For those who do not know my geographical background, I was born and raised in the West of Scotland before moving to Edinburgh in 2005. When I started writing, around 2011, I knew that my books would be set in Scotland’s beautiful capital city. So much has been been written about Edinburgh and some of the greatest crime writers have written novels based there, with one of the world’s best continuing to produce best sellers well after the main character’s retirement. In fact, when I tweeted about my Edinburgh based crime novel, a replier wished me luck and reminded me of the particularly large shoes I had to fill.
DI Joanne Christie is based at the Corstrophine Police Station, chosen as I passed there every day for many years on my way to work. I was also fascinated by the architecture of the building, which I think would make a great setting should anyone be interesting in televising the series…
After 15 years living in one of the world’s most endearing cities, we decided it was time to move to pastures new. With our hearts well and truly grabbed by Auld Reekie, we decided to stay within close proximity and chose the stunning East Lothian as our new home.
Around this time, I had noticed a request for short story submissions. There were two requirements, firstly it had to be set in Scotland and secondly it had to fit the banner of ‘Dark Fiction’. Now confession time from me, I had to Google ‘Dark Fiction’ as I had not heard of this particular genre. To my pleasant surprise, rather than a genre it is more an umbrella term for many genres which just happened to include crime fiction.
Deciding to embrace my new home county, I set my story in East Lothian. Famed for its coastline of sandy beaches and geologist’s rocky paradise, I knew that I wanted to capture some of that beauty and darkness. The slither of an idea was tumbling about the creative part of my little grey cells and very quickly ‘In Hiding’ was written. The story revolves around a doctor with an obsession with scalpels and an ex-offender hiding out in rural East Lothian. I submitted the story to Darkstroke books and a few months later, I received an e-mail confirming that it would be included within the anthology ‘Dark Scotland’.
Published on Burn’s Night this year, the anthology donates all proceeds to two Scottish based charities. Feedback so far has been incredibly positive and I am delighted with the end result. It did, however, leave me with somewhat of a conundrum.
Should DI Christie move to East Lothian with me…
Dark Scotland and the first 2 DI Christie novels are all available in paperback and eBook at Amazon. Links to the books are available in the ‘Books’ section of this website.
Ross Alexander Writer 