I was honoured to attend Noir At The Bar Dundee at The Braes Bar on Thursday evening, it was lovely to see a host of familiar faces and to feel at one with my tribe.  With the love of books as the thread that binds us.

Wendy Jones was the host and organiser of the event and with a plethora of talented authors, I knew I was in for a treat. Neil Broadfoot and Caroline Dunford were, unfortunately, unable to attend due to illness.  Mac Logan stepped in to save the day.

Each author gave a short bio and then read an excerpt from their latest novel with the order of events picked at random from a hat. The picker was then treated to a signed copy of that author’s book.

It was lovely to meet crime fiction blogger, Gordon from Grab This Book. I didn’t have a chance to have a proper natter, hopefully, some time in the future we will.

I hope you enjoy my photographs from the evening and please see everyone’s book links and info below.

Kelly xoxo

Toxic ~ click to order.

In the Scottish university city of Dundee, life and all its complications are proceeding much the same as usual. The recklessly brilliant DI Donna Davenport, struggling to hide a secret from police colleagues and get over the break-up with her partner, is in trouble with her boss for a fiery and inappropriate outburst to the press. DI Evanton, an old-fashioned, hard-living misogynistic copper has been newly demoted for thumping a suspect, and transferred to Dundee with a final warning ringing in his ears and a reputation that precedes him. And in the peaceful, rolling Tayside farmland a deadly store of MIC, the toxin that devastated Bhopal, is being illegally stored by a criminal gang smuggling the valuable substance necessary for making cheap pesticides. An anonymous tip-off starts a desperate search for the MIC that is complicated by the uneasy partnership between Davenport and Evanton and their growing mistrust of each other’s actions. Compelling and authentic, Toxic is a tense and fast paced crime thriller.

 

Devils Porridge ~ click to order.

Sixteen-year-old Munitionette, Sally, witnesses the saboteur escaping from the explosion at Silvertown Munitions Factory. When their paths cross again at Gretna Munitions Factory, he knows she can identify him, and that he dare not hesitate to kill again.

The explosion has set off a lethal chain of events, and when Policewoman Kirsty Campbell, and MI6 agent Beatrice, join forces to protect Sally, they find themselves following a murderous trail that entangles them with saboteurs, Irish revolutionaries, a German spy, and a plot to assassinate the King.

The body count is rising. The clock is ticking. And the stakes are higher than Kirsty could ever have imagined.

Wrong Kind of Clouds ~ click to order.

In Amanda Fleet’s debut thriller, The Wrong Kind of Clouds, Patrick Forrester is in trouble. Deep trouble. Someone wants him dead. In fact, lots of people want him dead, but one of them has taken him hostage. As he’s being bundled away, he manages to call his ex-lover, Summer Morris, and begs her for help…Summer Morris, an award-winning photographer with synaesthesia, hasn’t spoken to Patrick for months. With good reason. In fact, she would have been happy never to hear from him again. But, he begged her for help, so she’s trying to help. Along with an off-duty police officer, Detective Sergeant LB Stewart, she gets swept into Patrick’s world of lies and deceit, in a desperate race against time to find him alive. Trying to unpick the knot of Patrick’s life takes them from an affair that could help bring down a government, to the dust and heat of Malawi, and a whole heap of trouble in between. If only they knew who wanted him dead, they might find him alive. The trouble is, almost everyone wants Patrick dead.

‘Optograms’ – available to buy for just £7.95 (+ £1 P&P). ~  click here to DM and purchase.

Cross Purpose ~ click to order.

When Maggie Laird’s disgraced ex-cop husband suddenly dies, her humdrum suburban life is turned upside down. With the bills mounting, she takes on his struggling detective agency, enlisting the help of neighbour Big Wilma . And so an unlikely partnership is born. . But the discovery of a crudely mutilated body soon raises the stakes… and Maggie and Wilma are drawn into an unknown world of Aberdeen’s sink estates, clandestine childminding and dodgy dealers.. Cross Purpose is surprising, gritty, sometimes darkly humorous a tale combining police corruption, gangs and murder with a paean to friendship, loyalty and how women of a certain age can beat the odds.

 

Written In Bones ~ click to order.

When a body is found in a tree in The Meadows, Edinburgh’s scenic parkland, the forensics suggest the corpse has fallen from a great height.

Detective Inspector Tony McLean wonders whether it was an accident, or a murder designed to send a chilling message?

The dead man had led quite a life: a disgraced ex-cop turned criminal kingpin who reinvented himself as a celebrated philanthropist.

As McLean traces the victim’s journey, it takes him back to Edinburgh’s past, and through its underworld – crossing paths with some of its most dangerous and most vulnerable people.

And waiting at the end of it all, is the truth behind a crime that cuts to the very heart of the city…

 

Beneath The Skin ~ click to order.

A taxidermist with a secret. A soldier with nothing left to fight for. A mother determined to protect her young son. Together, can they fight a past that doesn’t want to let them go?

Taking a job in the studio of an Edinburgh taxidermist is probably not Walt’s wisest move. Already suffering from combat stress, and struggling to outrun the horrors of his time on the front line, he finds himself confronted by the undead on a daily basis.

His boss Alys and her sister Mouse are sharing a secret that is threatening to destroy them. When Mouse’s eight-year-old son disappears, can Walt find the strength for one more battle and finally lay the past to rest?
This compelling thriller peels back the skin of one modern family to reveal the wounds no one wants to see. It deals with the effects of trauma, and explores how facing up to vulnerability is sometimes the only way to let go of the past.

 

 

I don’t have a photo of Mac Logan on the night as I had to leave early to catch my train.But here is Mac at NATB Edinburgh a few months ago, here are the details of his latest book.

Dark Art ~ click to order.

In a world where nobody cares, no one is safe.

There’s a missing dossier to die for, literally … but where is it? Sam Duncan, Tonka and a feisty young woman risk all as they roam a gruesome world of violence, murder and duplicity in a quest for truth. In London, France, the Pacific Northwest and Scotland … nowhere is safe.

The trail leads to stratospheric worldwide corruption: politicians, officials, bankers, police, business people and gangsters … all lining their pockets at public expense. Scared criminals fight dirty. One moment Sam’s a hunter, the next, the hunted.

 

Thanks to everyone for making me so very welcome in Dundee, I hope its the first of many visits.

 

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