Hugh Crauford Rae was a son of Isobel and Robert Rae. His father was a riviter. He published his first stories aged 11 in the Robin comic, winning a cricket bat the same year in a children’s writing competition. After graduating from secondary school, he worked as an assistant in the antiquarian department of John Smith's bookshop. At work, he met his future wife, Elizabeth. Published since 1963, he started to wrote suspense novels as Hugh C. Rae, but he also used the pseudonyms of Robert Crawford, R.B. Houston, Stuart Stern (with S. Ungar) and James Albany. On 1973, his novel The Shooting Gallery was nominee by the Edgar Award. On 1974, he wrote the first few romance novels with Peggie Coghlan, using the popular pseudonym Jessica Stirling. However, when she retired 7 years after the first book was published, he continued writing more than 30 on his own, and also as Caroline Crosby. His female pseudonyms first became widely known in 1999, when The Wind from the Hills
A tough little Scottish noir from the sixties and, yep, there's been a murdah. Someone's got a date at the Bar L. Sweeter than a Glasgae kiss Grab your Tam O Shanter, Sassenachs need not apply.
Definitely not an easy read but well worth reading to enjoy the writing of a Scottish noir legend. Apparently based on the Peter Manuel case, Skinner is the local thug and robber. He's also suspected of being a murderer and rapist. This book tells of the hunt to catch him for his crimes. Told from the perspective of a number of the key characters the writing style is intriguing and it's easy to see why Rae was such an influence on the next generations of Scottish crime writers.