Heart of Stone Crimewriting Festival

01/06/2026

How fun!

28/05/2026

Five last-minute tickets for Opening Night released.

Due to demand, I’ve re-jigged ticket inventory and have taken five tickets away from the authors’ allocation, just for Friday night.

This is for our Opening Night Experience ticket — our most popular ticket type of the entire festival so far — and once these five are gone, that’s it.

The evening begins with The First Clue at 5pm, a fascinating double bill exploring the hidden secrets of handwriting analysis and the evolution of crime fiction itself. Kathryn Thorndycraft-Pope reveals how forensic document examination can expose deception, uncover alterations and detect details others miss, before Allan Martin takes audiences on a fast-paced journey from Sherlock Holmes to modern crime fiction and the detectives we still obsess over today.

Then at 8pm comes Trial by Jury — one of the most talked-about events of the weekend. Bestselling author Mark Bridgeman recreates a real-life murder trial live on stage, with the audience becoming the jury. Hear the evidence, debate the case and decide the verdict before the real-life outcome is revealed.

If you’ve been thinking about coming to Heart of Stone, this is an incredible way to experience opening night — but availability is now extremely limited.

28/05/2026

On Saturday night, award-winning writer Nina Allan joins Tariq Ashkanani and Ellen Dunne for Noir by Night, the brilliant literary finale to Stonehaven’s first ever crimewriting festival. Described as “one of the finest stylists of modern genre fiction”, Allan is renowned for uncovering “the strange within the ordinary with clarity and precision”, with work that has won and been nominated for major international awards. If you love dark, intelligent, atmospheric fiction and extraordinary storytelling, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

28/05/2026

History. Detectives. Secrets. Sleuths.
What good company you'll be in this Saturday afternoon! This is where Heart of Stone really starts to dig into the heart of crime fiction…

Our afternoon double bill explores both the enduring fascination of historical crime, and the detectives readers can’t stop coming back to.

🔎 The Past Is a Foreign Country…
Why are writers so drawn to the past?
Murder, mystery and intrigue collide as Douglas Skelton, Nancy Jardine, Lexie Conyngham and Chris Longmuir explore the enduring appeal of historical crime fiction.

🕵️ Watching the Detectives
What would happen if your favourite fictional detectives compared notes over a drink?
Join Deborah Masson, Marion Todd, Ewan Wallace and Allan Martin as they discuss creating memorable sleuths, long-running series and the detectives readers love to follow book after book.

From historical intrigue to modern investigations, this is a brilliant afternoon for crime fiction fans. There are a handful of tickets still remaining, but not for long. Book on EventBrite.

28/05/2026

Not him again! He’s a menace to society! And I LOVE THIS!!! X######x

28/05/2026

What are you doing Saturday night? 🕵️

Award-winning crime fiction. Live.
McIlvanney Prize winner Tariq Ashkanani joins a powerful line-up to explore creativity, storytelling and the darker edges of fiction.
This is your chance to hear from one of the most exciting voices in crime writing today.
Heart of Stone brings leading names in crime fiction to Stonehaven for a weekend of live interviews and unforgettable moments.
📍 All Artists Are Criminals… (to a degree.)
🕖 7:00pm Double Bill, Saturday May 30
🎟️ Don’t miss it.

26/05/2026

Ahh these two are great - please just do yourselves a favour and don’t miss them this Saturday at Heart of Stone. There may be a few tickets left

23/05/2026

You know that expression: “I guess you just had to be there.”?
Well, that’s what people are probably going to say about the first ever crimewriting festival in Stonehaven.
Even we, the organisers, can’t predict exactly what’s going to happen. These are live, authentic and unscripted conversations with real authors, real experts, real people.
There will be interviewers, yes, who will have jotted down some questions, but who knows where the answers will take them? Certainly not us!
If you’ve ever been to Granite Noir or Bloody Scotland, you’ll know what we mean about how immersing and unpredictable such conversations can get, and if you’ve never been to anything like this before – now’s your time to find out!
And with Heart of Stone, you get to be part of it. You get to ask questions, meet the authors, get your books signed, even be in a mock court case and offer your own verdict!
There’s a small handful of tickets left, and, spoiler alert, this is not just for crime fiction fans.
If you’re someone with a curious mind, a sense of fun or even just if you’re looking for something different to do at the weekend, then this festival has been created for you.
Heart of Stone Crimewriting Festival, May 29 & 30, 2026. You have to be there.

23/05/2026

Final tickets released: After so much interest in the crimewriting festival, we’ve taken a final tally of tickets and capacity and looked again at the venue layout. Some events are completely sold out, others still have a small number of tickets available but likely not for long. So if you’ve been thinking of coming along to any of these events, today really is the day to book as the festival’s opening night is less than a week away. Tickets are on EventBrite. If for any reason you’d prefer instead to have a non-digital ticket, please message us here on Facebook. Heart of Stone Crimewriting Festival - the first ever - exciting!