Allan Guthrie Week: The Exit Interview

Secret Dead Blog: Sunshine, you’ve had quite the busy week. What’s been the highlight for you?

Allan Guthrie: Too many to mention. I did enjoy yesterday’s trip to Bolivia. La Paz reminded me a lot of Philadelphia (much warmer, though). Apart from that, I found a very nice bead shop in NYC. We don’t have too many bead shops back home, so that was fun. But the highlight has to be Thursday’s downpour which enabled me to carry my special umbrella around with me without arousing suspicion.

SDB: What was your favorite moment from Wednesday night’s panel? (I ask this not because I’m actually interested, but because I’ve failed to cover it on the blog this week, and I feel sort of guilty about that.)

AG: Ian Rankin answering, at length, your question about whether he would snort a dead relative.

SDB: All I can say is, the Scottish Book Trust plied me with scotch before the event. Anyway… in New York City, it was “Tartan Week.” In Edinburgh, is it ever “Stars and Stripes Week”? Or maybe even “Pole Day”?

AG: Not yet. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the latter before too long. Edinburgh has a very large Polish community and they like dancing. So perhaps Pole Dance Day isn’t out of the question.

SDB: Members of your newsletter know what’s next for you, novel and novella-wise, but why don’t you tell Secret Dead Blog readers, too? (And then admonish them for not signing up for your newsletter at allanguthrie.co.uk.)

AG: Hard Man is out in the US on June 4th. Then, on August 22nd, Barrington Stoke are kicking off a new series of books for adult reluctant readers called ‘Most Wanted’. I was commissioned to write one of these, which I called Kill Clock, in which, once again, Pearce is at the helm. Then in October, Polygon are releasing my next novel, Savage Night, which features (almost) all-new characters, focusing on the Park family (Park was a hit man who appeared in Kiss Her Goodbye. The new book is about his father, mother, brother and sister – an interesting bunch). Savage Night will be out next June in the US.

SDB: What about the admonishment? C’mon, you’re made of tougher stock than that. Threaten us. Show us who’s the real hard man.

AG: Threats are for pussies. If you’re hard enough, you don’t issue warnings.

And that brings a close to our Allan Guthrie Week, uh, festivities. Regular Secret Dead Blog programming will resume tomorrow. Whtever that means. Thanks to Sunshine for being a good sport, and may the City of New York forgive him.