VAL PENNY
Best selling author of The DI Hunter Wilson Thrillers
Edinburgh: the setting for the DI Hunter Crime Thrillers
The main setting for the DI Hunter Wilson Crime Thrillers is Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is a beautiful city but relatively small so, rather than make up a town as Peter Robinson did for his DCI Alan Banks books, I chose Edinburgh in which to tell those stories. It is such a definable place; the city is almost another character.
Edinburgh is stunning.
It is a city of just over half a million people, situated in the East of Scotland on the south banks of the Firth of Forth.
There are some lovely views across the river to the county of Fife on the north bank.
There are three bridges crossing the Firth of Forth: the oldest is the Forth Rail Bridge, built in the nineteenth century, the Forth Road Bridge was built in the twentieth century and the most modern, a bridge for road traffic was completed in the early part of this century, named the Queensferry Crossing.
The delegated parliament of Scotland, that has wide powers over how the people are governed, meets in the Scottish Parliament Building, in the Holyrood district of the city. Following a referendum in 1997, in which the Scottish electorate voted for devolution, the current Parliament was re-convened (after it was adjourned and
dissolved in1707) by the Scotland Act of 1998 which sets out its powers as a devolved legislature. Since September 2004.
The official home of the Scottish Parliament has been a new Scottish Parliament Building in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh.
This was designed by Spanish architect Enric Miralles.
There was much concern at the time as the building was completed many years late and several times over budget.
The main protagonist of the DI Hunter Wilson Crime Thrillers is Detective Inspector Hunter Wilson.
He lives in Leith, an area to the north-east of the City and drinks in his local pub, the Persevere Bar.
Hunter plays in the pub darts team, but he is almost always late for matches because he is so busy.
He also enjoys walking in the rolling Pentland Hills to the south of the city, followed by a pint of beer and a good meal in a nearby pub.
Now in his late forties, Hunter no longer plays football, but he acts as a referee for some local junior teams and is regularly berated by the parents for his decisions. His home is also close to one of the main soccer grounds in Edinburgh, the Hibernian Football Ground. Hibernian Football Club, commonly known as Hibs. This is a Scottish professional football club based in Leith. The other big football team in the city is Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) which has its ground in the West of the city. Readers have not yet been told which team Hunter supports!
I hope my readers will enjoy the cases that Hunter and his team must solve in The DI Hunter Wilson Crime Thrillers and the descriptions of Edinburgh that are included in the books.
