TAKING a string of jobs to stay afloat while he kept his dream of being a writer alive has paid off for Callum McSorley.
His debut novel, Squeaky Clean – which features “Glasgow’s least popular police detective, Ally McCoist” – has had a glowing endorsement from king of crime fiction Chris Brookmyre, who described Callum as “definitely a talent to watch – I knew within a page I was in good hands.”
“Yeah, that comment blew me away,” says Callum, sounding slightly in awe. “I love his historical crime fiction, and to get that kind of endorsement for my first book is amazing.
“I’m feeling a bit nervous, to be honest – you spend so much time trying so hard to get something published that you kind of forget to think about what actually happens when it’s out there. Will people like it? Will people buy it?”
Squeaky Clean, about a car wash employee who takes the wrong customer’s motor for a ride and finds himself up to his neck in Glasgow’s criminal underworld, is “loosely” based on Callum’s spell working for a local car wash while he was at university.
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“I didn’t steal anyone’s car or meet gangsters obviously,” he says, smiling. “But the idea for the book came while I was working at the car wash.
“I did a lot of different jobs when I left uni – I worked nightshift on the railways, for one, and I’ve been a housekeeper and a kitchen porter. I suppose bits and pieces of all of them have made it into my stories at some point.
“My writing has definitely been informed by my life. I like the minutiae of everyday life as a basis for storytelling.”
He grins: “And it wasn’t the plan all along to do lots of different jobs, of course, but it turned out to be quite useful….”
Callum grew up in East Kilbride and after graduating from Strathclyde University with a degree in creative writing and journalism, he was selected for the Hermann Kesten Writing Scholarship in Nuremberg.
Since then, his stories have appeared in various publications, including Gutter Magazine and New Writing Scotland.
“The first story I wrote was published in Gutter and that was a big deal for me,” says Callum, adding with a laugh: “It lulled me into a false sense of security, I think, being published so quickly. It was probably a bit of a fluke.
“I didn’t write for a couple of years after leaving university, but it was always in the back of my mind.”
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Squeaky Clean is a darkly comic thriller described as “Guilt meets Breaking Bad”, and sure to ruffle a few feathers is the character of Alison “Ally” McCoist, Glasgow’s least popular cop.
“She’s made mistakes, and she sees this case – of car-wash worker Davey, who gets kidnapped by gangsters – as a chance for redemption,” explains Callum, who lives in Burnside with his wife Lisa, who is a paediatrician, son Elliot, who is four, and daughter Nina, who is almost one.
“I’m not a big football fan – I just thought the name would be quite funny.”
Squeaky Clean, published by Pushkin Press, is out on March 2.
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