Dunedin crime fiction fans will be treated to three of the best tonight.
University of Otago Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies co-director Liam McIlvanney will host fellow "Tartan Noir" literary heavyweights Val McDermid and Craig Robertson for a discussion on the art of darkness.
Both panellists, as well as being best-selling authors, have another thing in common: a background in journalism.
Robertson had a glittering 20-year career during which he interviewed three prime ministers and covered 9/11 as well as the Omagh bombing.
McDermid — who this year marked 35 years since her first novel was published — spent 16 years in the newsroom.
The job had taught her how to be a disciplined writer and introduced her an array of human life, she said.
"I met all sorts of people, from Prince Charles to homeless ... and I saw them in different environments," she said.
"When I need a character, I thumb through the mental card index in my head."
Often billed as the "Queen of Crime", McDermid recently revealed she had been threatened by a legal team representing Agatha Christie’s estate, which said the phrase had been trademarked.
She laughed it off as "a storm in a tea cup" and said she had a few T-shirts printed which nimbly side-stepped the issue.
They were emblazoned with: "Quine of Crime" ("quine" being an old Scottish word for woman).
Prof McIlvanney put the growing love of Scottish crime writing down to its rich history, which features authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson.
"It’s a very, very long tradition of literature that reflects in an interesting way on questions of revenge and death and violence and bloodshed and mayhem," he said.
He expected a robust and wide-ranging chat about the evolving genre.
"We’ve got two of the most critically acclaimed crime writers here in Dunedin so it should be a cracker," Prof McIlvanney said.
Two may be an understatement.
Prof McIlvanney was yesterday announced as a finalist for the McIlvanney Prize — an award named after his late father William and one he won in 2018 for The Quaker.
The free event takes place today at 5.30pm at the University of Otago’s Archway 1 lecture theatre.
