Where to Start with Allan Guthrie
For readers new to Allan Guthrie’s razor-sharp Tartan Noir, the best starting point depends on whether you want to dive into a series or try a standalone punch to the gut:
- The Standalone Route (Recommended): Start with Two-Way Split (2004). Not only is it Guthrie's debut, but it also won the prestigious Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. It introduces you perfectly to his lean prose, Edinburgh setting, and morally gray characters.
- The Series Route: Start with Kiss Her Goodbye (2005), which introduces the recurring character Gordon Pearce. It is a bleak, emotionally intense noir that was nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Gumshoe awards.
The Pearce Series
The Pearce series features Gordon Pearce, a classic noir protagonist navigating Edinburgh's criminal elements. While the core series is short, there are some naming conventions and novellas to keep in mind:
- Kiss Her Goodbye (2005): The opening novel, where a career criminal deals with grief, guilt, and vengeance.
- Hard Man (2007) / Bad Men (2013): The second full-length novel. Note that Bad Men is not a sequel to Hard Man; it is a heavily revised and overhauled edition of Hard Man released by the author in 2013. You only need to read one of them, but the author recommends the 2013 version (Bad Men) for its polished narrative.
Pearce Series Tie-ins
- Kill Clock (2007): A fast-paced novella featuring Pearce. It was written for Barrington Stoke's "Most Wanted" series. In this story, Pearce is dragged into a high-stakes conflict involving loan sharks and a tight deadline.
- Hilda's Big Day Out (2012): A humorous short story narrated from the perspective of Hilda, a three-legged Dandie Dinmont terrier who also makes appearances in Hard Man and Kill Clock.
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
If you prefer to read Guthrie's standalone work in the order it was written, follow this sequence. Each book is a self-contained story exploring different corners of crime, punishment, and dark human impulses:
- Two-Way Split (2004): A heist gone wrong at an Edinburgh post office leads to a tense game of betrayal and revenge.
- Savage Night (2008): A brutal, fast-paced thriller driven by family drama, gang conflicts, and ruthless choices.
- Slammer (2009): A psychological prison thriller following Nicholas Glass, a newly minted prison officer who finds himself bullied by both guards and inmates in a violent facility.
- Killing Mum (2009): A dark comedy crime novella about Carlos Morales, a front-man for contract killers who receives a hit request targeting his own mother.
Clarifying the "Most Wanted" Collection
In various online catalogs, you will see a collection called the "Most Wanted Books" containing titles like Dead Brigade, Heroes, Revenge, The Chop, The Ghosts of 2012, and Stumps. It is important to know that Allan Guthrie did not write these books.
"Most Wanted" was a special publishing line by Barrington Stoke designed to offer short, high-interest, and accessible thrillers for reluctant or struggling adult readers. While Guthrie contributed the novella Kill Clock to this initiative, the other books in the line were written by authors like James Lovegrove, Anne Perry, Eric Brown, Graham Hurley, and Mark Morris. You do not need to read them to follow Guthrie's work.
Standalone Novellas and Stories
- Bye Bye Baby (2010): A bestselling police procedural novella featuring officer Frank Collins as he desperately searches for a missing boy.