Books Books Books!

YESSSSS!!!

My new project officially starts this month, whoo-hoo!!

I am so ready to get started. I have so many things in the pipe line, I want to be organised so I don’t miss anything out. Trying not to get overly excited and just loose track. So for now I have just been sketching out ideas for lino prints, just thinking about it all and of course reading!

So let’s talk books... The books I have chosen to focus on for this project have been chosen because for the last year or more I have enjoyed reading them so much. I love a series too, if you find a good one its like bingeing on Netflix, your just straight onto the next episode and the next. Sometimes waiting for the next book in the series is hard because let’s face it these things take time, unless your JD Kirk of course he churns them out so fast I can hardly keep up with them. This particular project though, if I think back 9 or 10 months to when the idea first came to me, was because of the incredible book ‘The Blackhouse’ by Peter May. I had read the book, the whole trilogy actually. I loved it, its brilliant you must read them if you haven't already.

Anyway when I really get into a book I want to know more, I investigate places that feature in the book, facts that may be based on true events or real objects. From this I may make a print or create something with clay or play around on the VR with tilt brush. In this case I created a Blackhouse on my VR headset, bringing to life a scene in the book I had visualised while reading it. I am very visual in my mind and to me reading a book can be like watching a movie in my head. So here I am in my Virtual Reality Blackhouse and I just had this urge to create more and bring books to life, celebrate how much we connect with books, experience them differently and how we each visualise what we read. I wanted to take what my mind was creating whilst reading books and bring it to life. Through that, this project came about I am hoping all fellow book lovers get this and share the excitement! I want to hear from you all along the way and see what you all think about these books, hear how you imagine scenes or if you like to investigate further into the stories as I do and hear your favourite Authors or book recommendations too 😊

Here is a list of the books that ill be getting inspiration from (not every book will be featured, but here they are as a series) if you want to revisit them or read for the first time. Comments are encouraged :) love a good book discussion! Some of these books are set locally for me, featuring Keiss, Dunnet Head, Wick, Lybster, and more. How fun is it reading books set in areas we live or can relate to!

JD Kirk

The DCI Logan Crime Series

1 A Litter of Bones (2019)
2 Thicker than Water (2019)
3 The Killing Code (2019)
4 Blood and Treachery (2019)
5 The Last Bloody Straw (2020)
6 A Whisper of Sorrows (2020)
7 The Big Man Upstairs (2020)
8 A Death Most Monumental (2020)
9 A Snowball's Chance in Hell (2020)
10 Ahead of the Game (2021)
11 An Isolated Incident (2021)
12 Colder than the Grave (2021)
13 Come Hell or High Water (2021)
14 City of Scars (2022)
15 Here Lie the Dead (2022)
16 One For the Ages (2023)
17 In Service of Death (2023)

Peter May

The Lewis Trilogy

1 The Blackhouse (2011)
2 The Lewis Man (2011)
3 The Chessmen (2012)

Standalone books:

1 Coffin Road (2016)

Neil Lancaster

DS Max Craigie Crime Series

 1. Dead Man's Grave (2021)
 2. The Blood Tide (2022)
 3. The Night Watch (2022)
 4. Blood Runs Cold (2023)

Ian Rankin

Inspector Rebus

 1. Knots and Crosses (1987)
   2. Hide and Seek (1990)
   A Good Hanging (1992)
   3. Tooth and Nail (1992)
     aka Wolfman
   4. Strip Jack (1992)
   5. The Black Book (1993)
   6. Mortal Causes (1994)
   7. Let It Bleed (1995)
   8. Black and Blue (1997)
   9. The Hanging Garden (1998)
   10. Dead Souls (1999)
   10.5. Death is Not the End (1998)
   11. Set in Darkness (2000)
   12. The Falls (2001)
   13. Resurrection Men (2001)
   14. A Question of Blood (2003)
   15. Fleshmarket Close (2004)
   16. The Naming Of The Dead (2006)
   17. Exit Music (2007)
   18. Standing in Another Man's Grave (2012)
   19. Saints of the Shadow Bible (2013)
   In the Nick of Time (2014) (with Peter James)
   The Beat Goes On (2014)
   20. Even Dogs in the Wild (2015)
   21. Rather Be the Devil (2016)
   Long Shadows (2018) (with Rona Munro)
   22. In a House of Lies (2018)
   23. A Song For the Dark Times (2020)
   John Rebus: A Mysterious Profile (2022)
   24. A Heart Full of Headstones (2022)
   A Game Called Malice (2023) (with Simon Reade)

Christopher Brookmyre

 Standalone books:

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night (1999)

Jack Parlabane

1 Quite Ugly One Morning (1996)
2 Country of the Blind (1997)
3 Boiling A Frog (2000)
4 Be My Enemy (2003)
5 Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (2007)
5.5 The Last Day of Christmas (2014)
6 Dead Girl Walking (2015)
7 Black Widow (2016)
8 Want You Gone (2017)