Created by Iain Blair
Pseudonyms include Emma Blair
(1942-2011)
Glasgow‘s own JACK BONE is a hard-drinking, hard-smokin’ kinda lad. He claims he isn’t really a detective, that he just helps out folks if the price is right. As long as the job doesn’t take him out of Scotland.
As far as I know, he’s only made one appearance, in the very tough and nasty Bone (1977), wherein he breaks his own rules and heads down to big, bad London to track down a missing daughter, and finds himself mixed up with call girls, gaming clubs and a scalpel-wielding “queer” called Judy.
Well hard, and recommended.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Actor, playwright and novelist Blair went on to write several more gritty, tough crime thrillers, with titles like True, Duff and Hooligan’s Rant, but in the 1980s eventually switched to penning historical romance (!). It was at that point that, according to his web site, his publishers decided he’d sell way more books if he’d take on a female pseudonym. Like, maybe, Emma Blair?
“I was given absolutely no choice in the matter. They’d decided on a sex change and even the name. So that was that. I became Emma and Emma I’ve stayed.” His secret identity was only revealed in 1998 when his bestselling Flower of Scotland was nominated for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards, which required him to admit to being the author.
NOVELS
- Bone (1977) |Â Buy this book
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Scotland the Brave
Scottish Eyes
THE DICK OF THE DAY
- May 15, 2023
The Bottom Line: Right hard, this hard-drinking, hard-smokin’ Glasgow lad claims he isn’t really a P.I., but he’ll help you out… if the price is right. And if he doesn’t have to leave Scotland.
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
