Twelve years since her first novel was published, Leigh Russell has established herself as one of the UK's leading crime authors, selling almost two million books. She's published fourteen novels in her Geraldine Steel series, and successfully launched two spin-off series too. As Leigh admits in her inspirational interview with Adrian and Rebecca, she's probably made every mistake there is to make, but her passion for writing is undimmed. 

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In the past few years Tartan Noir has become one of the dominant forces in UK crime fiction, with Ian Rankin and Val McDiarmid leading the charge up the charts. At the core of this movement is the Bloody Scotland festival, now entering its tenth year. With its two major awards, the McIlvaney Prize and the Debut award, Bloody Scotland has helped launch the careers of some of the most innovative and successful authors in the world. Bob McDevitt is the festival director, and he joins Rebecca and Adrian to explain the challenges of keeping the festival alive during the pandemic, whilst continuing to expand the influence of the Bloody Scotland organisation. 

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How difficult is it to master a new genre when you've built your writing career around another? That's the challenge that faced our guest on The Hobcast Book Show this week, Terri Nixon. She publishes Crossfire with Hobeck Books this week, after establishing herself as one of the leading authors in the UK of family sagas. She's also a leading fantasy writer. So what made her add crime to her portfolio of genres? 

Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca reflect on some key issues making waves in publishing, including an apology from the Old Peculier Crime Writing festival in Harrogate for failing to include any female authors of colour on their festival programme. There's further good news for Hobeck author Mark Wightman, and Adrian reveals how Martina Navratilova once shared details about her love life while they commentated together at Wimbledon for the BBC. All that and more in the Hobcast.

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In this week's episode, we hear again from Jenny Parrott in the second part of an interview first featured in episode 17 of The Hobcast Book Show from Hobeck Books, and discuss the impact of technology on the publishing industry, and what it means for authors. Adrian and Rebecca reflect on the growing campaign from literary agents for a fairer deal for their clients from audiobook royalties, and they discuss how losing the internet for 24 hours had some unexpected benefits.

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This week, The Hobcast Book Show speaks to Alison Morgan on the eve of the publication of the second of her Quirk Files Series novel, Throttled. What are the challenges to overcome second time around? How has she avoided the pitfalls of sequel syndrome? And what obstacles has Alison faced narrating the first novel in the series, Over Her Dead Body? Adrian and Rebecca also discuss the exciting news that Mark Wightman's debut Hobeck novel Waking The Tiger has been long-listed for the prestigious McIlvaney prize for best Scottish Crime novel, and reveal the challenges and opportunities that accolade has brought Hobeck Books this week.

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