He was deemed too short, but they needed someone who could play the French Horn, which he could do, so he was let in anyway and served on duty in a bigger capacity than just playing the French Horn. He has many interesting stories to tell, if you ever get to see him live in a talk.

He once wrote a memoir, but is a lover of fiction and realised he had “characters leaking out of him,” and wondered if he could write, so basically gave it a go.

Liam Thomas’s grandfather was in the military police, things weren’t great for him at home in the fishing community where he lived and as a way out, he joined the police. He then wanted to be a screenwriter and it transpired that publishing house, Penguin, reckoned after telling them about his life, a memoir would be good. He is also considering writing fiction.

Both discussed their working lives. Neil Lancaster went from being your average cop to being part of CID and a member of the Homicide Task Force and was involved in major cases that were making the headlines. The stakes were high and it weighs on you.

Liam Thomas talked of working with “extraordinary detectives” and different elements of the job, as well as every image of homicide; as Neil Lancaster talked about this, but also saying about an image that wasn’t the most horrific that stuck in his mind.

Neil Lancaster talked revealed how he saw some funny people in his career and this helped form some of his characters in his books.

Both have revealed they have no regrets.