OUR PANELS
Things That Go Bump
Michael J Malone, Matt Hilton and James Oswald talk to Caro Ramsey about all things dark and spooky £5
15.00 - 16.00
Keeping It Local
Meet up with Jackie Baldwin, Ann Bloxwich and Daniel Aubrey. What makes D&G the perfect place to write £5
12.00 - 13.00
From Prison To Page
MW Craven and Claire Wilson talk to Jacky Gramosi Collins about their careers from prison to page and beyond £5
16.30 - 17.30
Historical
Douglas Skelton, William Hussey and DV Bishop discuss their historical works and others. Moderated by JGC £5
13.30 - 14.30
Authors Dinner
Join your favourite authors for a delicious three-course meal, glass of wine, book and quiz. Part of the VIP ticket.
7.30 - 23.00
VIP Tickets
All four panels plus a ticket for the authors' dinner just £48
Please note the author's dinner isn't available as a single ticket.
Read More About Our Authors
Michael J Malone is the author of over 200 published poems, two poetry collections, fifteen novels, countless articles, and one work of non-fiction about successful Scots - Carnegie's Call.
Michael is an experienced workshop leader/creative writing lecturer to writers' groups, schools and colleges as well as a personal performance coach and mentor. He is also a Clinical Hypnotherapist and a Reiki practitioner.
He is a regular speaker and chair at book festivals throughout the UK- and has appeared at Aye Write, Bloody Scotland, Crimefest, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
His most recent novel is The Howling (Orenda Books) published 11.09.25
Matt Hilton is the author of thirteen high-octane Joe Hunter thrillers, and ten books in the Tess Grey and Po Villere thriller series. His first book, Dead Men’s Dust, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers’ Debut Thriller of 2009 Award, and was a Sunday Times bestseller, and was also a Kindle bestseller. He has also had a number of standalone thriller, horror and supernatural novels published including “The Girl in the Smoke”, “Wicked Jenny”, and his latest, “The Executioner Box”.
Matt is currently working on the third in his Cautionary Tales series of horror/thrillers. www.matthiltonbooks.com
William Hussey is the critically acclaimed author of over a dozen novels. Winner or the Genre Busting Book of the Year Fingerprint Award for Killing Jericho, he has also been shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, the CrimeFest Award, and the Polari Prize.Born the son of a travelling showman, he has spent a lifetime absorbing the history, folklore and culture of fairground people, knowledge he has now put to work in his Scott Jericho thrillers. William lives in Dumfries with his partner Chris and their criminally adorable cat Harry.
Daniel Aubrey is the author of the acclaimed Orkney Mysteries series. Dark Island, the series’ first instalment, was shortlisted for the McDermid Debut Award 2024 and the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize 2024. The sequel, The Dying Light, was published in June 2025. A former journalist living in Scotland, Daniel is obsessed with all things Orkney and holds an MLitt in Orkney and Shetland Studies from the Institute of Northern Studies in Kirkwall.
Multi-award-winning author M.W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle. He joined the army at sixteen, leaving ten years later to complete a social work degree. Seventeen years after taking up a probation officer role in Cumbria, at the rank of assistant chief officer, he became a full-time author. He is an instant Sunday Times bestseller and, for his Cumbria-set Washington Poe series, a recipient of the 2019 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger, the 2022 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2023 and the Fingerprint Award for Crime Novel of the Year 2025. The series has now been translated into twenty-nine languages.
Jackie Baldwin grew up in Dumfries and also lived in Moffat for a number of years. After studying law, she practiced in Dumfries for twenty years before retraining as a hypnotherapist. During that time, she wrote her first crime novel which was published in 2016. Since then, she has written a further seven books, the latest of which, Murder at the Wild Haggis Bookshop, is due out on 8th October.
Married, with two grown up children and a little grandson, Jackie loves roaming about the East Lothian countryside with her golden retriever, Lucy, or taking her for long walks on one of the many beaches. If you come across her in the wild she will likely be a combination of windswept, muddy, or soggy, with twigs in her hair.
Caro Ramsay's 18th novel, Where She Lies, will be published in hardback in August 2025, as well as the paperback of Out of the Dark. She has been short listed for the New Blood Dagger, the Guardian Audio book of the year, and long listed for the Theakston’s Crime Novel Of The Year. With four books in various stages of development - including plans for the return of Anderson and Costello - she's now stepping down from the day job.
Claire Wilson is a debut author from central Scotland. Five by Five was released in 2024 and has been shortlisted for the CrimeFest Debut Prize, Capital Crime Debut Fingerprint Award and the Bloody Scotland Debut prize. Five by Five was also longlisted for the CWA John Creasy Debut.
Claire is currently working on book two which she hopes to have news about soon!
Douglas Skelton is the author of numerous crime thrillers and non-fiction books. He has been a bank clerk, tax officer, shelf stacker, meat porter, taxi driver (for two days), wine waiter (for two hours), reporter, investigator and local newspaper editor. His writing has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize five times, most recently in 2024.
D. V. Bishop is the pseudonym of award-winning writer David Bishop. His love for the city of Florence and the Renaissance period meant there could be only one setting for his historical thrillers.
The first Cesare Aldo novel, City of Vengeance, won the Pitch Perfect competition at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival and the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Fiction Book. Book two in the series, The Darkest Sin, won the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger. Book Three, Ritual of Fire, won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.
D.V teaches creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University and lives in Scotland.
Ann Bloxwich a short, tattooed mum of four, with a penchant for cats, rock music and tea (strong, splash of milk, no sugar), and the author of the DI Alex Peachey series. She have two books published, both of which will soon be available in audiobooks, and am currently writing book three. She used to co-own a group of male strippers, but swapped the life of rubbing in baby oil to killing people on paper when she moved to Scotland, where she now writes full-time.
James Oswald is the author of fourteen novels in the Edinburgh-based Inspector McLean series. The most recent, The Rest Is Death, published in February 2025. He is also author of three Constance Fairchild books, No Time To Cry, Nothing To Hide and the latest, Nowhere To Run.
As J D Oswald he has written the five book fantasy epic, The Ballad of Sir Benfro, published by Penguin, and the gothic mystery Broken Ghosts, published by Wildfire in September 2024. In his spare time, James runs a 350 acre livestock farm in Fife, where he raises pedigree Highland cattle.
Dr Jacky Collins aka Dr Noir is a lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Stirling University. In 2014 Jacky established the International Crime Festival that is Newcastle Noir. With a keen passion for crime in translation, the festival regularly welcomes authors from the Nordic countries, Germany, France and further afield.
LP Mennock
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