Excerpt: Truth Lies Bleeding by Tony Black

Tony Black, an Australian-born Scottish author and journalist, has come up pretty quickly in the crime-fiction world. Only a few years ago, he was freelancing for the British webzine, Shots, while working on another e-zine, the now sadly defunct Pulp Pusher, and scribbling away hopefully on his first novel, Paying for It. Few people were familiar with his name or work back then. That all changed with the 2008 publication of Paying for It, which introduced Black’s first series protagonist, loosely bound Edinburgh newspaper reporter-turned-part-time private eye Gus Dury.

Paying for It was soon followed into bookstores by Gutted (2009), Loss (2010) and Long Time Dead (2010). To further enhance his profile, the author last year placed an original Gus Dury short story (“Last Orders”) in The Rap Sheet and even appeared in a music video by James Grant, playing a troubled son to William McIlvanney (Laidlaw), the “Godfather of Tartan Noir.”

This year brings yet another novel from Black, but also a new series lead. In Truth Lies Bleeding, readers are introduced to Edinburgh Detective Inspector Rob Brennan, recently returned to work from psychiatric leave after the death of his brother. His superior hesitantly assigns Brennan to probe the case of a dismembered teenage girl found in an alleyway dumpster. It isn’t long before that investigation leads Brennan down a twisted path prominent with drug abuse, child abduction and professional hit men.

January has the excerpt.