I made an astonishing discovery this morning in the shower.
Okay – stop sniggering at the back there.
What I realised was that this year marks the 25th anniversary of me having my first book published.
25 years.
Quarter of a century.
A silver jubilee.
A quadranscentennial. (What? It’s a word.)
I know! Unbelievable, right? And I’m only 40!
Coughs. Looks away. Has decency to look slightly shame-faced.
This year I’ll see my 17th book published.
It was in 1992 that my first true crime book, ‘Blood on the Thistle’, hit the shelves. It did fairly well, was released as a mass market paperback by HarperCollins a few years later. Was dramatized for the Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow.
It’s not available now and the rights have reverted to me.
It was followed later that year by ‘Frightener: The Glasgow Ice Cream Wars’, written with my pal Lisa Brownlie. That was the start of a ten-year odyssey for me as I became involved in the campaign to cast some light on a disturbing and horrific crime in 1984. Eventually two men were cleared by the appeal court but questions yet hover over the case – importantly, who did set the fire that killed six people, including an 18-month-old child? Sadly, we may never know even though I remain convinced someone, somewhere, knows the truth.
More true crime followed, ‘No Final Solution’ and ‘A Time to Kill’, ‘Deadlier Than the Male’, ‘Bloody Valentine’, ‘Scotland’s Most Wanted’. Most I’m happy enough with, one I’m really not (that’ll be the last one named. It’s not a book I’m terribly proud of, it was done purely for money and this is the most I’ve talked about it since the damn thing was written.)
However, I became totally disenchanted with writing about fairly recent true crime, largely thanks to ‘Scotland’s Most Wanted’. There were other books which were born directly out of ‘Deadlier than the Male’ and ‘Bloody Valentine’, which featured a number of historical cases. I discovered I was more interested in older crimes and so were born books like ‘Dark Heart’, the history of Edinburgh’s town jail, the Tolbooth, and ‘Glasgow’s Black Heart’, the story of Glasgow crime from 1800 onwards.
Then there was ‘Indian Peter’, which was more of an true life adventure tale than a crime story even though there was some courtroom drama.
And in between all those was one oddity – ‘Devil’s Gallop’. This was a tongue-in-cheek romp around Scotland telling tales both factual and mythical.
But then, in 2009, I stopped.
I’d gone about as far as I could, or wanted to, with the factual stuff. I was asked to do more, I’m still asked, but I’ve resisted.
What I really wanted to do was write fiction. Mind you, after ‘Frightener’, there were some Glasgow cops who believed I’d been writing that all along.
I’d been dabbling for years, of course, but nothing took. And it would take another four years before I broke into the market with ‘Blood City’, the first in the Davie McCall quartet. Or quadrilogy, if you prefer.
Now I’m looking forward to the publication of my sixth novel, TAG – YOU’RE DEAD, which is the second Dominic Queste thriller. It’ll be out in April, by the way.
25 years.
That’s five lustrums, if you know your John Wayne films (see ‘Rooster Cogburn’).
Will I manage another quadranscentennial? (It’s still a word, at least according to the interweb thingy).
I’ll take two aspirin and you can ask me in the morning.