Well, it’s only the second day of 2024, and Bastard Verdict has made it onto two “best-of-2023” lists. I’m grateful and humbled to be included with such rarefied work, particularly for a dark tale that “weaves high stakes and low politics.”

Roughly seven months after Bastard Verdict came out (May 14), the intensity of activity–reviews, shares, notes from readers–has tended to subside. Stories are meant to endure, to last well past the initial surge at the bookstores, so its gratifying to know that for many, the book stood out. Check them out!

The Crime Book Girl’s Books of the Year, 2023

TG Wolf’s podcast Toe Tag’s Five-Star Books of 2023.

Other reviewers had kind things to say, both here in the US, and in Scotland, where Bastard Verdict is set:

(Scotland) Grab This book: “An utterly absorbing read” – https://grabthisbook.net/?p=7348

(Scotland) Craig Kelly at Tangled Web/Inspiring Fiction: “Will have you shouting, ‘just one more chapter’!” – https://www.inspiringfiction.com/post/bastard-verdict-by-james-mccrone

(US) Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan): “McCrone keeps the tension high and psychological depth on track.” – https://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/jun_23.htm#dianedonovan

For more reviews, check out the Review Page on jamesmccrone.com

<<In Bastard Verdict, a second referendum on independence looms…
A Scottish official enlists elections specialist Imogen Trager, a by-the-numbers, if rarely by-the-book investigator, to look into irregularities in the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum. She has neither standing nor any investigatory powers in the UK, but moth-to-a-flame, she takes on the case, where she uncovers a trail of criminal self-dealing, cover-ups, and murder leading to the highest levels of power. None but a very few know the truth. And those few need it to stay hidden at any cost.

YOU DON’T NEED TO WIN, JUST DON’T LOSE
In politics, people cheat to win, or because they’re afraid to lose. The difference can be deadly.

Imogen will risk what’s left of her standing, her career–and maybe her life–to get at the truth.>>

Bastard Verdict is available now at Bookshop.org, Amazon-US, Amazon-UK, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and local, independent bookstores. It’s also available on Kindle, Nook, for Kobo and Apple Books.

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James McCrone is the author of the Imogen Trager political suspense-thrillers Faithless Elector, Dark Network , and Emergency Powers–noir tales about a stolen presidency, a conspiracy, and a nation on edge. Bastard Verdict, his fourth novel, is about a conspiracy surrounding a second Scottish Independence referendum. To get the details right for the new thriller, he drew on his boyhood in Scotland and scouted locations for scenes in the book while attending Bloody Scotland.

All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon. eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

He’s a member of MWA, Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers, and he’s the new president of the Delaware Valley Sisters in Crime chapter. He lives in Philadelphia. James has an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle. His current, work-in-progress is a mystery-thriller set in Oregon’s wine country…A (pinot) Noir, called Witness Tree.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. And follow this blog!

His most recent short fiction is below. The first is available for online reading.

“Eight O’Clock Sharp” in Retreats from Oblivion: the Journal of NoirCon. (free online)
Set in Philadelphia’s 9th Street Market, Thomas is a man outside of time, forgotten, but trying to do the right thing while contending with avaricious forces.

“Ultimatum Games” in Rock and Hard Place magazine issue #7
A rare book heist, bad decisions. The narrator and his partner-in-crime clash over evolving bourgeois norms.

“Nostalgia” in Low Down Dirty Vote, vol. 3
An armed group tries to resurrect a past that never was as they struggle with change.