The latest from Bloody Scotland: 18 - 20 September 2026

Crime in the Spotlight 2026

Crime in the Spotlight is such an important part of our festival. The initiative gives new and emerging authors the chance to read a sample of their work out before one of Bloody Scotland's packed Albert Halls sessions. Our Spotlighters also get the opportunity to sign their novels alongside the session's main act afterwards.

Here's a list of our Spotlighters and the events they will appear at... 

Friday 18th September

Pat McTaggart will read at Death on the Island

Kevan Christie will read at In Conversation: Chris Brookmyre & Abir Mukherjee

Colette Lewis will read at Denise Mina Presents Lucy Foley

Ryan MacDonald will read at The Kill Switch: Robert Peston

NJ Hatton will read at Denise Mina presents Lee Child (sold out)

Victoria West will read at Richard Osman in conversation with Mark Billingham (sold out)

Saturday 19th September
Emilie Castore & Eve Goodfellow will read at Nice and Cosy
Wes Browne will read at Denise Mina presents SA Cosby 
Angela Clegg will read at Femmes Fatales
Jen L Crow will read at Denise Mina presents Jane Harper & Jane Casey
Kelly Mancaruso will read at In Conversation: Steve Cavanagh & Nadine Matheson
Elspeth Latimer will read at Denise Mina presents Tana French
Alys Cummins will read at Jeremy Vine & Matthew Sweet

Sunday 20th September
Chris Lerpiniere will read at In Conversation: Cai Jun & Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Ruth Knafo Setton will read at In Conversation: Gregg Hurwitz & Robert Bryndza 
Kathryn Sharman will read at Denise Mina Presents Ardal O'Hanlon
Alison Aitchison will read at Dept Q
Sam Dounis will read at A History of Modern Britain in Twenty Murders Robert Parker will read at In Conversation: Val McDermid & Denise Mina

Crime in the Spotlight is sponsored by The Open University. You can read more about this year's Crime in the Spotlight over on our Blog. 

In Conversation: Cai Jun and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir
Sunday 20th September - 10:30am

Bloody Scotland are proud to welcome one of Asia’s most

prolific and popular crime authors to Stirling. Cai Jun is the leading

crime and horror writer in China – their answer to Stephen King – and

his books have sold an incredible 14 million copies worldwide.

Alongside Cai Jun will be the Queen of Icelandic Noir, the wonderful Yrsa Sigurðardóttir whose multi-award-winning books have been translated into more than 30 languages. She too leans to the darker side of crime with a tinge of horror thrown in. Cai Jun and Yrsa will be interviewed by Craig Sisterson.

Evil Under the Sun
Friday 18th September - 20:15pm

Glamour, luxury and exotic locations are at the heart of three red-hot
thrillers all rich in intrigue while being fabulously glitzy and
gripping.

A sun-drenched Tuscan villa is the setting for simmering tension and family intrigue in Kate Gray’s sizzling novel Welcome to the Family. Scandal and secrets threaten to destroy a glittering birthday party in Foluso Agbaje’s hugely suspenseful family drama, The Talk of the Party. Wild, opulent parties under the scorching Greek summer sun lead to resentment and murder in the pulsating Dead Heat by Sabine Durrant. This event will be chaired by Arusa Qureshi..

Murder at the Edge of the World:
Saturday 19th September - 21:45pm

Meet three authors who have skilfully harnessed wild locations at
opposite extremes of the world to create vivid and atmospheric crime
thrillers.

A mutilated body rises from the icy waters of Norway’s unforgiving Arctic north, in Ørjan Karlsson’s chilling thriller Into the Dark. Malcolm Kempt’s haunting debut A Gift Before Dying sees a disgraced Arctic Circle cop seek justice for a murdered girl. A cabin deep in the woods of New Zealand holds the secrets to murder in The Vanishing Place, the astonishing debut from Zoë Rankin. This event will be chaired by author Shane McGinley.

Helsinki Noir
Saturday 19th September - 20:15pm

As part of a collaboration with the Helsinki Noir festival, we are
delighted to welcome three of Finland’s leading crime writers to
Stirling.

The Winter Job is a darkly humorous slice of Finnish Noir about friendship, love and death from festival favourite Antti Tuomainen. A journalist uncovers evidence of a serial killer stalking Helsinki’s streets in Martta Kaukonen’s breathless Meet Me in the Darkness. International bestseller Satu Rämö is the creator of “Nordic Blue”, a warmer hue of Scandi Noir, and her latest is The Secrets from the Deep. This event will be chaired by Reetta Miettinen.

Interview with James Oswald

This month, we caught up with crime novelist and farmer, James Oswald, to find out more about his latest novel, The Violent Hour. 

Can you tell us about The Violent Hour and your inspiration for the book? 

The story opens with the discovery of a violent murder, or the body parts left behind after a violent murder in Edinburgh. The problem is that even though the police have got all the body parts, they can't identify the victim, which makes everything quite difficult. There's a lot of pressure to solve the case because it's festival season and the city is full of tourists - so there's a huge pressure on the police. The reason nobody knows who this person is is because the victim's birth was never registered, so, he's a mysterious character for that reason.

I can't say much more without giving too much away but I will say that it's a typical Inspector McLean book, so nothing in this case is straightforward! 

This is the 15th book in the Inspector McLean series, which blends crime and the supernatural together. Can you tell us how the series came about? 

I wrote a comic script back in the early 90s. It wasn't really a police story, but it had a police officer in it who could see the ghosts - and that was Tony McLean.

I used to live in Aberdeen and knew the author Stuart McBride very well. When he first got published he got in touch with me and said, crime fiction's where it's at - you should write that. That's when I thought, well, I've got this police character and his unique selling point is that even though he's reluctant to believe in ghosts and the supernatural - he sees it, so he has that kind of built-in conflict. I tried him out in a few short stories, one of which was called Natural Causes. I ended up expanding that short story into the novel of the same name. 

Edinburgh is very much a character in these books. Do you enjoy writing about the city?

I find it quite increasingly difficult because I don't get out much. Most of my memories of Edinburgh are from the turn of the century. I used to work in various jobs around the city and a lot of the references and locations in the books are places near where I worked because I'd go out and walk around during my lunch hour. Edinburgh has changed so much since then, so every so often I go down and have a wander around and think, oh, that building's not there any more. I have been very rude about one of the hotels a couple of times. Tony McLean is not a fan!

You'll be joining us at Bloody Scotland again this year as part of our Call the Polis event. What is it about the festival that makes it so special? 

I've been to every Bloody Scotland since it started, and the second festival was my first one as a published author, so I do feel a certain attachment to it. It's such a friendly festival and they always seem to manage to come up with a really good programme, year after year. I love Crime in the Spotlight too - it's such a big opportunity for new authors. 

It also helps that it's only three quarters an hour down the road from me, so it's nice and local!

The Violent Hour by James Oswald

is published by Wildfire and is out now. You can purchase a copy, here: https://linktr.ee/ViolentHour

James will appear on stage as part of our
Call the Polis panel on
Saturday the 19th of September at 11.30am, alongside,

 Caro Ramsay and Andrew James Greig

Fib Whisky

This year, we’ll be toasting Bloody Scotland with something very special. Our friends over at Fib Whisky have made us our very own whisky for the second year running – and it’s a very special bottle indeed! 

We caught up with Fib’s Director, Iain Mundy to find out more about this perfect pairing.

“We’re delighted to provide the official festival dram again for this year's Bloody Scotland Festival! We buy casks from all kinds of distilleries around Scotland. The one we've used this year for Bloody Scotland is from Glen Spey Distillery and it's 11 years old. It's one that a lot of people don't get to try normally because it's predominantly used for blending. It’s a single malt, but they'll usually stick it in blends like Johnny Walker, so it's only through independent companies like us, and other independent bottlers, that people actually get the chance to try it as a single malt which is really cool because it's a really nice whisky.

Fib was the brainchild of two passionate whisky fans, the late Aedan Burt and Iain Mundy, who were long-time friends and whisky enthusiasts. The independent bottlers buy whisky from many different distilleries, then carry out finishing and occasionally blending experiments to create something new and exciting.

"We've had the Bloody Scotland whisky in Oloroso Sherry for about six months. We haven't bottled the full cask. We've only made a hundred exclusive bottles and they're all numbered from one to a hundred. Once the cask runs out, that will be it done and there won't be another cask that's exactly like it - so when it's gone, it's gone! Usually when you see whisky in the supermarket, it will be diluted down to 40, 43 or 46%. But this time we haven't bothered -  it was just really nice as it was. It's completely natural, unfiltered and it's coming in at natural strength, which is 58.3 %. So it has a proper punch this time!"

You can sample a dram of Bloody Scotland's official whisky at Bloody Scotland Prizes and Drinks Reception at the Church of the Holy Rude on Friday the 18th of September. 

View the Bloody Scotland programme, here