About Rob McInroy
Scottish historical crime novelist
Rob McInroy is the author of the Bob and Annie Kelty historical crime fiction series. The first in the series, Cuddies Strip, was longlisted for the CWA John Creasey First Blood Dagger award. His short stories have won and been placed in over twenty national and international competitions. In 2018 he was a winner of the Bradford Literature Festival Northern Noir Crime Novel competition with Cuddies Strip and in 2019, he won the Darling Axe Novel First Page Prize with another novel, Cloudland.
He was born in Crieff, Perthshire and his writing is all set in the Perthshire area, ranging from the 1920s to the 2010s. He currently lives in exile in east Yorkshire.
Now a full-time writer, he was originally a librarian in Perth and Lincolnshire, later spending many years in local government writing bids for external funding, which were generally greater works of fiction than anything he produces nowadays.
He has an MA (with distinction) in Creative Writing and a PhD in American Literature, both from the University of Hull. He currently lives in Yorkshire. A follow-up to Cuddies Strip, Barossa Street will be published in Spring 2022 and he is currently researching a third novel in the Bob Kelty series set at the outbreak of the second world war. Additionally, he is working on the Cloudland trilogy, taking the story up to 2014.
Novels
Cuddies Strip (Ringwood Publishing 2020) Revised version Muirton Books 2025
Barossa Street (RIngwood Publishing 2022) Revised version Muirton Books 2025
Moot (Ringwood Publishing 2024) Revised version Muirton Books 2025
Short Stories
Burials and Other Stories (Ringwood Publishing 2024) Revised version Muirton Books 2025
Phoenix on the Orange River was published in A Dark Phantastique edited by Jason V Brock in 2016 under the pseudonym Tom Conoboy
(In My Way) (flash fiction) won second prize in the Flash 500 Short Story Competition in August 2017
Man Walks Into a Bar (flash fiction) won the Hissac Flash Fiction Competition in October 2017
Whisky Night won first prize in the Writing Magazine competition in February 2018
Joss’n’Jules Forever was shortlisted in the Writing Magazine competition in February 2018
Burials won the Chipping Norton Literary Festival Short Story Competition in May 2018
Taking Tea With the Other Woman was shortlisted in the Ruth Rendell Short Story Competition 2018
Venus (flash fiction) was shortlisted in the Reflex Flash Fiction Prize in April 2018
Stakes was published in Storgy in April 2018
The First Rule (flash fiction) was shortlisted in the Flash500 competition in May 2018
The Birth of God won second prize in the Segora Short Story Competition in July 2018
Joss’n’Jules Forever was shortlisted in the Brighton Prize in October 2018
Peewit (flash fiction) won third place in the HISSAC Flash Fiction competition, November 2018
Sequela was highly commended in the HISSAC Flash Fiction competition, November 2018
Fresh Watter was shortlisted in the Exeter Story Prize November 2018
Taking Tea With the Other Woman was shortlisted in the 1000 Word Challenge in December 2018
The Gamekeeper’s Telling (flash) was Highly Recommended in the London Independent Story Prize in December 2018
Momma (flash fiction) was long-listed in the Retreat West Flash Fiction competition in December 2018
The Jasmine Orchestra played Auld Lang Syne was shortlisted by Writers’ Digest in December 2018
Joss’n’Jules Forever won First Prize in the Bedford International Writing Prize in January 2019
The Weight of Snow was shortlisted in the Bedford International Writing Prize in January 2019
The Difference Between Love and Iniquity was shortlisted in the 1000 Word Word Challenge in March 2019
Memento Mori (flash fiction) was published in Flash: The International Short Story Magazine in May 2019
The Silent Approach of Eternity (flash) won second prize in the Shady Grove Flash competition in March 2019
The Brightside Brothers and the Loss of the 1953 FA Cup Final was long-listed in the Flash500 Short Story competition in April 2019
The White Deer was long-listed in the Evesham Festival of Words Short Story Competition in April 2019
The Entertainer was a winner in the Enizagam Writing Competition in April 2019
Momma won third prize in the Flash 500 flash fiction competition in May 2019
The Brightside Brothers and the Loss of the 1953 FA Cup Final was short-listed in Writers’ Forum in July 2019
Harbinger (flash fiction) was published in Palm-Sized Press, volume 1, in July 2019
Bolero was long-listed in the Reflex Flash Fiction competition in July 2019
Not Here, Swimming, was Highly Commended in the MTP Short Story competition in August 2019
Some Kind of Lovemaking (flash fiction) was shortlisted in the Flash500 flash fiction competition in August 2019
Oysters and Ink was shortlisted in the Segora Short Story competition in August 2019
The Birth of God was shortlisted in the To Hull and Back Humorous Short Story Competition in September 2019
Cloudland won the Darling Axe Novel First Page competition in October 2019
And the Byzantium Orchestra Played Clair de Lune won an honorable mention in the Texas Observer Short Story Competition in October 2019
Zoroman’s Cave was runner up in the Raven Short Story Competition in November 2019
Oysters and Ink was shortlisted in the Writers’ Forum Competition in November 2019
Fair Near A Riverside Town was a finalist in the London Independent Story Prize competition in March 2020
Fresh Watter appeared in New Scottish Writing 39 in August 2021
Non-fiction
One Final Hurdle: A Fans's History of St Johnstone Football Club (Murton Books 2014)
Cormac McCarthy and the Cities of God. Man and the Plain (Muirton Books 2025)
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