ONE of Scotland’s leading crime writers, Denise Mina, is used to putting her fans through the wringer.
But it was her turn to feel the chill when she visited Edinburgh Castle to research a story.
She said: “My pal and I were given a behind-the-scenes tour to all the parts visitors don’t see, like John Maclean’s cell, wooden walkways above a sheer cliff and toilets that soldiers used which had an 80ft drop.
“It felt like a real honour and privilege that we got to see it.
“The guide also took us to David’s Tower, which is the oldest part of the castle.
“We went down this shoogly 50ft staircase. He told us it was safe but it was swinging.
“I’m not great with heights and I wanted to stop half way down and start crying. It was like gripping on to a cliff face.”
Denise, from Glasgow, was one of 12 Tartan Noir authors asked to write a story set in an iconic Scottish location for new book, Bloody Scotland.
The author – whose 21 books have sold millions of copies worldwide – said bad news was killing them off.
The rise of Donald Trump, terrorist attacks and mass shootings have left people yearning for “kind and gentle” books, he claimed.
The writer is on a global tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his famous fictional detective John Rebus.
But he said the bleakness of events worldwide was changing readers’ habits.
The 57-year-old author said: “Right now, the world seems so crazy and irrational that many novelists have difficulty trying to shape it into a coherent narrative.
The importance of Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics
“I tore through Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics over a weekend in 1973. At the time I was in my second year at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, studying English, which was in many respects a deeply conservative course. But after a friend lent me the book, it was as if an explosion had gone off in my head.”
