Festival announces top quality crime fiction line-up

[John Dean]

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 (pictured here).

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, 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