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[Photo Credit: © Jerry Bauer]

Despite the fact that he was deep in the edits for his fourth Logan MacRae story, the bearded MacBride was happy (yes, granted, this is an assumption on the part of the witness, m'lord) to answer our questions. I'm certainly happy about it, because he's become one of my favorite crime writers and he's every bit as sharp when writing about himself. Rumor has it that he's capable of feats of comedic brilliance in person...but until I make it to Aberdeen, I'll have to trust the comments in his blog. By the way, Congrats on the Crime Writer's Association Dagger award, Stuart, and commiserations on the Theakstons Old Peculier award. But really, that was only money, and I promise I'll stand you to a beer or three next time I'm in your cold, dreary, delightful, Aberdeen.

GUMSHOE: In Dying Light we saw Detective Sergeant Logan moved from Detective Inspector Insch's crew to that of the lovable DI Steel's, aka the 'Home of Mr. Fuck Up.' At the time it seemed like a real step down, but in Bloodshot it's less clear that Insch is any better than Steel. Sure he's an obese prima-donna with a knack for solving crimes and an addiction to sweets, and she's a slovenly lesbian slacker dying for a smoke...but they both make Logan do the real work and in Bloodshot they get to tag team him. So, really would getting back to his old spot help him any? Is he pretty permanently done, or does he have a shot at DI someday? Fun as watching him battered around by criminals and supervisors alike, it would be good to see him doing something that acknowledges his talents.

STUART: Well, that's the beauty of a series – the characters get to grow as the books go on. So who knows, maybe Logan will end up as Chief Constable some day? I bloody doubt it though… There is talk of promotion in BOOK NUMBER THE FOURTH, but my lips are sealed until it's published.

GUMSHOE: Considering his life was screwed over by events beyond his control, Logan seems pretty focused on the here and now of crime solving. Isn't rage in his nature?

STUART: Why would rage be in his nature? Logan isn't a maverick, lone wolf, brooding vigilante kind of detective, he's just a regular, every-day guy doing his best in a pretty difficult and often dangerous job. Which is why I like writing about him.

GUMSHOE: Fess up. The Star Trek collection that turns up in the IT wonk's flat is a copy of yours...isn't it?

STUART: Ah, the world-of-geek scenes… Sorry to disappoint you, but that's actually based on a friend of mine. I've exaggerated his collection a little bit, but not much. In real life he's so OTT that I had to split him in half: there are two characters in Broken Skin based on him. I thought if I put him in as he really is, no one would believe it.

GUMSHOE: You're a pretty funny guy. I know, because I read your blog and there's no getting around it, you've got a well developed sense of humor. Possibly Pythonesque, or maybe it's just that you all look alike to us. No, not really. But it got me to wondering why there's not more humor in your books. Face it. Logan could use a good laugh now and then, but no...he just gets more work DIs should be doing piled on him and more weirdness thrown into his relationships.

STUART: Nah, Logan gets plenty of laughs, usually taking the piss out of people like PC Rickards, and the Bastard Simon Rennie. Unfortunately with DI Steel around, he tends to be the butt of her jokes. When I write the books I try to make sure that the police behave like real people, instead of nights in shining armour (even ones who say 'Ni!'), so they deal with stressful situations by making off-colour jokes and winding each other up.

GUMSHOE: Speaking of which, is he going to let that thing he thinks his gal did drop, or is he going to have to come to terms with it in the next book?

STUART: You're going to have to read the fourth book to find out.

GUMSHOE: You went to University to study art, but it didn't agree with you, so you went to sea, or at least to work on oil rigs in the North Sea. That sounds like fun, in a weird sort of way. What did you get out of it, besides the ability to swear nonstop for weeks on end? Is there any chance Logan will get to take advantage of your experience or is it too far outside his jurisdiction?

STUART: Architecture, not art – I think I would have been a lot happier at university if I'd gone to study art. Architecture was a miserable experience. I'm planning on doing an offshore book with Logan, because the oil rigs in the North Sea fall under Grampian Police's jurisdiction. Whenever something nasty happens out there in the middle of nowhere, it's a bobby from Aberdeen who goes to deal with it. Plus it's a good excuse to do something very claustrophobic and nasty.

GUMSHOE: So after you got through with the fast life of a high paid oil rig worker you fell in with bad company...IT folks. How long did it take you to go from website designer to IT manager and have you escaped from it all to write full time, or won't the greedy glowing boxes let you go?

STUART: A couple of years. Programming was a lot more fun than the management stuff. Being a project manager for a large IT company is a bit like being the valve in a septic tank – you get all the shit that rains down from management, and all the shit that bubbles up from the team as well. Fun, fun, fun. But I managed to escape all that: I've been a full time write-ist since the first of January this year.

GUMSHOE: Once you decided you were going to write a novel, how did things go? How hard was it to place the first book, and what's your relationship like with your editor?

STUART: My first book was a complete disaster and it'll never see the light of day, but I really enjoyed writing it. There's something very satisfying about finishing your very first novel. But it's a lot more important to write the next one, and the one after that. Cold Granite was actually the fifth book I'd written (though HarperCollins were thinking about publishing my third one) and I think it's a better book for having had all that practice before hand.

I'm very lucky with my editorial team – they're both incredibly smart and very well read. I've got a lot of respect for them and their input.

GUMSHOE: There's something very reassuring about the portrayal of police in the UK and the rest of the no longer exactly an empire that's missing from the American scene. Logan's pretty egoless, but Insch and Steel more than make up for that, so I'm not quite sure that I can put my finger on it. Civility? Do you have any thoughts on that, and does everyone really put on tea whenever a policeman enters the room?

STUART: The whole tea thing is a kind of cliché from the telly, but it's become so ingrained in the nation's psyche that it really does happen. Police officer in your house? Better get the kettle on then. The absence of guns is probably a big part of it as well – it's much easier to accept someone into your home when they're not toting a weapon.

GUMSHOE: How does the Aberdeen constabulary feel about it's portrayal in the books. You can speak freely here, honest. I'm sure it won't get back to them.

STUART: It wasn't till the second book came out that I started to get feedback from the police – emails and comments on the website – and it's all been pretty good. I think they like that they come off like real people, rather than something off the BILL. Then only negative comment I heard was passed on to me by a friend in the force; he'd been talking to a colleague about the books and the other guy was complaining that Cold Granite was full of factual inaccuracies.

"Oh," says my friend, "Like what?"
"Well… he says there's a coffee machine on the third floor. There's no coffee machine on the third floor!"

GUMSHOE: How do people feel about the CCTV network across the UK? As a crime writer, does it make your job harder as it makes the police's easier?

STUART: It complicates some things, and makes other things easier. I've been in to see the CCTV network control and it's very interesting what they can and can't pick up. But as I'm writing fiction, I can skew reality to fit what I want to do with the story.

GUMSHOE: We like to ask questions about who you like to read, but since you've made an total git of yourself going on about R.D. Wingfield (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WYhvFuImOc) on the telly I suppose there's no point. Who am I kidding? Please tell us, in fullish detail, who your literary muse(s) are(were), whether you were a reader as a child, and what you're reading now.

STUART: "Total git"? Jesus, you sure know how to flatter a guy, don't you?

I read extensively as a child, pretty much everything I could get my hands on. I've been a reader all my life, strangely it's a lot more difficult for me to find time to read now that I'm a writer than it was before. Now I enjoy people like Mark Billingham, Allan Guthrie, John Rickards (yes, he is real), Charlie Williams, Reginald Hill, and the godmother of crime: Val McDermid. And the great thing about being a writer now is that I've had the opportunity to meet them all, and they're really nice people. R.D.Wingfield's final Frost book will be publish posthumously early next year, and while I'm really looking forward to reading it, it's a terrible shame he's not going to be around to write any more. He remains for me the best crime writer the genre has ever seen.

GUMSHOE: You mentioned that you got into writing because your friends were doing it and the peer pressure got to you. Who were they and are they now groveling at your feet?

STUART: Nope.

GUMSHOE: Whither next? I mean after the pub, unless that's an integral part of the writing process. Are you going to keep on going with Logan's run, or do you have some other stories on the burner?

STUART: Well, there's going to be another three Logan books – the one I'm editing at the moment and two others – and after that I really fancy doing a standalone. I enjoy writing the Aberdeen books, but it'd be nice to try something different every now and then. Who knows, maybe I'll finally manage to produce two books a year?