"I started writing in Inverness, so it must have been some kind of inspiration to me," Black acknowledged.

"My first book was based on a nondescript town somewhere between Inverness and Ayr where I grew up. When I say in-between, I don't mean geographically, I mean in terms of size. That was 'The Gob', which I wrote in 1998. It was never published, but it got me an agent and it was looked at by some of the big publishers who made some nice noises about it, so it was Inverness where I started writing."

Now relocated to Edinburgh where he still works as a reporter part-time, Black has two successful and much-lauded novels to his credit, "Paying For It", published last year, and this year's "Gutted".

One of the few practitioners of "Tartan noir" that actually merits the title, Black's books are gritty street-level thrillers, following former journalist turned part-time private eye Gus Dury down Edinburgh streets even meaner than those stalked by Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus.

However, like most writers, Black's path to publication was not a straightforward one.

"It looks like it's all happened suddenly, but I was knocking myself out, writing all day at work and going home and writing into the wee small hours, so you could say it's taken me 10 years to become an overnight success," Black said.

His first books, which he dubs Irvine Welsh influenced "Scot-lit" or "lad-lit", failed to sell, as did a more literary novel which followed. A historical novel based on the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger, which Black wrote while living in Australia did sell - but the publisher went bust, before the novel could see the light of day."

Then Black turned to crime with the first of the Gus Dury books, "Paying for It", and disproving the old adage that crime does not pay, that novel sold within two weeks , despite Black's apparent disadvantage in being Scottish.

Though his previous efforts had covered a number of different styles, turning to crime stories seemed a natural progression for Black.

"I've always been an eclectic reader. My big interest is Ernest Hemingway, but I also really love Irvine Welsh," he said.

"I always include Irvine Welsh as a crime writer. He wouldn't thank me for it, but he always skirts around the edges of crime."

His tastes in more conventional crime tended less to stories about police detectives, but authors like Jim Thompson who were more likely to follow events from the criminal's point of view than the forces of law and order. However, probably his biggest influence is Irish cult hero Ken Bruen who, in his Jack Taylor novels, has successfully transported the hard-boiled detective from the great cities of the USA to Galway on Ireland's west coast.

"He really opened my eyes to how fabulous crime writing can be," Black said, and agreed there seemed to be a definite Celtic strain emerging in modern crime writing.

Former Inverness newspaper reporter Tony Black. Dan Phillips

"I'm not sure where Irish crime fiction has its roots, but Scottish crime fiction's roots certainly come from a different place than English crime and the drawing room sagas of Agatha Christie."

Instead Scottish crime fiction traces its roots from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Jekyll and Hyde" and James Hogg's "Confessions of a Justified Sinner", Black suggests, darker stories of secrets and hypocrisy

Black did not have to look far for his literary alter-ego. Dury, like Black, is a former Edinburgh reporter, though non-drinker Black cannot match the alcoholic Dury's prodigious capacity for alcohol. So is there anything of the creator in his creation?

"I get asked this a lot. It's really common to confuse an author with his main protagonist, but there's very little of Gus in me," Black said.

"It's almost getting to the point where I get irritated by people asking me, but he's just the product of my imagination. It would be lazy in the extreme for a novelist just to transcribe his life on to the page. That would just be journalism and I've done more than enough of that."

Not that he dislikes Dury. Vitally for a series character, Black finds him fascinating to write about.

"What really interests me is that he's totally wrecked his career, his family life, his marriage and probably his mental health as well as his physical health," Black said.

"It really makes me wonder what makes him put on those cherry-pickers in the morning when he gets out of bed."

Which means Black is hardly likely to make things any easier for his series hero, and certainly not in the next book in the series.

"The next one is the darkest of the three," Black promises.

"He really goes through the mill."

* "Paying For It" and "Gutted" are published by Preface Books.

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