Allan Guthrie (born Allan Buchan; 5 June 1965) is a Scottish literary agent, author and editor of

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

. He was born in

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life. His first novel, '' Two-Way Split'', was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award, and it won the

Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award The Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is one of the UK's top crime-fiction awards, sponsored by Theakston's Old Peculier. It is awarded annually at Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of ...

in 2007. His second novel, '' Kiss Her Goodbye'', was nominated for an

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

, an

Anthony Award The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. Among the m ...

, and a

Gumshoe Award The Gumshoe Awards are an American award for popular crime fiction literary works. The Gumshoe Awards are awarded annually by the American Internet magazine ''Mystery Ink'' (not to be confused with Mystery Inc.) to recognize the best achievements ...

. Guthrie is part of a literary circle that includes

Ken Bruen Ken Bruen (born 1951) is an Irish writer of hard-boiled and noir crime fiction. Biography Education and teaching career Born in Galway, he was educated at Gormanston College, County Meath and later at Trinity College Dublin, where he earned a ...

Reed Farrel Coleman Reed Farrel Coleman (born March 29, 1956) is an American writer of crime fiction and a poet. Life and career Reed Farrel Coleman, the youngest of three boys, was born and raised in the Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, B ...

, and

Jason Starr Jason Starr (born 1966) is an American author, comic book writer, and screenwriter from New York City. Starr has written numerous crime fiction novels and thrillers. Starr's ''Tough Luck'', a novel published in 2003, was a Barry Award Winne ...

. Guthrie's books are published by Polygon, an imprint of

Birlinn Limited Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1992 by managing director Hugh Andrew. Imprints Birlinn Limited is composed of a number of imprints, including: *Birlinn, which publishes Sc ...

Novels

*''Two-Way Split'' (2004) *''Kiss Her Goodbye'' (2005) *''Hard Man'' (2007) *''Savage Night'' (2008) *''Slammer'' (2009)

Novellas

*''Kill Clock'' (2007) *''Killing Mum'' (2009) *''Bye Bye Baby'' (2010)

Available in ebook format

*''Killing Mum'' *''Bye Bye Baby'' and released in ebook format in Summer 2011 *''Two-Way Split'' Available in ebook format 1 September 2011 *''Slammer''

Prizes and awards

*2001 CWA Debut Dagger (nominee): ''Blithe Psychopaths'' (''Two-Way Split'') *2006 Mystery Writers of America Best Paperback Original Award (nominee): ''Kiss Her Goodbye'' *2006

(nominee): ''Kiss Her Goodbye'' *2006 The Mystery Ink Gumshoe Award (nominee): ''Kiss Her Goodbye'' *2007

(winner): ''Two-Way Split''

Digital publishing

On 1 November 2011, Allan Guthrie together with serial entrepreneur Kyle MacRae, launched Blasted Heath, the first digital-only Scottish publisher. All Blasted Heath

ebooks An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

were free from

digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...

(DRM) and were supplied in three file formats to ensure compatibility with all then current ebook readers.

PRC China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

works on the Kindle,

EPUB EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes styled ''ePub''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphones ...

with virtually all other readers, including Nook and

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

for computers and smartphones. The opening line-up of Blasted Heath titles included three crime novels by Ray Banks, Douglas Lindsay and Anthony Neil Smith. Also two debut novels, a cyber-thriller by Gary Carson and a novel for film lovers by movie critic Brian Pendreigh, were also available to buy. Blasted Heath closed doors on March 20, 2017.

References

External links

Official websiteHow to Publish an Ebook (in 9 Easy-to-Follow Steps)
Official site
Scots Author turns back on print to push ebooks
. The Daily Record, 1 November 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guthrie, Allan 1965 births Living people Scottish crime fiction writers People from Orkney Tartan Noir writers