April MysteryKIT - Tartan Noir

This month the challenge is to read noir from Scotland - tartan noir. Scottish authors are particularly good at writing dark mysteries.

Noir indicates a darkness in theme or topic. A typical protagonist of noir fiction is forced to deal with a corrupt legal, political or other system.

“In noir, everyone is fallen, and right and wrong are not clearly defined and maybe not even attainable.” — Megan Abbot

A search for the tag “tartan noir” on LT provides over 700 titles.

Some favourite Scottish noir authors are:

Ian Rankin
Stuart MacBride
Denise Mina
Christopher Brookmyre
Louise Welsh
Val McDermid
Peter May
William McIlvanney
Gordon Ferris
Ann Cleeves
Quinten Jardine
Iain Banks
T. Frank Muir
Lin Anderson

Don’t forget to add your reading to the wiki

I've read Ann Cleeves's Two Rivers series and some of the Vera books. Maybe it's time to start the Shetland series.

I am planning on reading Now We Are Dead by Stuart MacBride.

Oh, I'm so much looking forward to this topic! I have several choices and will probably choose something by Ian Rankin, Val McDermid or Peter May.

I'll be visiting my parents in April and will have to sneak a Denise Mina off their shelves while I'm there :)

I think I'll read Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin.

Oh, I have two on the tbr to choose from!

Blue Lightning / Ann Cleves
Conviction / Denise Mina

I have always wanted to try Ann Cleeves, but have never read her. Now looks like a good time to start :)

Not my regular reading area, so wondering if Edinburgh Twilight fits?

Does Hamish Macbeth fit in here? The novels by M.C. Beaton definitely feature flawed characters and law enforcement systems.

Ill be reading the next Stuart MacBride book, Blind Eye

>11 majkia: That is the book next up for me in the series. I read book #4 in 2015! I wonder if I will remember anything about the characters or past plot lines.

>12 lsh63: I dropped the series for a couple of years and restarted with the previous book a couple of months ago. I found I remembered enough to have no problems. Hope the same for you!

>9 JayneCM: Sounds like it would fit. It's a new-to-me author.

>10 LadyoftheLodge: Beaton included some dark details in her Hamish Macbeth stories. While not being classified as noir, I'd say it could fit this challenge.

>14 VivienneR: Thanks! I always enjoy the Hamish Macbeth novels.

I have never read Tartan Noir. What is a good book to start the journey. I have nothing on my shelves by any of the named authors.

Would Extraordinary People by Peter May count for this? The detective is Scottish but is working in France

I have a book by Denise Mina but it's not set in Scotland... will have to look again.

I listened to Paige Shelton on YouTube. The series was the Scottish Bookshop. Start with Book 1.
Yesterday, I started The Corpse Wore Tartan by Kaitlyn Dunnett. Story is based in Maine. I had it on my book shelf.

D'oh! Bad Planning. Why did I read an Ann Cleeves Shetland series book for February? The only other author here I own is a Val McDermid NOT set in Scotland. Hm ...

Has anyone listened to any of these on audiobook? I wouldn't mind reading off my shelves If I got to hear a Scottish accent for 10 hours.

I've started Blind Eye which so far is the best I've read of the Logan McRae series. It is just as ugly and noir as ever but the black humor has me laughing out loud amidst the horrors of Aberdeen's worst of the worst.

>18 Robertgreaves: Can't advise on that one, Robert. I haven't read it but it sounds noir-ish.

>22 majkia: Haven't read any Stuart MacBride but I have a couple on the shelf. I'm sold!

>23 VivienneR: Hope you like them. I finished Blind Eye and have to say it was very grim but that humor. Definitely not for the faint of heart though.

I don't have anything on my shelves to match this challenge.

I'll catch you all in May!

>25 fuzzi: Aw, too bad. That's what I find with ScaredyKIT, where I rarely have anything that fits even though I read a lot of mysteries.

I read a Hamish Macbeth novel entitled Death of a Perfect Wife.

>16 lowelibrary: You might start with the first of her Garnet Hill trilogy, Garnet Hill. It's really gritty and dark. I've also enjoyed the Alex Morrow series, starting with Still midnight. Her most recent ones are stand alones, and I haven't read any of them. I may need to remedy that this month.

I read Dark Blood by Stuart MacBride.
Grisly and violent but saved by abundant humour. I listened to an audiobook with fantastic narration by the author.

I found a tartan noir novella on Amazon for $0.99. This is my first trip into the genre. I am reading Cold Cuts by Douglas Lindsay.

I have completed my read of Now We Are Dead by Stuart MacBride. This book features DS Roberta Steele but is every bit as dark and noirish as his Logan McRae series.

I read Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin.
Soon after starting this one, I realized I had inadvertently skipped a couple of books in the series so missed Rebus' absence. I will have to go back to find out the circumstances but now that he has returned, Siobhan is his superior officer, a pleasant change, and Malcolm Fox, from the Complaints department, is working with them, another interesting change. As well as a suspicious car crash they are investigating a decades-old case of police misconduct. I'm very glad Rankin brought back the cantankerous Rebus.

I read Ann Cleeves's first Shetland quartet. Lots of tartan, not much noir.

>33 Robertgreaves: Too bad, Robert. The series is said to be noir but I guess opinions vary. I haven't read any myself, so can't comment.

I've finished Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin.

I read Raven Black as well, and though I have read a series of similar novels set in Minnesota, I wasn't impressed.

Like several others here, I opted to read an Inspector Rebus mystery by Ian Rankin. In The Falls, Rebus searches for a missing woman while his colleague Siobhan Clarke investigates an online game that may have a connection to the disappearance. This novel was a good choice for "Tartan Noir" as the setting of Edinburgh plays a significant role in the story.

May's thread is up!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/350254

Blue Lightning / Ann Cleeves
3.5 stars

On the “Fair Isle”, a part of the Shetland Islands, there is an observatory with a group of bird watchers in attendance. Police detective Jimmy Perez is visiting home with his fiancee, Fran. Jane is the cook at the observatory, which is also the place where most people stay when they come to the Fair Isle. Angela and Marshall run the observatory, and Marshall’s teenage daughter is also visiting. Unfortunately with bad weather, everyone is stuck with no way on or off the island. Then, someone is found with a knife in her back.

This was good. It is quite atmospheric, but in all honesty, I tend to tune much of that out. I did have a bit of trouble figuring out all the characters at the start of the book; it didn’t help that at least one of the characters (though I did eventually figure it out) was sometimes called by his first name and sometimes by his last (Jimmy Perez). Overall, though, the story ended up being good, and I liked it as much as the first in the series and better than the other two.

I listened to several of Ann Cleeves' Shetland series this month and enjoyed them. Raven Black, Red bones, Thin Air, Wild fire. I fell asleep to them at night, but was interested in the plot enough so that i also listened in the car.

Has anyone read Steve Burrows birding mysteries? They start with A siege of bitterns and are set in the same saltmarsh country as Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series. The first one won the 2015 Arthur Ellis award for best first novel (awarded by Canadian Crime Writers Association), but I see mixed reviews and am wondering what other readers think.

ETA some covers

I ended up with a Rebus too, Rather be the Devil, which cleverly linked a current murder enquiry with a cold case from Rebus' early detecting days.

Thank you to everyone who took part. I hope you enjoyed the challenge.

I'm not sure how 'noir' this is, but it's as far as I can go right now

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

I've never read any Scottish mysteries and decided to give Ian Rankin a try with Knots and Crosses. I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind reading more in the series, but am in no rush to do so.

I have one book borrowed from the library and didn't get to it. As long as I'm able to renew Where the Bodies are Buried by Christopher Brookmyre I'll read it for Bingo's Read a CAT square for this challenge.