Had it not been for a friend who needed a babysitter for her guinea pigs, Emma Christie may never have set her fast-paced, original thrillers in sunny Portobello, Edinburgh’s much-admired coastal suburb.
“I’ve lived abroad mainly since I graduated in 2002, mostly in Spain and Latin America, except for a brief time when I came back to work in Aberdeen as a journalist,” she explains. “I’d had two books rejected and I was thinking it wasn’t going to happen, so I’d better move back home and find my life there. I didn’t know where to go, but a friend asked me to babysit her guinea pigs and she lived in Portobello, just a short walk from the beach. I didn’t even know there was a beach in Edinburgh, really, but when I got there, I thought: ‘This is where I want to be!’
“My first books, which had been rejected, had been set in Latin America, so my publisher had suggested changing the location to Scotland. I chose Portobello because by then I’d fallen in love with it. It was a chance to bring my work back home too.” At Bloody Scotland 2024 crimewriting festival, Ayrshire-born Emma joins Helen FitzGerald and Doug Johnstone for Capital Offences, a discussion about the role of Edinburgh’s mean streets and leafy surrounds in their crime novels.
Emma’s latest book is In Her Shadow, a thrilling story of revenge and betrayal. Her first, The Silent Daughter, was shortlisted for best Scottish crime debut and best crime book of the year at the 2021 festival.
“I absolutely love Bloody Scotland. It’s a real highlight in my year,” she says. “Being shortlisted for two prizes in 2021 was such a stand-out moment for me. The Scottish crime-writing community is growing and it’s opening up, too, in terms of genres – my books are more psychological thrillers, for example, and Suzy Aspley, who is up for the debut prize this year, her books have a Gothic style, while last year’s winner Callum McSorley’s writing is full of dark humour.
“It feels like there is a lot more space for different things in Scottish crime fiction.” Emma and her partner Mari, who is a yoga teacher, are currently touring Spain in their campervan while Emma works on her fourth book. “I wrote the whole of my third book in the campervan,” she says, laughing. “It seems to work well for me. I always wanted to be a writer but I didn’t really believe it was possible. I think the success I had, when I finally published my first book, was even sweeter because it had been such a long road to get there.”
She adds: “It still feels like a dream come true to go into bookshops and see my book on the shelves, and to be at Bloody Scotland with people like Helen FitzGerald and Doug Johnstone.”
Emma is, she adds sadly, no relation to her namesake, Agatha Christie. She says with a smile: “No, but it is the best name to have when you’re a crime writer. People looking for Agatha’s books find me accidentally, because I’m next to her on the shelf. I sit next to Agatha Christie, Lee Childs and Ann Cleeves, which is a really good place to be."
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