James McCrone - "Bastard Verdict"
Dear Reader-
I love being able to shop and talk about books, writing and characters with Jerry at the Cloak & Dagger over the years. So, I’m thrilled to be back, launching Bastard Verdict, a new political thriller set in Scotland.
Bastard Verdict weaves high stakes and low politics into a noir tale of power, loss and Faustian bargains. A second Referendum on Scottish Independence approaches and desperate conspirators panic over whether their meddling in the first referendum will be exposed, with deadly results.
The cover-up may in fact be worse than the original crime. But it was sewed up tight—until FBI Agent and elections specialist Imogen Trager (on leave in Glasgow) started digging into it. To find the truth, Imogen will risk everything—her reputation, career, and possibly her life. None but a very few know the truth. And those few need it to stay hidden. At any cost.
This is the kind of book I’ve been wanting to write for years, and I’m thrilled that it’s finally coming out. To get the details right for this thriller, I drew on my boyhood in Scotland, and I scouted locations for scenes of murder and mayhem in the book while attending the Bloody Scotland crime writing conference in 2019 and again in ’22.
It’s a bit of a homecoming for me. My brother and I call the summer we returned from Scotland (to Iowa City) “the summer of what.” No one, it seemed, could understand us. It was strange to be “back home” in Iowa, among old friends, but still, neither fish nor fowl–our Scottish friends had heard only our American accents, and our Iowa friends couldn’t penetrate our new, Scottish accent. On the great plains, our cadence gradually (re)flattened, and words like “skint” and phrases like “didja aye?” faded.
But not my memories of how the place felt, the smells, the weather, the people. I chose Imogen as my protagonist in Bastard Verdict—herself neither fish nor fowl—as she investigates many of the questions raised in Scotland at the time of the 2014 referendum. And still not answered.
I hope you enjoy this “wee-bit” insight into Scottish political history wrapped up in a mystery thriller.
-James McCrone
A NOTE ON THE TITLE. For those not familiar, bastard verdict refers to Scottish law’s third verdict in a criminal trial, Not Proven. In addition to Guilty and Not Guilty, Scottish law has Not Proven, which has come to mean that the jury (or a judge in special cases) believes that the defendant is guilty but The Crown has not provided sufficient evidence.
In 1827, Sir Walter Scott branded the Not Proven verdict as “the bastard verdict.”
Bastard Verdict is James McCrone’s fourth novel following a critically acclaimed political thriller series which includes—Faithless Elector, Dark Network, and Emergency Powers—centering around a stolen presidency.
His short stories have appeared in Rock and a Hard Place; Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon, and in the short-story anthology Low Down Dirty Vote, vols.2 and 3.
He’s a member of Mystery Writers of America, International Assoc. of Crime Writers, Philadelphia Dramatists’ Center and he’s the vice-president of the Delaware Valley Sisters in Crime chapter. A Pacific Northwest native, he lives in South Philadelphia with his wife and three children.
Follow James on these Social Media channels:
Website: http://bastardverdict.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FaithlessElector
Twitter:- https://twitter.com/jamesmccrone4
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.mccrone