Alan sets debut crime novel in his home town

‘Conversations with a Killer’ by Alan Ash, follows the story of a young boy with a taste for murder.

Much of the action takes place locally, with the grounds of the former Lennox Castle Hospital the scene of grisly killings.

The author’s work has been described as “a gripping read with a plot full of twists.”

Alan (61), who now lives in Stirling, told the Herald: “The book is not for the sqeamish.”

He added: “I was born and brought up in Lennoxtown and I know the area well. My mum and dad both worked at Lennox Castle Hospital.

“As a child, I played in the woods and forest around the hospital estate and swam in the River Glazert.”

Bishopbriggs also comes into the story, as well as Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison, where the reader is invited to delve into the mind of killer Nelson Harrop.

The author said: “Barlinnie is where the conversations with a killer begin. The book is about a boy who kills for the first time and then a second and third.”

Alan said his writing had been a hobby at first and it wasn’t until he came home from working as an engineer in the Middle East last year that he 
decided to try to get his book 
published.

The former Glasgow Caledonian University student now has two more crime novels in the offing. He also has a tale about his introduction to story-telling. He said: “I worked with a guy in the 80s at British Steel, at Tollcross, in Glasgow. We would sometimes read the newspapers and add our own tales to them.

“He then told me he had decided he wanted to become an author full-time. We only worked together for a few weeks. Then I discovered his book, The Wasp Factory had been published. He was the best-selling author Ian Banks.”

Conversations with a Killer published by Austin Macauley, is now in the shops. For more info, visit www.austinmacauley.com