Rennie Airth is a novelist born in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 in 1935 and now resident in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. Airth has also worked as foreign correspondent for the Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

 news service.

Novels

His works include Snatch! (1969), Once A Spy (1981), and a trilogy of murder mysteries set in England between 1921 and 1944 featuring Detective Inspector John Madden of Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

. The first of these, River of Darkness

River of Darkness

River of Darkness is an American horror film by director Bruce Koehler. The film features professional wrestling stars Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, and Sid Eudy as well as Ray Lloyd in a minor role.-Plot:...

(1999), won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière

Grand Prix de Littérature Policière

The Grand Prix de Littérature Policière is a French literary prize founded in 1948 by author and literary critic Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe. It is the most prestigious award for crime and detective fiction in France...

 for best international crime novel in 2000 and was nominated for Edgar

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

, Anthony

Anthony Award

The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher , one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America....

, and Macavity

Macavity Awards

The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The award is given in four categories -- best novel,...

 awards. Airth found inspiration for the book in a scrapbook about his uncle, a soldier killed in World War I. A sequel, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, was published in 2003, and the third book, The Dead of Winter, in 2009.

Books

• Snatch
  Snatch
  Snatch may refer to:* Snatch , a 2000 British gangster movie by director Guy Ritchie* Snatch theft, grab-and-run theft from a motorcycle, in Malaysia* Snatch, an album by Howie B* Snatch , or Anagrams, word game...
  
  (1969)
• Once A Spy (1981)
• Detective Inspector John Madden
  • River of Darkness
    River of Darkness
    River of Darkness is an American horror film by director Bruce Koehler. The film features professional wrestling stars Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, and Sid Eudy as well as Ray Lloyd in a minor role.-Plot:...
    
    (1999)
  • The Blood-Dimmed Tide (2003)
  • The Dead of Winter (2009)