Alan Gaw spent his first career in medicine and pathology now he's an award-winning novelist and poet behind the Jack Cuthbert mysteries, set in the world of 1930s forensic pathology. In this episode of The Third Half, host Scott Hamilton talks to Alan about his fifth Jack Cuthbert novel, The Last Gifts to the Dead, the years he spent self-publishing before winning the Bloody Scotland Debut Novel Prize, and why he built his lead character as a closeted gay man and war veteran navigating 1930s Britain. They dig into what "dithering about" really means in crime fiction, how pathology and creative writing share more DNA than you'd think, why short stories are harder to write than novels, and what happens when history refuses to stay in the past. Alan also opens up about writing poetry as a way to talk about grief, loss, and trauma that prose can't quite reach. Topics covered: -Introduction to Alan Gaw -Alan's path from pathology to award-winning crime fiction -Building Jack Cuthbert: a flawed, closeted, war-scarred pathologist in 1930s London -Why the "dithering about" in his novels is actually the point -Self-publishing, rejection, and winning the Bloody Scotland Debut Novel Prize -Writing poetry to talk about what prose can't -What's next for the Jack Cuthbert series Subscribe to The Third Half for more conversations on writing, careers, and the stories behind the story.