Tartan Noir

Tartan Noir is a form of crime fiction particular to Scotland and Scottish writers. It has its roots in Scottish literature but borrows elements from elsewhere, including from the work of James Ellroy and the hardboiled genre. The name itself was coined by Ellroy, who called Ian Rankin "the king of tartan noir" for a book cover.

Christopher Brookmyre, Quite Ugly One Morning (1996)

Hard-living, Scottish investigative journalist Jack Parlabane stumbles upon the body of the scion of a wealthy Edinburgh medical family and embarks on a wild and dangerous probe to get to the bottom of the murder, in an entertaining and witty mystery. Other titles include Country of the Blind and One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night.

Allan Guthrie, Kiss Her Goodbye (2005)

Accused of murdering his wife and daughter, Joe Hope, an enforcer for a notorious loan shark, will stop at nothing to prove his innocence, and, with the help of Scotland's hardest men and one woman, exacts deadly revenge against the man responsible for these crimes. Other titles include Hard Man and Savage Night.

Quintin Jardine Dead and Buried (2006)

Jardine's long-running series features Bob Skinner, a high-echelon cop in Edinburgh. In Dead and Buried, Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner has a failed marriage on his hands, a death on his conscience, and little time to deal with either. He's facing the biggest challenge of his career -- within the secret corridors where dark power is wielded.

Paul Johnston Water of Death (2001)

A futuristic mystery novel by the author of Body Politic takes readers into the heart of Edinburgh in the year 2025 to find a city plagued by global warming, water rationing, and a new disease, murder, with which subversive investigator Quintilian Dalrymple is called in deal.

Bill Knox The Hanging Tree (1984)

Superintendent Colin Thane investigates when an innocent victim of an armed robbery turns out to have been carrying pirated videotapes of a popular new United States movie.

Stuart MacBride, Cold Granite (2005)

Returning to duty after a nine-month recuperation from being stabbed in the abdomen by a murder suspect, Detective Sergeant Logan McRae of the Aberdeen CID immediately becomes involved in the ritualistic murder of a three-year-old boy, whose body is found months after being reported missing, a case complicated by the disappearance of another child. MacBride's most recent book is Flesh House.

Val McDermid, A Darker Domain (2009)

The prolific McDermid has several different series set in Scotland (lesbian journalist Lindsay Gordon; private investigator Kate Brannigan; and psychologist Tony Hill). Her newest, Darker Domain, is a stand-alone. More than twenty years after the 1984 national miners' strike in Scotland, Cold Case Review Team Inspector Karen Pirie stumbles across dramatic new evidence that links the cases of a missing strikebreaker and a kidnapping gone wrong.

William McIlvanney Laidlaw (1977)

William McIlvanney has written three detective stories featuring the same main character: Detective Inspector Jack Laidlaw. The novels are Laidlaw (1977); The Papers of Tony Veitch (1983) and Strange Loyalties (1991). The first concerns the search for the brutal murderer of a Glasgow teenager. This novel is considered the first 'Tartan Noir' and is cited as being the inspiration for the Rebus novels by Ian Rankin.

Denise Mina Resolution (2001)

Blending suspense, compassion, raw instinct, and grim wit, Denise Mina's Resolution completes her compelling Garnethill trilogy. In her gripping new crime novel, Mina returns once more to the seamier precincts of Glasgow and the untidy world of the hapless but resolute Maureen O'Donnell. Violence hovers in the most familiar precincts of Maureen's Garnethill, and Denise Mina once again proves herself to be an award-winning writer. Denise Mina has written another three novels featuring her character Patricia "Paddy" Meehan, a Glasgow journalist.

William Paul Sleeping Pretty (1996)

Edinburgh Detective Chief Inspector David Fyfe joins forces with an attractive young female detective to investigate a baffling murder-suicide in a local village. By the author of Sleeping Dogs.

Ian Rankin Knots and Crosses (1987)

In Edinburgh, Detective Rebus must put together conflicting clues to find a psychopathic killer and finds his own life threatened. Ian Rankin's iconic Rebus character has almost single-handedly brought about the rebirth of Scotland's hardboiled tradition. The final novel in the long series is Exit Music (2008).

Manda Scott Hen's Teeth (1999)

The death of her former lover, Bridget Donnelly, leads Glasgow psychiatrist Kellen Stewart to Bridget's country farmhouse on a wild chase after stolen hens, stolen corpses, lethal eggs, and a miracle drug that is actually a recipe for death. Scott is also the author of the "Boudica" historical series.

Peter Turnbull The Killing Floor (1995)

Peter Turnbull's Glasgow-based P Division crime novels have earned him a reputation as the best British author writing in this genre. In The Killing Floor, an understandable error by a motorist leads to the discovery of a decomposed headless and handless corpse in the garden of a house in one of Glasgow's more prestigious suburbs. For Glasgow's P Division, the first task is to identify the body -- an identification which reveals a person with a talent for making enemies.

Irvine Welsh Crime (2008)

Suffering a mental breakdown in the wake of a devastating child-murder case, Detective Inspector Ray Lennox of the Edinburgh PD takes a recuperative vacation in Miami, where he struggles with addiction and gnawing suspicions about a ten-year-old girl.

Louise Welsh The Bullet Trick (2006)

Delighted when his agent books him for a series of Berlin cabaret appearances, mentalist and conjurer William Wilson soon finds himself in over his head thanks to some dangerous after-hours work and dark secrets from his past. By the author of The Cutting Room.

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