Allan Martin

Allan Martin writes Scottish and Estonian crime fiction shaped by his experience as a teacher, teacher-trainer, university lecturer, and translator. Death in Tallinn begins his historical series about Chief Inspector Jüri Hallmets, setting the investigation in Estonia during the political uncertainty of the 1930s. The sequence later continued with Winter Blood. Martin’s other principal series follows Inspector Angus Blue through Scottish settings, beginning with The Peat Dead, which reached the shortlist for the McIlvanney Debut Prize at the Bloody Scotland festival. He has also translated Estonian fiction and regularly draws on visits to Estonia and the Hebrides. Death in Tallinn connects those interests: its police inquiry unfolds amid fragile national independence, competing institutions, and pressure from a changing Europe. Martin’s fiction uses carefully researched places as active parts of the mystery, allowing questions of loyalty, public duty, and historical memory to shape both the investigation and the people conducting it.