Ray Banks

Born: 1977 in Kirkcaldy, Fife
First Book: The Big Blind (PointBlank, 2004)

Ray Banks spent two years at university but dropped out before completing his final year. Before establishing himself as a crime writer, he tried a number of different careers, including stints as a wedding singer, a double-glazing salesman, an office temp and a croupier. This particular job came to an abrupt end when the casino was ram-raided one night and Ray decided it just wasn’t worth the personal risk for the sake of other people’s money. His first novel, The Big Blind (PointBlank Press, 2004) draws on this croupier experience. It was originally intended to be a literary novel, but its impact on the crime-fiction world has been significant. The Big Blind is due to be reissued as a mass-market paperback by Wildside Press in 2007.

His second novel, Saturday’s Child (Polygon, 2006), introduces wayward private investigator Cal Innes, who had previously made his debut in one of Ray’s short stories. The Innes series continues with Donkey Punch and No More Heroes, both to be published by Polygon in 2007, with the fourth Innes novel, Beast of Burden, to follow in 2008. The books are also to be published by Harcourt (USA) and Editore Del Vecchio (Italy) in late 2007.

One of Ray’s short stories, ???Real Gone’, was reprinted as part of Maxim Jakubowski’s annual Best of British Mysteries V.4 (Allison and Busby, 2006). ???Dirty Barry’, originally published in Thrilling Detective, will be reprinted in the 2007 PointBlank anthology Best New Noir. Other short stories have appeared online in Thrilling Detective, Shred of Evidence, Hardluck Stories, Handheld Crime, Plots with Guns and Shots Magazine, as well as in the anthologies Dublin Noir (Akashic Books, 2006), Damn Near Dead (Busted Flush Press, 2006) and the forthcoming Fuck Noir (Bleak House Books, 2007).

Ray has also written articles for Noir Originals, Crimespree, the now-defunct Mystery Circus and Crime Scene Scotland. He is also a regular contributor to rock ’n’ roll noir magazine Bullet.

He currently lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne with his wife Anastasia and a large number of cats.