Rankin's crime session is a draw beside the seaside

It sounds more like one of Ian Rankin's novels than the average book festival, but tomorrow the Rebus author is to take part in a sell-out book group discussion with other authors as part of this weekend's Portobello Book Festival.

During the discussion on Scottish crime fiction - dubbed Tartan Noir - artist Graham Ogilvie will produce a comic storyboard which follows the themes.

Rankin will chair the talk with fellow authors Allan Guthrie, Doug Johnstone, Alice Thompson and Caroline Dunford.

Organisers of the event, which began with a cabaret last night and ends with the authors' discussion tomorrow at Portobello Library at 4pm, have used police tape to mark seating areas and marked the figure of a body on the floor.

Edinburgh-based Graham Ogilvie, who has been storyboarding events across Europe for the past 15 years, said: "Usually I provide a storyboard for a whole event. The idea is that I dip in and out of conversations and workshops and capture what I can.

"My drawings look like caricatures and I do it on a flipchart. It's a great way to make an event memorable.

"Hopefully there'll be a bit of controversy for me to capture."

Mae Shaw, one of the book festival's organisers, said that the authors' discussion, along with the weekend's events would be a big draw for local residents in Portobello.

She said: "We've tried to include as many local authors as we can. We have local crime author Alice Thompson, who wrote the Existential Detective, and Ted Brack, who has written books about Hibs."

Ian Rankin said: "The more local book festivals there are in Scotland the better. And if you're living at Portobello it's not always easy to get to the (International] Book Festival, so it's nice to make the trip.

"I'm just about to write a short story for a newspaper and then I'll start a new novel next month. I've absolutely got nothing, I've not got a title, I've got no plot, I'm just going to sit down and start writing."

Tickets to the event on Sunday at 4pm are available from Portobello Library in advance only, with a small number of tickets available from the venue 15 minutes before the event starts.