John Dean Crime Novelist

Festival embraces crime fiction

One of the strongest features of Kirkcudbright Book Week right from its early days has been the popularity of crime fiction - and the 2025 event is set to continue the tradition.

The programme to run in the South West Scotland town between March 3-9 includes appearances by several best-selling crime fiction authors as well as those starting out  on their writing careers.

One of the highlights will be a performance by award-winning crime novelist Chris Brookmyre and Dr Marisa Haetzman, who was a consultant anaesthetist for twenty years and now jointly writes novels with him as Ambrose Parry.

Chris, whose first novel Quite Ugly One Morning was published in 1996 and won the First Blood Award for the Best First Crime Novel of the Year, has followed that with twenty-nine further novels, including All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye, which won the Wodehouse Prize, and Black Widow, winner of the McIlvanney Prize and the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His work has been adapted for television, the stage, radio and, in the case of Bedlam, a video game, for which he also wrote the script.

Dr Haetzman’s dissertation research into the life of James Young Simpson and his discovery of the anaesthetic effects of chloroform led to her starting to collaborate with Chris, initially on the historical novel The Way of All Flesh, which along with The Art of Dying and A Corruption of Blood was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, with A Corruption of Blood shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA)  Historical Dagger. Their talk will be delivered on Monday March 3 at 7:30pm at Broughton House in High St, Kirkcudbright.

Also appearing at the festival will be Sara Sheridan, who has written more than 20 novels and whose 1950s murder mystery series saw her longlisted in 2021 for the CWA’s Dagger in the Library. The Fair Botanists, set in Edinburgh in 1822, was Waterstone’s Scottish Book of the Year 2022 and she was longlisted for the Saltire Best Novel of the Year for her latest novel, The Secrets of Blythswood Square, which is set in Glasgow. Sara will deliver a talk on Tuesday March 4 at 7:00pm at Kirkcudbright Parish Church.

Aline Templeton, pictured at the top of this article, one of Scotland’s most celebrated crime novelists, will gave a talk on Wednesday March 5 at 6:15pm at the Selkirk Arms in High Street. She has written more than twenty crime novels, including a series featuring DI Marjory Fleming, set in Galloway, and another with DCI Kelso Strang of the Scottish Rural Crime Squad. She was Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland and has served on the committee of the Crime Writers’ Association. 

Among other crime writer appearing will be Ryan Stark, who will give a talk on Monday March 3  at 2:00pm at the Selkirk Arms. The  Midlands-based crime and thriller writer, author coach and publisher has written seven novels in the Daley & Whetstone and Aidan Beckett series, published by Fuldean Press, which have sold worldwide.

Thursday March 6 at 10:00am will see local crime writers David L Haigh and May Rinaldi taking centre stage at Feast Café, 32 St Cuthbert Street. David and May, who have both recently experienced publication for the first time, will be in conversation with veteran crime writer John Dean and subjects will include what inspired them to begin writing and what challenges they faced when it came to producing that all-important first book; David’s Land Kill was published in 2024 and May’s debut novel is due out.

John Dean, who is also Joint Organiser of Kirkcudbright Book Week, said: “Our audiences love their crime fiction and we are delighted this time around to feature another strong offering, including some well-known names.

“One of the developing features of Book Week is that more and more people come into the town from further afield, often planning holidays or short breaks around particular events, and we know that a significant number of them come to enjoy our crime fiction programme.”

Many other genres feature in the programme and full details, including how to acquire tickets, can be obtained at www.kirkcudbrightbookweek.org

Author re-launches online crime fiction course

Best-selling crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean has launched the latest version of his online Crime Fiction Course.

The course, which runs in eight parts and can begin at a time and date to suit the writer, helps emerging authors to improve their writing and aims to increase their chances of being successful, either in competitions or admissions to publishers and agents.

Several emerging writers who have completed the course have gone on to secure publishing contracts.

John, who lives in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland and has run the course for a number of years, including throughout the covid lockdowns, has updated its content to take into account the latest thinking on crime writing as well as changes in the publishing industry.

The course sees him share the experience gained from more than than twenty five years as a crime writer. In that time, he has had 24 novels published and is currently published by London-based The Book Folks. He is the creator of the best-selling DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris series.

When students enrol, they can either choose to complete a series of writing exercises or base the course on existing novels, either method supported by ongoing one-to-one feedback taking in everything from plotting, creating characters, how best to use sense of place and how to write with pace.

John, who is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and is the organisation’s Libraries Champion in Scotland, said: ‘Writing can be a lonely pastime and my aim is to help emerging writers to improve their technique and their chances of being successful in what is a very competitive market.

‘Crime fiction remains hugely popular and opportunities are opening up for emerging writers all the time, particularly as new publishing companies spring up and grow through outlets like Amazon, meaning that they are constantly looking for new talent. Hopefully, I can help aspiring writers to take advantage of those opportunities.

‘Because the course is online, it does not matter where the writers live. In recent years, I have worked with writers everywhere from Croatia to Australia and New Zealand, as well as in the UK, and have been delighted to see several of them go on to secure contracts with publishers. It’s very gratifying to see them in print.’

There is no official certificate of qualification at the end of the course. For further details, you can contact John at deangriss@btinternet.com or ring 07889 554931. His website also contains plenty of free material about the craft of crime writing and can be found at www.johdean.ning.com

Manuscript assessments

John works with his daughter Laura, a skilled editor and manuscript assessor, to provide manuscript assessments. Should you be interested in finding out more, then feel free to drop John a line and he and Laura can discuss your needs.  For further details, you can contact John at deangriss@btinternet.com or ring 07889 554931. 

Talks

John gives talks on crime writing to organisations ranging from library reading groups and writing groups to men's forums. He also delivers creative writing workshops at venues including arts centres and libraries. He can be contacted on deangriss@btinternet.com