About the Author
John Duncan
John Duncan is Aberdeen born and bred. Growing up in the suburb of Bucksburn his love of books came from regular visits to the library with his mum and time spent with wonderful English teachers at secondary school. He went on to be a teacher himself teaching English, Media Studies, and most recently working in Support for Learning.
Entranced by the thrills and suspense of Murder Mysteries from a young age, John always wanted to create a dark mystery world of his own – it only took him three and half decades to finally sit down and do it. Now he has started there’s no stopping as he is researching and writing with any spare time he has.
One thing he wants to get across in his books is the history of the place he calls home. The northeast of Scotland tends only to be known for three things: Grey Granite, the Oil Industry, and Fergie’s success at Aberdeen Football Club – but the rich stories and culture that run through those silver streaks of granite tell a wider and more varied history. From pirates and smugglers to witches, lands and their lairds who owned it to scandals kept quiet from the world, there's many a tale to tell.
Each street name, closed door, public space, quiet cemetery, shopping centre and piece of architecture has a story behind it. Using this as a backdrop for crime stories, John aims to tell those stories and guide you through a city you thought you knew, but from a very different angle.
A dad, step-dad, and cat-dad, with a love for live music and stand-up comedy, he lives with his better half Victoria in Aberdeen.
Official Press Release for "The Denburn"
June 2026
PRESS RELEASE
Aberdeen teacher turns to crime
As schools across the country prepare to lock up the textbooks and jotters for another year, there will be few teachers who’ll miss the day-to-day challenges of the classroom for a few weeks. The planning, the paperwork and the difficult behaviour, not to mention the constant battles over mobile phones, has driven many from the profession … but not John Duncan. No, he found that the best way to cope with the daily grind was to turn to crime.
And his hard work has paid off. The Denburn, the first novel in a series of detective thrillers set in and around Aberdeen, is available now.
The novel follows inspectors Alice Roach and Jake Tennant in a game of cat and mouse centred in and around the course of the historic Den Burn. Now associated with a damp, graffiti-covered underground car park and a LEZ route into the heart of the city, John explains that it wasn’t always so.
“At one time, it was the lifeblood of the mills, distilleries and factories along its course. It was the first water to be piped into Aberdeen. Historians believe it’s where the city’s name comes from: Aberden means the mouth of the Den. It runs for around 6 miles from Kingswells to the harbour and, though still coursing underneath our feet in places, it is virtually obsolete. That’s the theme of the book – the forgetting of what is important.”
John has taught English in city and Shire secondaries for more than twenty years. The family home is crammed with shelves of books, many about the history of his hometown, and there are several antique maps on the walls.
“It certainly makes fact-checking a little easier! I’m fanatical about our city and it’s essential that Aberdeen is at the heart of my stories. The city is painted in such broad strokes – the oil industry, grey depressing granite and Fergie. But there’s so much more to us; so much history, fascinating anecdotes and characters. It’s vital that we continue to pass on the stories that our parents and grandparents tell us – tales of the Timmer Market, the Gibberie Wallie, disastrous medical dissections, Aul’ Toon morning milk deliveries with ghost sightings, and home brew kept in rural police cells. These are magical stories that bring colour and life to the past.”
That said, John’s novel is full of anything but colour and life. Darkness and death pervade the modern streets, and social media is a curse. Working in education, the University of Aberdeen graduate has first-hand experience of the dangerous side of online platforms.
“There are so many cases of cyber-bullying. And lots of young people don’t realise the danger of sharing inappropriate images and taking unnecessary risks. If we could get rid of social media and start again, I think we would do things very differently.”
Growing up in Bucksburn with his parents and younger sister Kay, John loved his weekly visits to the local library with mum Kathleen. She instilled a love of reading in him and the book is dedicated to her, both his biggest fan and harshest critic.
“Mum was the first to read it and her verdict was, ‘Better than some of the rubbish in the library’, which I took as high praise! She’s not in good health and wanting her to have a proper copy has really driven me to get it published.”
The eye-catching cover artwork is by John’s eldest stepdaughter Daisy Banks, a young artist whose ink and watercolour renderings of city landmarks and commissions has a growing following in Aberdeen and beyond. Daisy was delighted to be involved.
“It’s a beautiful building that has been left to deteriorate and it was important for me to capture it in its current state. It was fun to replicate the other artists who have left their mark on the building, incorporating the spontaneous nature of graffiti which is completely different to the precise lines and architecture of my work.”
The Denburn is available on Amazon in hardback, paperback, and Kindle editions from Thursday 2nd July 2026. Prints of the Denburn artwork will be available soon.
ENDS
For further information, interview requests or images, please contact John Duncan.
Email: hello@johnduncanbooks.co.uk
Facebook & Instagram: @johnduncanbooks
Website: www.johnduncanbooks.co.uk
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