Before I became a full-time writer, I spent a chunk of my life working in open-plan offices and cubicle farms, so getting anything done – while everyone else gossiped with each other, blathered on the phone, the printer whirred, and people made those annoying noises they make when they don’t know they’re making them – depended on a good pair of earphones and a huge library of music.
It’s a habit that became deeply ingrained, and now I can basically write anywhere, as long as I’m plugged in to music: trains, hotel rooms, airports, even the back of taxis…
Some of my books have a distinct soundtrack, others are more freeform. THIS HOUSE OF BURNING BONES, for example, was exclusively written to Wagner’s Ring Cycle (or Der Ring des Nibelungen, if we’re going to be pedantic about it). All fourteen hours of it. On a loop. Not a single word was planned, written, rewritten, or proofread without operatic Germans warbling away about Dwarves and rings and things.
BLOOD, RUST, AND STEEL was mostly composed to Howard Shore’s soundtracks for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (yes, yet more Dwarves and rings) – because I do like a bit of orchestral sweepiness when I’m writing – but unlike THOBB (as we call it in this house) Howard Shore and I had an open relationship, with various other artists invited to the orgy depending on what scene I was writing at the time.
So, to prove it, here’s my top five songs to go along with the first full-length Roberta Steel book (and if you want to listen along, you can click here):
Foundations Of Stone – Howard Shore, Performed By The London Philharmonic Orchestra
I don’t really listen to “songs” as much as I do albums. It’s very rare for me to just pop on a single track: I like to hear it in context, and as the recording artist intended. I know everyone’s different, but to me it’s a bit like picking up a book, reading chapter six first, then putting it down and going off to read a chapter of something else.
But as that doesn’t really go along with exercise at hand, let’s lean into the format and focus on the opening track from the music for The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers. I’m a big fan of Howard Shore’s work on both trilogies, and “Foundations Of Stone” has all the hallmarks of his finest work – a sweeping grandeur and sense of scale – but married with a real melancholy. There’s something aching about the music that appeals to me, and it also goes very well with Roberta’s struggles in the book.
BLOOD, RUST, AND STEEL confronts her with not just her own mortality, but also the end of her life as a police officer. After a thirty-year career, she’s being ushered out the door due to compulsory retirement. That’s a big change for her, something that she pretends to look forward to, while inwardly dreading.
So not only was “Foundations Of Stone” a constant part of my writing soundtrack, it also helped set the scene for some of the more … disturbing scenes.
Skin And Bones – Foo Fighters
Like all sensible people, I believe the Forces Of Foo must be fought, and I have purchased a considerable number of its titular combatants’ albums to help support the war effort.
Normally their numbers are all thumpy, twangy, and shouty, but “Skin and Bones” has an acoustic clarity and cyclic structure that really appeals. It’s also kind of dark and sinister – which doesn’t hurt – giving it an off-kilter-dangerous-carousel-in-an-ominous-carnival vibe. Delicious.
And as it talks about someone who’s wasting away, pretending they’re OK as they turn to skin and bones, it fits Roberta’s metaphorical journey perfectly. True: she’s still a bit overweight and droopy by the end of the book, but deep down inside, she’s getting thinner and thinner – fading until you can almost see through her.
From Little Things Big Things Grow – Paul Kelly & Kev Carmody
This is a lovely not-so-little song, coming in at nearly seven minutes long, based on the real-life struggle of Vincent Lingiari to get the Gurindji people’s land back from Vesteys – a British pastoral company in Australia. Vesteys employed indigenous workers under horrible conditions, for little more than pennies. But after Vincent led a seven-year strike at Wave Hill Station, the Australian government introduced the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, and at least part of the Gurundji people’s ancestral lands were returned to them.
So, that’s what the song’s about.
It’s a bouncy cheery tune about things that were clearly neither bouncy nor cheery, but they did turn out right in the end. Or as right as the world will allow, anyway.
It’s a song about graft and determination, that makes me think of Roberta’s occasional sidekick, PC Stewart “Tufty” Quirrel, every time I hear it. He too is bouncy and cheery – if a bit daft and nerdular – and exactly the kind of person I’d like in my corner if things went a bit bum-shaped.
Life In A Glass House – Radiohead
This is a song that also has that sinister-carnival vibe, like a New Orleans funeral, where it’s unknown whether or not the deceased will remain in their coffin after the burial. It lurches along, drunk and unsteady, bringing darkness and despair with it. And there’s something almost … out of tune about it too, adding to the sense of decay.
Anyone would think I like miserable songs…
Where “From Little Things Big Things Grow”’s bouncy cheeriness brings Tufty to mind, “Life In A Glass House” drags Roberta’s struggles along behind it on the end of a rusty chain. I can’t really go into any detail about what or why, because of spoilers, but if you picture an abandoned hospital, packed full of plague victims, on a sweltering day, both things have that sort of feel.
Makes the book sound really fun, doesn’t it?
Gollum’s Song – Howard Shore & Fran Walsh, Performed By Emiliana Torrini & The London Philharmonic Orchestra
And we’re going to end back at the same album we started with, Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers. This is the last song on the record, and the one that plays over the closing credits of the film, taking Howard Shore’s sweeping melancholia to new heights with an yearning vocal performance by Emiliana Torrini.
It’s a track that speaks of betrayal and loneliness, of reaching out to people who have promised love and support, only to deceive and abandon. That if you’re not going to be a loyal friend, then you’ve got no one to blame but yourself, because you will get what’s coming to you.
Now, I’m not saying Roberta Steel is a vengeful, grudge-holding menace, but…
Actually, I am.
She has a beartrap personality, and a trebuchet mind.
And sooner or later, she’s going to settle some scores before the book is over.
BLOOD, RUST, AND STEEL by Stuart MacBride
The Brand-New Roberta Steel Novel From Bestselling Author Stuart MacBride
Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, Blood, Rust and Steel is darkly funny and gripping Scottish crime at its very best.
All good things must come to an end . . .
Acting Detective Inspector Roberta Steel has never been shy, but she’s finally retiring. After thirty years of policing Aberdeen’s underbelly, she’s all set for her twilight years to feature gardening gloves, afternoon tea, crosswords puzzles, and shouting at the telly.
So, when a body turns up in a wheelie bin, it looks like an excellent way to round off her career and go out with a bang. But the Northeast of Scotland isn’t finished with her yet:
There’s a violent protest to stop; far-right populist politicians, and sketchy government spooks; a by-election; drugs, dogs, and baby-doll nighties; and a desperate ex-colleague, begging her for help.
With only her Queen Street Irregulars for backup, and the top brass desperate to get shot of her, these final few weeks might just be the death of her . . .
Mystery Police Procedural | Mystery Woman Sleuth [ Macmillan UK, On Sale: August 18, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781035064984 / eISBN: 9781035065011 ]
Buy BLOOD, RUST, AND STEEL: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Walmart.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Stuart MacBride
All about Stuart and his beard… Stuart MacBride was born in Dumbarton, but ran away to join the circus at the age of nine, where he specialised in wrestling bears for money (Going on to represent Great Britain at the Atlanta Olympics). In 1975 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his revolutionary work on Irn-Bru, then went on to create the world’s biggest ball of bellybutton lint. In 1989 he joined the secret intelligence service, but was later invalided out due to a back injury sustained while performing a reverse-overhead-piledriver on a grizzly bear. Now confined to his pyjamas, Stuart fritters away his time writing crime novels set in Aberdeen and lying to journalists.
No Comments
Comments are closed.