A SUCCESSFUL author who released his latest book on Monday has told how the change to a national police force has affected crime writers.

The country’s eight police forces were merged into Police Scotland nearly a year ago in the biggest shake-up in policing in the country in 40 years.

Ed James, who has already released five books, said the reforms have also been felt by Scotland’s thriller writers and their fictional officers.

“The changeover has definitely altered the landscape for Scotland’s contemporary crime writers,” he said.

“I’ve got shelves of books at home on policing and things like forensics for writers but the change has made a lot of those outdated, so personal contacts with people inside the force have taken on a whole new significance.” The restructuring and its effects are the focus of his new book, called Bottleneck.

The Drem-based author (pictured) painstakingly researched the change before pitching his fictional character, ex-Lothian and Borders cop Detective Constable Scott Culle, into a cross-jurisdiction murder case under the new force.

The process involved laborious fact finding, and fellow crime authors Craig Robertson and Glasgow’s Alex Gray have experienced similar ‘transition’ issues.

All agree that research and contact building with force officials has intensified as authors work to reflect the changes happening in real-life policing.

Mr James added: “Like real-life officers, our fictional equivalents are having to deal with the upheaval and all the conflicts that go with it.

“I think readers expect the re-structure to be tackled more and more now, so that’s why I decided to do that in Bottleneck.” The top-10 Kindle crime author has had 235,000 downloads of his various books.