Scotland's Read of Choice by Kenneth Stephen. From the innovative deductions of Sherlock Holmes to the conundrums facing Inspector John Rebus, Scottish writers have turned the country into a powerhouse for page-turning crime fiction.

Through the Magnifying Glass
It is not just contemporary Scots, however, who have kept readers in suspense from the first sentence to the last. Scottish authors have had the public on the edge of their seats for well over a century.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edinburgh-born in 1859, did more than anyone of his era to thrust the character of the master detective into the limelight. Sherlock Holmes, with his fascinating methodology still remains, in many peoples' eyes, the quintessential sleuth. Ask a child today to mimic a detective and he will pretend to peer through the magnifying glass made famous by Conan Doyle's creation. Interestingly, had it not been for mixed success in the author's 'real' profession of medicine and an exceptional Professor called Dr. Joseph Bell, the world may never have come to know Holmes and his tweed overcoat at all.

An Exceptional Individual
Bell was Conan Doyle's mentor in medicine at Edinburgh University. He was famous for using pin-point observation in diagnoses. He could guess a stranger's occupation merely by looking. It was Bell who inspired the genius of Holmes. Holmes could finger a culprit from a fleck of ash flicked at a crime scene. Ironically, Conan Doyle only got round to writing his adored stories of the great investigator while waiting for patients to arrive at his medical practises in Plymouth and London. Unfortunately for the medical practice, few did.

While Conan Doyle took crime fiction to a new level, other Scots were cementing our reputation further afield.

Edinburgh solicitor William Roughhead's interest lay in the legal consequences of humanity's darker deeds but his accounts of Scottish trials became required reading in America. Even President Roosevelt had a Roughhead in his private collection at the Oval Office.

Adoration by Accident
From this lofty perch, modern day crime authors have ensured the nation continues to punch above its weight when it comes to intricate plots and red herrings. Rankin, born in Cardenden, Fife is currently the best selling crime writer in Britain.

This year, his flawed but likeable anti-hero, Inspector John Rebus, is celebrating his 20th anniversary. Amazingly, however, Rebus might not have enjoyed such longevity had someone not pointed out to Rankin that the protagonist he had created was a memorable puzzle-solver. "I didn't start out to be a crime writer," says Rankin, who was surprised to find reviews of his first novel, Knots and Crosses, under the Crime headings.

The author, whose family worked in the Fife coalmines, admits he only started to study police procedure when he was well into his career. His first experience of trying to learn protocol unfortunately coincided with the setting up of an Incident Room at Leith Police Station. "I became suspect 350 and spent more time answering their questions than they spent answering mine...," he said.

Tartan Noir
Rankin's gritty fiction, which probes the Edinburgh underworld and includes regulars from his favourite capital pub, the Oxford Bar, has been described as 'Tartan Noir.' The movement has won a large and growing readership, especially in America, where works by Val McDermid and Denise Mina have set the standard and achieved critical acclaim.

Mina's creation, female night-shift reporter Paddy Meehan, has become an identifiable character who transcends boundaries of gender and geography, following in the path of crime as it happens on Glasgow's mean streets. Mina's rise to prominence as a major writer began when doing a PhD at Strathclyde University. "Misusing her grant she stayed at home and wrote a novel, 'Garnethill' when she was supposed to be studying instead," claims her author's biography. The time was not mis-spent. The tome won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasy Dagger for the best first novel. She has recently been nominated for a prestigious Edgar (the writers’ Oscars) best Novel of the Year award for The Dead Hour. In 2006, she also won a Barry Awards for Field of Blood.

Kirkcaldy-born McDermid, who also enjoys a large American following, was the first student from a Scottish state school to win a place at St. Hilda's College, Oxford. Her first novel, Report for Murder, introduced the world to memorable lesbian journalist Lindsay Gordon and private investigator, Kate Brannigan.

Despite Rankin being described by the creator of LA Confidential, James Ellroy, as the 'king of Tartan Noir', other modern Scottish writers within the movement are making their mark. Greenock-born former school-teacher Lin Anderson had readers begging for more with her 2003 novel, Driftnet, which introduced the sexy, confident Rhona MacLeod, forensic scientist.

Anderson got the inspiration for the leading lady from a former pupil who went on to work for the Metropolitan Police in London in forensics.

"When I wrote the first line of Driftnet, 'The boy did not expect to die', I could hear the click of Rhona MacLeod's high heels as she approached the crime scene," she claims.

Music Hall Murders
According to the Public Lending Right Office, one of the reasons Scottish crime writing is soaring is that the authors enjoy a 'strong sense of place.' This is certainly true of Alex Gray, whose title, The Riverman, is book of the month for May at the bookseller, Waterstone's. Although regarded as part of the Tartan Noir stable, Gray chooses more unusual Glasgow settings in her plotting.

In Shadow of Sounds, she draws on her experience as a musician with the Battlefield Band and the City of Glasgow Chorus to revolve the action around the killing of a conductor in Glasgow Concert Hall. To ensure authenticity, she enjoyed a guided tour by the Hall staff. "I knew backstage was like a warren- but they showed me around and explained the technicalities of their jobs," she recalls.

Other backdrops for her page-turners have included a private clinic and the thriving Glasgow artistic community.

Gray, who wrote her first book, about a horse, aged 8, only returned to writing after being diagnosed with ME in 1992. Her creation, DCI Lorimer, has been described as 'Glasgow's answer to Rebus' and her fifth book in the series is scheduled for early 2008.

The surreal and comical Christopher Brookmyre, who claims to have been tortured by his love of St. Mirren Football Club, is another writer with a profound knowledge of his own city. Brookmyre fuses anarchic Glasgow humour and dialect with improbable crimes to offer readers a unique approach to the genre. He describes his books as 'escapist thrillers' and recalls how even his earliest writings raised eyebrows within the establishment. "I exasperated English teachers by habitually responding to one-page 'composition' assignments with 2000 word short stories, the content of which would have guaranteed weeks of 'counselling' and psychotherapy these days," he laughs.

Botswana to Beijing
Whilst opening the readers' eyes to a hitherto unseen Scotland has spelled success for the Tartan Noir authors, capital lawyer Alexander McCall Smith and Glasgow-born journalist Peter May have found rich pickings in Africa and Asia.

The charming adventures of lady detective Precious Ramotswe in solving the problems of Botswana have led to a publishing phenomenon. The dilemmas of Ramotswe and husband-to-be Mr JLB Maketoni of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors have enchanted readers and marked McCall Smith as one of the most successful Scottish writers working in any genre.

May, on the other hand, is lionised in Asia for his China Thrillers series. Detective Li Yan is the Rebus of Beijing, delving into murders such as the mysterious deaths of two Chinese Olympic athletes in the novel, The Runner.

The Final Scene
Scottish crime writing is undoubtedly enjoying a rise in popularity. This feature is just a snapshot of the Scottish talent already stirring things up. There are a plethora of names ready to join the elite macabre club of the Tartan Noir. Cutting-edge and realistic, littered with dark humour or charming and cultured. Scottish crime writing has never been so frighteningly good!

Further Information:

Courtesy of Scottish Government - Scotland.org .

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