Award-winning journalist and crime writer Tony Black to share gripping extracts of new book at Prestwick Library author event

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An award-winning Ayrshire journalist and crime writer is set to captivate fans with the first new collection of short fiction he’s penned in a decade.South Ayrshire Libraries will welcome journalist and crime writer Tony Black to Prestwick Library tomorrow where he will launch his latest book, The Lock-In – a thrilling anthology of crime stories.The Lock-In features a new Gus Dury story - a character that legendary Scottish author, Irvine Welsh, has lavished praise on.It also includes ‘The Ringer’, which was performed on stage by Outlander star, Brian Larkin; ‘The Holy Father’, a hilarious retelling of the nativity, set on a Scottish housing scheme; and ‘Stone Ginger’, a fast-paced London noir heist.Tony will be reading gripping extracts from The Lock-In and there will be an opportunity for a Q&A session for fans too.Also joining Tony will be Barry Graham - a Buddhist monk, former boxer and author of the psychological thriller, The Book of Man - whose portrait, depicted by Tony, features on the front of The Lock-In after the pair became firm friends online.Barry, 57, said: “I was living in the USA when we started to email back and forth.

We had very similar tastes in writing and hit it off right away.“Tony proceeded to paint my portrait - before we’d ever met - and the likeness really captured my spirit.”After Barry moved back home to Glasgow, Tony went on to paint a much bigger canvas featuring his friend.

The painting, entitled ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’, will be revealed at tomorrow’s free event, which starts at 7pm, at Prestwick Library.“I admire Tony’s art as much as his writing,” Barry said.“It’s not unusual for writers to influence each other, but to be captured on canvas is a little bit special.