McIlvanney Award Winner Tariq Ashkanani for 'The Hollow Boys'

This May, we are joined by most recent McIlvanney Award winner, Tariq Ashkanani, author of The Midnight King, to celebrate the release of his latest novel - The Hollow Boys. Small town mysteries abound in this gripping thriller of missing children and dark conspiracy.

Two children lost.

The wrong one found.

It's a warm evening in September when nine-year-old Danny Yates comes back from the dead. He walks into town half-starved and silent, ten months after he and his best friend Will Keefe were presumed drowned. And when Danny does finally speak, he swears that he's not Danny. He's Will.

Danny's mother is convinced that her boy has come back wrong. More than that, she thinks the town itself is now at risk from whatever dark force returned her son. Chief of Police John Deacon is more interested in how the sinister disappearance of two boys could have been written off as a tragic accident, and who was responsible.

What happened to Danny to make him take on his friend's name, his personality? And does Danny's return mean there's a chance that Will is still alive?

About Tariq Ashkanani

Tariq Ashkanani works as a lawyer by day. His debut novel, Welcome to Cooper, won the Bloody Scotland Debut Award 2022, and was shortlisted for both the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Capital Crime Fingerprint Award. His third novel, The Midnight King, won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2025. He also co-hosts the writing podcast Page One. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two sons.