Granite Noir
Aberdeen’s Crime Writing Festival
Granite Noir is inspired by the incredible popularity of crime fiction in all its forms, by the fantastic contribution that Scottish writers make, by our love affair with Nordic Noir, on the page and on screen, and most of all inspired by Aberdeen, which is the perfect backdrop for the festival – steeped in history, atmospheric, quirky and with a strong sense of place.
DARE TO BE THERE
Granite Noir is produced and curated by Aberdeen Performing Arts.
We are grateful for the support of our funders Aberdeen City Council, Creative Scotland and Event Scotland. Granite Noir is presented with our partners Aberdeen City Libraries, Aberdeen Archives Galleries and Museums, Aberdeen Arts Centre, Citymoves Dance Agency, Police Scotland and Robert Gordon University.
Granite Noir 2025
Granite Noir 2025 came to a rapturous close on Sunday 23 February after another successful 4-day festival. The ninth edition saw over 80 authors, artists and speakers participate over the four day festival, including nine emerging North East writers as part of Granite Noir’s leading Locals in the Limelight series. Audiences travelled from across the country and tuned in around the world to enjoy events that dove into the thrilling world of crime fiction.
Criminal duos were in focus this year, with a live version of the hit BBC podcast Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling performed to a packed out Music Hall on Thursday night. And husband and wife writing teams Nicci French and Ambrose Parry discussed their process and real-life Partners in Crime.
Other highlights of the programme included conversations with best-selling authors Alan Warner, CJ Cooke, Paula Hawkins and Lucy Foley; informative and immersive sessions with internationally renowned experts including forensic psychiatrist Dr Duncan Harding and policing guru Professor Nick Fyfe, plus forensic biologist Wendy Deegan’s Behind the Crime Scene Tape in partnership with Robert Gordon University; and the first ever live recording of broadcaster Nicola Meighan’s podcast A Kick up the Arts with Granite Harbour actor Dawn Steele.
Over 18,400 visitors attended events at this year’s Granite Noir, including the theatre programme at His Majesty’s Theatre which preluded the festival’s main line-up with stage adaptations of Murder on the Orient Express and Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong. And Aberdeen’s own Ten Foot Tall presented the off-beat comedy thriller Guilty by Rona Munro in the city’s Anatomy Rooms.
Short Story Competition
For the second year, Granite Noir partnered with the Press and Journal to run the Granite Noir short story competition, which was open to writers of 18 years and above with crime noir stories of between 1500 and 2000 words.
The judges thoroughly enjoyed reading all the submissions and were impressed with the breadth of talent within crime noir fiction across the North-East – the quality of submissions was a testament to the outstanding abilities of local writers.
However, there could only be one winner and grandmother of four Lesley Little showcased her talent with a tense tale told over the course of a woman making a meal.
You can read more about Lesley and her award-winning story “The Risotto” here.
Granite Noir Exhibition
Cold Blooded Killers: True Crime Cases from the North East, 1864-1963
Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives
We had a special exhibition displayed at the Music Hall which was curated by Claire Smith of the North East Police Museum. It scratched below the surface to show a dark, murderous history that is present in the North East. Revenge, greed, crimes of passion, and other disturbing motives have driven locals to murder.
Locals in the Limelight
In 2018 Granite Noir introduced Locals in the Limelight: five minute spotlights offering some of the region’s most talented up-and-coming writers a chance to read extracts from their noir fiction at the start of festival events. Giving people the chance to share their work to large audiences for the first time.
Supporting homegrown authors is a central part of this festival, and we were thrilled to bring this opportunity back once again to work with nine of Scotland’s freshest and fiercest talent in 2025!
Granite Noir: Investigations
Granite Noir 2025 introduced a new mystery to the crime fiction festival with Granite Noir: Investigations. Each week, clues were sprinkled out across our webpages which lead to a new chapter and puzzle to be solved. The case built up week by week and in the end it was up to the audience to figure out whodunnit! A lucky winner was drawn randomly from our astute detectives and they were the recipient of many great prizes. From a goodie bag, tickets to Granite Noir events, vouchers to Aberdeen Performing Arts and Breakout Games.
If you missed out, you can catch up on the story so far at Granite Noir: Investigations
Granite Noir Livestreams
If you couldn’t come to Granite Noir, fear not!
Some of the Lemon Tree events were livestreamed on our website and on our Youtube channel.
BSL Livestreams also available to watch.
With thanks to Event Scotland for their support and GloCast for making it happen.
Authors Across Aberdeen
music-hall
Image credit: Richard Frew
Music Hall
The Music Hall was host to a fantastic variety of events including a live recording of the true crime podcast Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling. Global No.1 bestselling author Paula Hawkins joined us to discuss her latest thriller The Blue Hour. Alan Warner and CJ Cooke each joined us for crime in the afternoon at our Literature at Lunchtime author conversations.
We were also delighted to have Hexagone, an audio experience across the Music Hall. Participants could step into a world where reality blurred with the supernatural. Hexagone fused audio storytelling with mind-bending puzzles, plunging participants into a ghostly adventure. It was created for Granite Noir by young and emerging artists with Produced Moon (UK) and Storydive (Germany) with puzzles made by young people from Aberdeen Grammar School.
lemon-tree
Image credit: Richard Frew
Lemon Tree
Granite Noir’s festival hub the Lemon Tree, is where the dark world of crime was brought into the light. Discussions with authors Chris Whitaker, Doug Johnstone, James Oswald and more examined the art of crime writing; while events from Elle Nash, Kirsty Logan, Sarah Maria Griffin, T.L. Huchu and Courtney Smyth reflected the murky history of Aberdeen and the surrounding area with tales of myths, magic and monsters.
Former Scots Scriever and North East loon Shane Strachan guided audiences through a spooky evening of spoken word with Into the Dark; while popular authors Kristen Perrin, Joanna Wallace and Chris Brookmyre embraced the whimsical with Dead Funny.
his-majestys-theatre
Image credit: Pamela Raith
His Majesty’s Theatre
His Majesty’s Theatre truly brought audiences two criminally good productions.
Murder on the Orient Express is one of Agatha Christie’s greatest literary achievements, with a final twist that is amongst her very best. Gripping, tense and masterfully cryptic, this brand-new production was a deliciously thrilling ride and an ingenious murder mystery, that kept audiences guessing until the end of the line.
Birdsong told the story of one man’s journey through an all-consuming love affair and into the horror of the First World War. A mesmerising story of love and courage, set both before and during the Great War that moved audiences. Once seen never forgotten.
The Terrace
Our restaurant at His Majesty’s Theatre took us through from day to night, starting with a Poisoned Afternoon Tea, to Cocktails – Shaken Not Stirred in the evenings.
Kathryn Harkup returns for another year, bringing fabulous food and puzzling poisons together in the Agatha Christie inspired afternoon tea. As well as 007’s exploits as they discussed the practicalities of building a volcano-based lair, whether being covered in gold paint will really kill you, and what of bacteria, bombs, or poison is best used to take over the world.
Paired with some of James Bond’s favourite cocktails, the Granite Noir evenings at The Terrace were not one to be missed.
And so many more…
Granite Noir wouldn’t be complete without the many other venues across Aberdeen hosting our events in their beautiful buildings.
The Aberdeen Arts Centre helped children to become the next Sherlock with a detective masterclass hosted by Alasdair Beckett King. For little ones who wanted to write beautiful poems, Nadine Aisha Jassat was on hand to guide them through the process.
Aberdeen Central Library was home to many of our family events where the smallest of detectives could listen to tales of adventure and create their very own characters and stories! Alice Hemming, Sam Sedgman and Nadine Aisha Jassat inspired the next generation with their books and ideas.
The Anatomy Rooms, the former University of Aberdeen anatomy faculty, hosted Behind the Crime Scene Tape an interactive forensic experience with lecturer in Forensic Biology, Wendy Deegan, and students from Robert Gordon University who shared the secrets of a forensic crime scene investigation.
The also housed Ten Feet Tall’s Guilty a comedy-thriller play in which two women faced each other in a small windowless room for some routine questioning…
Finally, Cowdry Hall had a screening of two films including The Girl on the Train with an introduction from the author Paula Hawkins and the horror film Censor that started with an author talk with Anna Bogutskaya.
Finally, the Cold Blooded Killers Exhibition Talk had audiences gripped as curator Claire Smith of the North East Police Museum shared insights and sinister artefacts from some of the most notorious cases in the region over 100 years.
The combined efforts of each venue is what makes Granite Noir a unique and immersive Aberdonian experience.
Photo Gallery
Granite Noir Supporters
Granite Noir is produced and curated by Aberdeen Performing Arts.
We are grateful for the support of our funders Aberdeen City Council, Creative Scotland and Event Scotland. Granite Noir is presented with our partners Aberdeen City Libraries, Aberdeen Archives Galleries and Museums, Aberdeen Arts Centre, Citymoves Dance Agency, Police Scotland and Robert Gordon University.
We are also indebted to Waterstone’s for their enthusiastic support.
Support Us
If you have a little extra and would like to support the work we do here at Aberdeen Performing Arts, then consider donating to us directly.
Your donation can help develop local talent, provide opportunities to those who don’t have the chance to join in or assist in producing unique performances.
