Now it’s just getting stoopid

So Fiona McCade is just a wee bit bothered by Ian Rankin’s alleged comments about crime in Glasgow:

Maybe Edinburgh’s judges should award lower
sentences to the sort of people who commit Rankin’s beloved “hidden
conspiracy”-type offences, to encourage creative crime. The more
lawless panache, the less time served. That’ll show those lowlife
Glaswegians, with their tedious domestic incidents and tawdry GBH. In
fact, Rankin’s comments have given me a great idea for a novel: a
millionaire crime writer, smugly ensconced in his bourgeois Edinburgh
mansion, briefly leaves his ivory tower to pop down the deli for a
bottle of sancerre and gets clobbered by several irate Glaswegian crime
writers in a very common, derivative and not-at-all-classy way. Such a
thing could certainly happen, although there might not be such a
mystery about whodunnit.

OK, Ms. McCade, here’s some suggestions for you. First thing: read the original interview and see the comments in context.  Second thing: you might want to pick up one of Rankin’s books before making snap judgments about the guy. Third thing: you also might want to pick up some kickass Glaswegian crime writers — let’s see, Denise Mina, Louise Welsh — and realize that oh yeah, the crime beat is more than well covered at the moment.

But then again, if Rankin ever sneezed in the wrong place or the wrong time, it would provoke newspapers into writing stories….