Alan Parks

Alan Parks is a mystery and Tartan noir author from Glasgow though he was born in Elderslie Scotland. Parks went to the University of Glasgow from where he graduated with a degree in moral philosophy before he spent years working in the music industry. By the time he retired, he was Warner Music UK’s creative director in charge of fashioning campaigns for all manner of artists that included the likes of Cee Lo Green, The Streets, and New World Order. Thinking he was getting too old for the industry, he went back home to Glasgow and decided to write the history of his hometown hence his debut novel Bloody January. At first, he thought of writing a historical book but then reconsidered as he felt a crime fiction novel was the best way of showcasing the strata of society. With a noir, he could write of the gentry in the country houses to the homeless in the streets, from the poor to the rich that only seemed to come into contact with each other when violence, drugs or sex were involved. It made sense to make his central character a detective and hence he wrote a Tartan noir that combines crime and involves both halves of his city. Parks has been compared to the great Scottish author McIlvanney given the many similarities in their novels. Both authors portray the uncompromisingly realistic reality of the city with its corruption, its poor and its gangs. Their novels are also full of flawed characters with their willingness to compromise in matters to do with the law, their use of drugs and alcohol dependence.