AUCHINLECK author Pat Young launched her third book at Carnegie Library in Ayr.

Fans, friends and family filed into the specially laid out room to hear her speak, with much humour injected into her rhetoric.

It has been a memorable few months for Pat, who has also been invited home to the Boswell Book Festival.

Called One Perfect Witness, her latest book is again set in Ayrshire, but on this occasion almost the entire story.

She said: "I was in company and told people that I had to go as I had left a man bleeding in the Carrick Hills ­— that's when you know you're a crime writer.

"One Perfect Witness was actually the first novel that I wrote and is about a couple who set up a glamp site and see themselves as a cut above.

"But they get so caught up in their business that they are neglecting their young son and he is determined to do something to make them notice him.

"He goes out into the hills with his father's gun and it does not have a happy ending."

What sounds like an intriguing tale can be bought online, in bookstores or by visiting www.bloodhoundbooks.com for more details.

Being invited to The Boswell Book Festival has been described as a 'dream come true' by Pat.

"Myself and Margaret Skea, a historical author, will be interviewed about our local background. It's a homecoming for this local lassie.

"With the festival being biography only, I am going to be the crime writer to be invited along ­— I just can't believe it.

"When I went to one of the first Boswell festivals I was so inspired and wrote a story based on a family in Auchinleck," she added.

Behind Auchinleck House there is a large gorge and one of the characters threatens to take her own life by jumping into it.

That formed the basis of her second book, called I Know Where You Live, released earlier this year to much acclaim.

Pat, who was raised in Auchinleck and was a pupil. then teacher, at Cumnock Academy, based part of the book in her native town.

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