The Tartan Noir Show

We love the description of Helen on her website. She’s just recently been nominated for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the year (for the second time). The former social worker, who worked with sex offenders, admits to drawing on her experience to form some of her characters and stories. In this episode, we find out more about growing up in rural Australia, in a neighbourhood of troubled males, and how this influenced some of her career choices...

We discover how it’s possible to break out of a career in accountancy to become an award-winning crime writer! Abir Mukherjee has recently been nominated for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year for his third Sam Wyndham novel, Smoke and Ashes, set in the Raj era of India. It has also been chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the top 100 crime and thriller novels since 1945...

We get a bit distracted this week with discussions on embracing the grey and best hair products! But there's also plenty of chat about representation of the working class in crime fiction, Edgar Allan Poe who went to school in Ayrshire and the appeal of true crime, amongst many other topics. Denise picks New York Times best-selling writer Brian McGilloway’s first standalone novel, The Last Crossing, as her book recommendation...

In this final episode of the first series, we take you on a quick trip to the South of France with a brief dalliance in Minnesota. Critically acclaimed, international best seller, Peter May, joins Theresa Talbot from his home in France. He talks about his brand new book, Lockdown, written 15 years ago about a global pandemic which closes London down...