Scotland's first crime-writing festival has drawn to a close with the announcement of the first Scottish Crime Book of the Year.
A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming was chosen from 40 other entries at the end of the Bloody Scotland event in Stirling.
Fans gathered in the city over the weekend for what organisers said is the most popular genre amongst book buyers and library users in Scotland.
Cumming, from Ayrshire, won the £3,000 award for his sixth novel, which is about the disappearance of the first female head of MI6.
He said: "It's a huge honour to win such a prestigious award in the first year of this fantastic festival. My thanks to the judges, to Mazars and to all the organisers - I'm already looking forward to Bloody Scotland 2013."
Sheena McDonald, chair of the judging panel, said: "A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming is far more than a pacy novel with a satisfactory ending. This book is exciting, imaginative and well-written. It doesn't simply tick the crime-fiction boxes - it's simply an outstanding novel."
Best-selling authors like Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina and Christopher Brookmyre held sessions over the three days of the festival. The brainchild of writers Lin Anderson and Alex Gray, the festival opened on Friday with a keynote address from Rebus creator Rankin.
Fife-born writer Val McDermid said she would like to see the festival become a regular occurrence in the crime enthusiasts' calendar.
She said: "I think the time is definitely right. You could quite comfortably fill up an entire festival for a week, not just a weekend, just using Scottish writers doing crime fiction. There is certainly enough of us and enough big names in the Scottish cohort of crime writers for it to be an attractive proposition for audiences."
The 2013 festival is set to be held between September 13 and 15.
