#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.

#Review By Lou of Peter James and Elly Griffiths @peterjamesuk @ellygriffiths @BloodyScotland #Grace #RuthGalloway

Peter James and Elly Griffiths

written by Louise Cannon (Lou)

Peter James and Elly Griffiths are so entertaining together, the perfect match for a panel. If you ever get the chance to see them, either alone or together, I highly recommend it. You’re in for a real treat. The event was 1hr and it was a captivating one. What an absolute delight to meet him afterwards too. The queue was massive, all around the signing room, which is a fair side, so some fast talking was needed to be fair on everyone else.

Peter James talked about his series – Grace and this September saw the launch of his 20th novel – Someone Is Dead. Amazingly, this series has seen 21 million sold and translated into 38 languages, as well as it being on tv on ITV/STV. It pulls a massive audience. One member of that audience is the Queen, so turns out readers are in the most excellent of company. He also has a theatre play, check the link out further on. Thanks to Peter James for the photo.

It’s often fascinating when authors talk about their crime fiction books and the way they see them as a puzzle (they essentially are). He used an interesting analogy of it being 1000’s of small pieces of a puzzle having to piece together. What’s interesting and different is how he decided to have the puzzle so much closer to Grace’s home and family, in fact so personal that it’s his wife who is seemingly loving and sounding pretty great, goes missing and how he shows bits about her in several books, going up to his stand alone about Sandy’s story.

The latest book – One of Us is Dead sounds intriguing about how a dangerous a dead man might actually be and it’s a race of time to find out. I will be receiving this book some time from his publishers to review, thanks to the Bloody Scotland team.

Peter James is smart and fortunate that he has a good handle on his tv series – Grace, played by John Simm. He even chose John Simm to play the character and pictured his main protagonist as being someone like him. This is quite probably why the tv series works so well, is because he has been able to gain so much control over it. Interestingly, Peter James spoke about doing some acting himself, quite some time ago.

Grace is on tv just now on ITV/STV and on the catch up services.

Picture You Dead is coming to theatres across the UK in 2025.
Check it out in this link here: Picture You Dead
Check out more works by Peter James here: https://www.peterjames.com/

The book was fabulous and I rated it 5/5 stars when I had a lovely opportunity to read it a while back. After seeing Wish You Were Dead on stage, which was divine, I am certain the stage show will do well too.

Elly Griffiths has a new book is a Ruth Galloway book, The Last Word, set in rural Sussex. It was interesting hearing how she didn’t know the book was going to be so popular or subsequently go on for so long. She read a passage from her book and she has a knack of hitting all the points of the real world, much like Peter James’ books do too, as she read about Wordle and such activities we all got into. She divulged about how her Ruth Galloway books were optioned a few times for tv and sadly haven’t gone any further as yet. I can think of a few authors that has happened to.

For those who don’t know, Elly Griffiths is a pseudonym for Domenica de Rosa and it was interesting hearing why she changed it. It wasn’t for any reason I’d have thought of, but it was to sound more convincing and real than her actual real name. Sadly didn’t manage to capture a photo of Elly on the account of needing to get to the next event.

She talked about having a desire to try out different things, but hasn’t said never again for Ruth Galloway. For something different, I personally recommend Postscript Murders, it’s brilliantly entertaining and so original. I seem to recall rating it 5/5 stars.

Check out more Elly Griffiths books here: https://ellygriffiths.co.uk/my-books/

Check out my review of The Postscript Murders here: Postscript Murders

#Review By Lou of The Grand Scheme of Things By Warona Jay @Warona_Jay #TheGrandSchemeOfThings #LBT @LoveBooksTours #BlogTour

The Grand Scheme of Things
By Warona Jay

Set in theatreland, but a deeper, darker look behind the scenes before the curtain goes up is what entails. Check out the blurb and my review below, thanks to the blog tour opportunity from Love Books Tours.

Blurb

Meet Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo. Or, for short, Eddie: an aspiring playwright who dreams of making it big in London’s theatre world. But after repeated rejections from white talent agents, Eddie suspects her non-white sounding name might be the problem.

Enter Hugo Lawrence Smith: good looking, well-connected, charismatic and . . . very white. Stifled by his law degree and looking for a way out of the corporate world, he finds a kindred spirit in Eddie after a chance encounter at a cafe.

Together they devise a plan which will see Eddie’s play on stage and Hugo’s name in lights and expose the theatre world for its racism and hollow clout-chasing. But as their plan spins wildly out of control, Eddie and Hugo find themselves wondering if their reputations, and their friendship, can survive.

Review

The Arts, a tricky business, but an amazing one nonetheless. Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo or Eddie for short, has big dreams, like most actors, to make it big in London. The book shows it is who you know though, not always just relying on what you know, so it can be tricky. The book exposes some of the attitudes behind the scenes of the glitz and glam of London’s theatre scene, mainly from a race point of view, although shows a little of the male privilege having a hand and money having a bit of a hand too. The book attempts humour to perhaps be satirical or take the edge off the anger, but it didn’t always seem to quite manage it.

I was initially intrigued by this book, after all, many workplaces have their biases etc. I found it to be okay. It’s got a slow-burn and shows you need to know someone, not just posh, but high up to try to change things, which comes in the form of Hugo Lawrence Smith. He wants to change career and enter the arts and discovers that all isn’t so easy. He becomes friends with “Eddie” and initially, it could be not such a bad one.
There is seemingly roaring success of a script being submitted when Relebogile Naledi Mpho Moruakgomo submits under the pseudonym and how that doesn’t all continue to go to plan and with Hugo having to “come to the rescue”. The two get closer together to punish the arts world because it’s a different story when the real identity of the script-writer is revealed.

Things spiral out of control in the realm of what to do about the industry and it puts friendships on the edge, which becomes quite a twist and turn in a way.

I thought I’d love it with the themes, the premise of locations because they are usually of more interest, but instead I found it just about interesting enough for in its style and characterisations to keep turning the pages.