Russel D. McLean

Russel D. McLean writes for Crime Spree Magazine, The Big Thrill, At Central Booking and Crime Scene Scotland. His short fiction has been published in crime magazines in both US and the UK. His debut novel is The Good Son.

From his Q & A with Sandra Ruttan at Spinetingler Magazine:

Sandra Ruttan: Describe the moment you fell in love with crime fiction.

Russel D. McLean: I don't know that I can point to a single moment. Like most things in life it happened almost by accident - - it’s in the same way I can't say when I stopped playing with GI Joes or reading The Beano.

I know that at some point in my later teens, my dad gave me Elmore Leonard novels (Mr Majestyk and Get Shorty stand out in my mind) and I read them and liked them. A lot. I sought out more books, got other recommendations and realised one day that I was picking up the crime stuff over and above my first love of science fiction.

So it wasn't a moment as much a series of discoveries that gradually resulted in a long standing love affair with the genre.

SR: In the UK the reign of Agatha Christie eventually gave way to the overwhelming popularity of police procedurals. There hasn't been a rich tradition of darker UK-based PI novels. What inspired you to write a PI novel that's set in Scotland?

RDM: I think I just loved PI novels. Matt Scudder, The Contintental Op, Nameless, Spade, Archer, Marlowe.... all these guys made a big impression on me. But I didn't think I could write a PI novel set in New York or LA or whatever because... because so many guys had done it better. To be honest, it wasn't until I...[read on]

Visit Russel McLean's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Son.

--Marshal Zeringue