‘I don’t like Jack Reacher that much’: Lee Child and fellow crime writers on their creations

John Connolly, Sarah Paretsky, Michael Connelly and more on a sometimes love/hate relationship

Whisky expert suggests Scotch may not have been invented by the Scots

Spirits writer Dave Broom presents The Amber Light, a film about the drink and its cultural significance

Kathy Reichs: ‘I’ll never put anything in just to be grisly’

After decades as a forensic anthropologist, Kathy Reichs decided to try her hand at fiction. But the woman behind ‘Bones’ has never lost her scientific edge

The Charlatans – Different Days album review: solid songs that will age well

Publishing Viagra? ‘I suppose it’s a flattering shorthand’

There’s more to LS Hilton and her writing than the ‘filthier Fifty Shades’ tag suggests

Novelist and poet who laid the groundwork for later success of Scottish ‘noir’ fiction

William McIlvanney: November 25th, 1936 - December 5th, 2015

Ian Rankin: ‘Rebus keeps surprising me’

What will become of the retired detective and his nemesis, Big Ger Cafferty. Will they fall into friendship or kill each other? Not even their creator, Ian Rankin, knows

New crime: Bosch and Rebus dust off their gumshoes

Crime reviews: Declan Hughes on the latest from Michael Connelly, Ian Rankin and JK Galbraith and a compendium of women crime writers

Obituary: Henning Mankell best known for Wallander series

Swedish writer captured a sense of melancholic struggle that echoed around the world

Review: Van Morrison

Ian Rankin is asking the questions; Marty Whelan is declaiming poetry; so what happens when Van eventually gets round to some music?

10 of the best: Scottish fiction

As Scots go to the polls to vote on independence, we select our favourite Scottish novels

Crime: Rebus returns to Edinburgh, Reacher returns to Washington

Ian Rankin’s ‘Saints of the Shadow Bible’ and Lee Child’s ‘Never Go Back’ are two of this month’s new thrillers

Weekend in... Edinburgh

The Scottish capital had moved on from haggis and fish supper, finds Susan Stellin

Latest Rankin book inspired by guitarist Rory Gallagher

Kickback City to be published as part of compilation album of rocker’s music