Edinburgh solicitor Tariq Ashkanani has been named winner of the McIlvanney Prize for Scotland’s crime fiction book of 2025 – and he revealed he owes his writing success to American actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ashkanani won the prize for his dark thriller The Midnight King. He received the award on stage in the ballroom of the Golden Lion Hotel in Stirling at the annual Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival.
The solicitor, writer and podcaster made history as the first author to win the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize and then go on to win Scotland’s most prestigious award for crime fiction.
He beat four other shortlisted authors including Sir Ian Rankin and previous winners Denise Mina, Callum McSorley and Liam McIlvanney.
Ashkanani said winning was “hard to put into words — it’s a dream come true.”
And he insisted he would not have been an author without inspiration from bodybuilder turned Hollywood actor and politician Schwarzenegger.
He said: “I owe my entire writing career to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was reading his book on the train when I was writing my first book.
“It was his autobiography and his whole schtick was ‘I came from nothing and I made myself something, I reinvented myself and I was a bodybuilder and an actor and a politician’.
“His message was ‘if you want to do something and it’s important to you, just find time and do it’. I realised if I wanted to make a career of writing at all I just needed to find the time and do it.
“So, Arnie, thanks very much.”
Tariq Ashkanani Winner McIlvanney Prize Copyright: Mike Day / Saltire News and Sport Ltd
The prize, which recognises excellence in Scottish crime writing, is dedicated to the late William McIlvanney, dubbed the godfather of the Tartan Noir genre of Scottish crime fiction.
It includes a large Glencairn Crystal Decanter, £1000 and nationwide promotion in Waterstones.
As winner, Ashkanani led the festival’s colourful “Day of the Deid” procession in Stirling city centre.
Ashkanani has enjoyed a meteoric rise as a crime writer.
He first appeared at Bloody Scotland in 2021 as a support act for Sir Ian Rankin in the festival’s Crime in the Spotlight slot.
He won the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize in 2022 for his first novel Welcome to Cooper, before going on to win the McIlvanney Prize just three years later.
Ashkanani said winning was validation of his efforts, which often involve isolating himself to write. But he said had received valuable support from his fellow Scottish writers.
He said: “It’s nice to have the validation that you’re doing a good job. When you’re writing a book you’re by yourself so much and you’re in your own head so much.
“So it is nice to be reminded that you’re doing something that’s good and it’s working well.”
He added: “The crime writing community in Scotland is phenomenal and everyone is super supportive.
“I’m quite new on the scene but I’ve never felt anything other than supported and lifted up by everyone else. It feels like everyone wants everyone to do well.”
The Midnight King is a thriller about the son of a serial killer who returns home for his father’s funeral. The father, a celebrated author, has left behind a manuscript which forms a fictionalised confession and a box filled with mementos from each of the children he has killed. One may still be alive.”
Arusa Quereshi, one of the judges, said: “The Midnight King is a dark and utterly unsettling read with victims and crimes that stay with you long after you turn the last page.
“Tariq Ashkanani did a brilliant job creating an atmosphere of dread while exploring the theme of nature vs nurture.”
David Goodman was named as the winner of the 2025 Bloody Scotland Debut Prize for his book A Reluctant Spy.
Goodman, from East Lothian, was also previously selected for Crime in the Spotlight, appearing last year as a support for thriller writer Frank Gardner.
TV rights to Goodman’s thriller about a successful Scottish sales exec who finds himself pitched into a deadly mission in hostile territory in Tanzania have been sold in an eight-way auction to Carnival Films (Downton Abbey, The Last Kingdom, Day of the Jackal).
Kirsty Nicholson, of the awards’ sponsor Glencairn Crystal, said: “A huge congratulations to Tariq Ashkanani on winning the McIlvanney Prize with his page-turning thriller The Midnight King, and to David Goodman on receiving the Debut Prize for his gripping first novel A Reluctant Spy.
“Being a Scottish family company, we are proud to sponsor these distinguished annual awards with the Glencairn Glass, the official glass for whisky — both of which are deeply rooted in Scotland.
“It is an honour to help celebrate and shine a spotlight on such exceptional authors in the wonderful world of crime fiction.”
Tariq Ashkanani Winner McIlvanney Prize 2025
Copyright pic: Mike Day / Saltire News and Sport Ltd
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