The recipient of the McIlvanney Prize (named in memory of the late William McIlvanney) at the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival was Edinburgh solicitor Tariq Ashkanani – just three years after he scooped the award for debut authors.

Mr Ashkanani says he was “amazed” to be presented with the prize by the 2024 winner, Chris Brookmyre, on the opening night of the festival for his entry The Midnight King, a thriller about the son of a serial killer returning home for his father’s funeral.

“I had been overjoyed even to have made it on to the long list and really expected the prize to go to Liam McIlvanney [William’s son] for The Good Father or Denise Mina for The Good Liar,” he says.

He adds that the festival in Stirling “demonstrated the positive future of Scottish crime writing, with new people emerging and more experienced writers who are still writing exciting books”.

Mr Ashkanani, a solicitor who specialises in litigation and medical malpractice at NHS National Services Scotland, says he has been writing since childhood. “It’s something I’ve always loved doing. In the Scouts when everyone else was getting badges for first aid or reading maps and going to camps I was writing short stories.”

The road to writing success though was an arduous one. “I probably started working properly on my first book in 2011 and it took several years until it was ready to send it to a literary agent after about 14 redrafts and starting again from scratch two or three times.

“I remember as a trainee solicitor at Simpson & Marwick writing on the train between Edinburgh and Glasgow on the way to and from work. I was reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography at the time and was inspired by how he had gone from being a professional bodybuilder into acting then politics – all with the same determination to succeed.”

After he was happy with the book came the challenge of finding a literary agent. “I submitted it to about 60 agents over the course of two years, all of whom had different requirements during what was a very slow process, then waited perhaps three or even six months for a response,” he recalls.

“When I found an agent, we worked together on a few drafts and when it was ready to go to a publisher, it was picked up within a couple of weeks – which very fast compared to the slog before.”

The judges at the Bloody Scotland Crime festival described The Midnight King as “a dark and utterly unsettling read with victims and crimes that stay with you long after you turn the last page”. So, what attracts an NHS solicitor to the dark side?

Mr Ashkanani laughs. “I’ve always been drawn to darker fiction and watching films that are quasi horror movies. I think crime and horror are two sides of the same coin and the crime genre is such a malleable medium ranging from the ‘cosy’ crime of Agatha Christie through work that has elements of humour and sci-fi – but I enjoy the ‘horror’ in a crime story and trying to make it as dark as I can.”

The reactions to his work – and prize – among colleagues at NHS National Services Scotland, he says, have been very positive and while he sometimes gives others a preview of work in progress, he ultimately follows his own instincts.

“I’ve always thought the only way to approach a book is to write something that you’d like to read yourself and to be honest about the type of story that you want to tell – I think it’s a mistake trying to write something you think other people will enjoy, as opposed to something which you like.”

Mr Ashkanani grew up in Edinburgh, where he attended university, and after a traineeship at Simpson & Marwick, gained experience in insurance litigation with secondments at both Aviva and Hiscox Insurance, covering professional negligence and employer’s/public liability before spending nine months as in-house legal counsel at Optical Express (where he had himself previously undergone laser eye surgery) dealing with medical malpractice claims arising from laser/ocular surgery.

There he says he had a “crash course” in the implications of the Montgomery case, which resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in which patients were given a much larger role in deciding what information they need to make an informed decision and stressing that doctors have a duty to ensure that a patient is aware of any material risks involved in any recommended treatment.

This experience was useful, he adds, when he joined the Central Legal Office at NHS Scotland as there were several transvaginal mesh cases in progress, all involving consent.

“There were a lot of Montgomery questions being asked about what alternative procedures should or shouldn’t be offered so my time at Optical Express was good preparation for what was going on when I joined the NHS.”

Edinburgh will be the scene of his next book, published this December as the first in a series based in the city and featuring a private investigator tracking down a serial killer. “I know Edinburgh like the back of my hand, so the main challenge with a crime series set there is trying to avoid the obvious comparisons with writers such as Sir Ian Rankin,” he says.

Mr Ashkanani has adjusted his schedule to accommodate his writing career, working three days a week for the NHS and applying the other two to being an author. “I had been getting up early in the morning to write but with two young children (who are wonderful but never seem to sleep) I was getting tired and burned out – so I had to make a choice to ensure that I could do both jobs properly.”

The NHS has fortuitously been helpful to his writing. “Working in litigation, much of my job involves talking to people and taking statements from them; so, in a in a way you’re forming a narrative through putting your client’s version of events forward and getting another version from someone else.

“One of the things I love about working for the NHS is the focus on medical negligence cases which involve individuals beings rather than nebulous entities such as conglomerates or major companies. If someone’s been injured, it’s a real person at the heart of every case which to me makes it weightier and more serious.”

Straddling two such contrasting vocations seems like a daunting prospect but referring again to the inspiration supplied by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr Ashkanani says: “You must have a clear focus. If something’s important to you and you want to make it happen, you will find the time and just go and do it.”