Declan Burke

Crime fiction author Sam Blake (right) – aka Irish literary maven Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin – hosts a panel of British and Irish crime writers at the Red Line Book Festival (tagline: ‘Lots of prose. No cons.’) at the Civic Theatre, Tallaght, on October 13th. Quoth the blurb elves:

Crazy about Crime Fiction? Killer Instincts is the event for you! Hosted by Sam Blake, this panel discussion features some of the top British and Irish writers in the genre. Joining Sam will be acclaimed writer Sophie Hannah, whose books have published in 49 languages and 51 territories, crime reporter turned author Cormac O’Keeffe (Black Water), best-selling writer of the Detective Lottie Parker series Patricia Gibney (The Missing Ones, No Safe Place) and Irish Crime Novel of the Year winner Louise Phillips (The Game Changer, Last Kiss).

  For details of how to book tickets, clickety-click here …

The inaugural Bray Literary Festival, founded by Tanya Farrelly (right), takes place over the weekend of September 22nd – 24th, and it would be a quixotic literary festival that dared go ahead these days without at least one crime fiction panel. Which brings us rather neatly to ‘Lady Killers’, a panel composed of Arlene Hunt, Louise Phillips and Sam Blake, who will be talking all things crime fiction at Bray Town Hall on Sunday 24th, from 2-3.30pm.
  For all the details, including how to book your tickets, clickety-click here …

I’m hugely looking forward to taking part in the Irish crime writing panel at the Boyle Arts Festival on July 22nd – they’re a fabulous bunch in Boyle, and looked after yours truly very well the last time I was there. Andrea Carter will be moderating a panel composed of Arlene Hunt, Louise Phillips and your humble correspondent, with the event taking place at 5pm on July 22nd at the Family Resource Centre, Boyle. If you’re in the vicinity – and where else would you want to be on a summer’s evening? – drop on by and say hello. For all the details, clickety-click here …

Liz Nugent (right) had a piece in the Irish Times this week, titled ‘Not Everyone Murders People in Their Sleep’, during which she touched on ‘the rise of Irish female crime writers’:

“I am often asked about the rise of Irish female crime writers in recent years. Maybe Tana French and Alex Barclay opened the doors for the rest of us, and as writer Jane Casey says, women are more attuned to threat. We are the ones looking over our shoulders, making sure that we have our keys in our hands, texting each other to make sure we got home safely.”

  I’d add Arlene Hunt and the doyenne of Irish crime fiction, Julie Parsons, to that list of trailblazers, and further suggest that Maeve Binchy probably had a lot to do with normalising the idea that being an Irish writer didn’t necessarily involve wanting to emulate the Joyces and Becketts of the canon.
  As to why women writers have come to the fore in recent years – we can add Sinead Crowley, Louise Phillips, Annemarie Neary and Andrea Carter to the names above – it may have something to do with the way crime fiction has moved on from the classical fantasy of the lone hero(ine) – Holmes, Poirot, Marple, Marlowe – taking on and defeating bad guys, and instead adopting a more realistic approach to the age-old human fear of the social and personal threat that crime represents.
  Whatever the reason, Liz Nugent is certainly in the vanguard, domestically and internationally, and her next novel, SKIN DEEP (Penguin Ireland), is already hotly anticipated. Quoth the blurb elves:

'Once I had cleared the bottles away and washed the blood off the floor, I needed to get out of the flat.'
 Delphine Hamilton is a fake. She has been living on the Côte d'Azur for ten years, posing as an English heiress. However, her alimony is running out, her looks are fading, and her wealthy lovers are fewer and further between.
 Down to her last euros, and desperate to get out of her apartment, Delphine decides to spend the day at the Negresco where she is caught stealing another guest's meal. He takes pity on her and invites her to a party.
 The guests are young and beautiful and Delphine feels her age, and is achingly conscious of her worn out dress. But after a few lines of cocaine and multiple cocktails, she is oblivious to everything.
 Hours later, as dawn is breaking, she wakes up on the floor of a deserted hotel penthouse. She makes her way home through the back streets.
Even before she opens the door she can hear the flies buzzing and she realizes that the corpse in her bedroom has already begun to decompose ...

  SKIN DEEP will be published in March 2018.

I’m hugely looking forward to getting up to Belfast for the Book Festival on June 10th, where I’ll be hosting a conversation between three of the finest Irish crime writers out there, and who – no coincidence – contributed to TROUBLE IS OUR BUSINESS (New Island Books). To wit:

BBF17: TROUBLE IS OUR BUSINESS - NEW STORIES BY IRISH CRIME WRITERS

Saturday 10 June at 2pm
£6 | £4
at the Crescent Arts Centre

Irish crime writers have long been established on the international stage as bestsellers and award winners. Now, for the first time ever, the best in contemporary Irish crime novelists have been brought together in one volume. Author, editor and journalist Declan Burke will be leading the conversation on Irish crime writing with Louise Phillips, Julie Parsons and Stuart Neville.

Declan Burke is a writer, editor, journalist and critic. He has published six crime novels. He edited Trouble Is Our Business: New Stories by Irish Crime Writers in 2016.

Louise Phillips is an author of four bestselling psychological crime thrillers, each shortlisted for Best Irish Crime Novel of the Year. Her second novel, The Doll’s House, won the award. She is currently working on her latest novel, Dark Day In May.

Julie Parsons was born in New Zealand but has lived most of her adult life in Ireland. She was a radio and television producer with RTÉ for many years until the publication of her first novel, Mary, Mary in 1998. Her subsequent novels, including The Hourglass (2005) and I Saw You (2008) were all published internationally and translated into many languages.

Stuart Neville’s crime fiction has won numerous awards, including the LA Times Book Prize. Stuart also writes under the pen name Haylen Beck, whose debut novel, Here and Gone is due to be published this summer and is in development for the screen.

  To book tickets, clickety-click here ...

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Misery by Stephen King.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
No time for pleasures – guilty or otherwise. Most of my reading is crime and thrillers, detective based. But I do like the occasional short story.

Most satisfying writing moment?
Two really – getting my agent, Ger Nichol was, for me, the first validation of my writing. Then, of course, signing a four-book deal with Bookouture.

If you could recommend one Irish crime novel, what would it be?
Every Dead Thing by John Connolly. For an Irish-based novel, Disappeared by Anthony J. Quinn.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
Freedom’s Child by Jax Miller. It’s not set in Ireland, but Jax lives in Enfield, just down the road! For an Irish-based novel, Red Ribbons by Louise Phillips.

Worst thing about being a writer?
For me it’s finding the discipline to edit my own work.

Best thing about being a writer?
I get to make things up. I can use my imagination and be creative.

The pitch for your book is …
When a woman’s body is found in Ragmullin cathedral, and hours later a man’s body is found hanging from a tree, DI Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. The trail leads her to a former children’s home with a dark connection to her own family history. As she begins to link the current victims to unsolved murders decades old, two teenage boys go missing. She must close in on the killer before they strike again, but in doing so is she putting her own children in terrifying danger? Lottie is about to come face to face with a twisted soul who has a very warped idea of justice.

Who is on your shoulder as you write?
My husband, Aidan, who died almost eight years ago after a short illness, aged just 49. He has been with me in spirit every tap of the keyboard. Missed but cherished.

Who are you reading right now?
Robert Dugoni. My writing has been compared to his and I must admit I hadn’t read any of his work. So I’m catching up now. I didn’t realise he was a US bestseller!

God appears and says you can only write or read. Which would it be?
Write, of course. (However, I might need to be able to read a little in order to edit what I’ve written).

The three best words to describe your own writing …
Dark. Mysterious. Gripping. (I took those words from a review). Though my editor calls it ‘creepy’.

THE MISSING ONES by Patricia Gibney is published by Bookouture.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since TROUBLE IS OUR BUSINESS (New Island) was launched, and the reaction – happily – has been pretty favourable to date.
  First off, hearty congratulations to Jane Casey, whose story ‘Green, Amber, Red’ has been longlisted for the Short Story of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Sponsored by Writing.ie, the shortlist will be announced on October 25th, and if Jane’s chilling story isn’t on it then there’s something very rotten in the state of Denmark.
  Staying with Writing.ie, Hubert O’Hearn writes a very nice appreciation of the anthology, with the gist running thusly:

“Trouble is our Business is a uniformly excellent selection of twenty-four crime stories written by two dozen Irish writers. Not all of them are murder mysteries per se, although some are; not all are identifiably Irish in speech or setting, although again some are. Each one though polishes a different facet of the whole crime writing genre and just as with the wine sampler mentioned above, by the time you are finished reading this anthology you will certainly have discovered at the very least several writers you’ll list for future enjoyment.”

  Over at the Sunday Independent, Hilary White is also very positive about the book, describing it as “One of the essential literary fiction compendiums in Irish publishing this year.” I haven’t found a link to the review to date, but I’ll hoist it here when I do.
  Meanwhile, to coincide with the publication of TROUBLE IS OUR BUSINESS, there’s been a few pieces published about Irish crime fiction in general. RTE’s new Culture website hosts an imaginatively titled piece called ‘Crime Spraoi’, the Irish Times hosts another on why ‘Irish crime writers are a law unto themselves’, and The Journal.ie interviews John Connolly, Louise Phillips and yours truly on why Irish crime writing is having ‘a killer moment right now’.
  Finally, if you’re in the mood to sample a couple of the stories from TROUBLE IS OUR BUSINESS, the Irish Times carries Gene Kerrigan’s ‘Cold Cards’, while the RTE Culture website carries Sinead Crowley’s ‘Maximum Protection’. We do hope you enjoy …

Running from October 6th to 9th, the Los Gatos Festival is a California-set festival ‘in the tradition of Ireland’s famous Writers’ Week in Listowel’. On October 8th, Louise Phillips, Niamh O’Connor and Claire McGowan will take part in a panel discussion on the New Wave of Women in Irish Crime Fiction, moderated by Margie O’Driscoll. To wit:

More and more young Irish women are joining the ranks of established crime fiction greats. What’s that all about? Award-winning Irish crime writers Louise Phillips and Niamh O’Connor [joined by Claire McGowan] will read from their contributions to the new anthology of Irish crime writing, TROUBLE IS OUR BUSINESS (New Island Press, September 2016). The stories in the collection have a distinctive Irish flavour but show Irish crime writing in the 21st century is now playing in international leagues.

For all the details, clickety-click here …

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Definitely The Talented Mr. Ripley. I’m a huge Patricia Highsmith fan and there’s a cool, aloofness to her writing that I’ve often unsuccessfully tried to mimic. There’s so much to love about the book too, the destinations, the unlovable characters and easy, almost effortless way the plot meanders along. I love the power rivalries between her characters too and I think they show up best maybe in this book.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Part of me really wants to answer Nick Corey, from Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson. But that would make me sound like a psychopath, wouldn’t it? Still, the element of charm Thompson gives these absolute maniacs is probably best represented in Nick, and he does get a laugh or two along the way.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Umberto Eco. I keep rereading Foucault’s Pendulum. It’s like the DaVinci Code for anyone who’s actually interested in all that hoodoo, and I definitely am. I keep unearthing weird new facts each time I read it too.

Most satisfying writing moment?
You know, I think it’s when I realise I’ve gone wrong, where I’ve gone wrong and the cathartic effect of scrapping the whole chapter, letting it wash away and getting it right next time, wondering how you ever have been so dumb as to think that previous direction was the way to go.

If you could recommend one Irish crime novel, what would it be?
It would have to be the Book of Evidence. I read it when I was too young to properly appreciate just how good Banville is, but I’ve reread it since and it has the same effect each time.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
I actually think the Book of Evidence could make a great movie. It would take a virtuoso performance from a lead actor though, and a steady director, gradually building tension.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
The worst is definitely always wanting to write. All the time. You’re out on the peer with friends, enjoying an amazing afternoon of ice cream and laughter and there’s this voice, deep within, whispering about how good it would be to sit down in front of a blank page. The best part is when you get to sit down.

The pitch for your next book is …?
A young girl realises her past is a carefully constructed lie and her future has been already mapped out by the powers that be.

Who are you reading right now?
I’ve just finished Ways of Seeing by John Berger, which was a Christmas treat and next I feel like starting up a Graham Greene, or maybe Louise Phillips’ latest, which I still haven’t read.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Read. because I can always write the stories in my head. Then maybe tell them, rather than type. I hope that’s cheating.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Unorthodox, unexpected, uncommon!

Alan Walsh’s SOUR is published by Pillar. For more, clickety-click here …

The very best of luck to all the nominees in the Irish Book Awards, which takes place tomorrow night, Wednesday 25th November. Naturally, we'll be keeping a close eye on the Crime Book of the Year category, sponsored by Ireland AM. To wit:

Hearty congratulations to all the authors shortlisted for the Ireland AM Crime Book of the Year, which was announced on November 4th. There are two things here worth noting, I think – the first is that the recent trend of women dominating Irish crime fiction looks set fair to continue; and that Jane Casey has been shortlisted for what is (by my calculations) the 141st time. Surely that woman’s time has come …
  Anyhoo, the shortlist is as follows:

Ireland AM Crime Book of the Year

• EVEN THE DEAD by Benjamin Black (Viking)

• FREEDOM’S CHILD by Jax Miller (HarperCollins)

• ARE YOU WATCHING ME? by Sinead Crowley (Quercus)

• ONLY WE KNOW by Karen Perry (Michael Joseph)

• THE GAME CHANGER by Louise Phillips (Hachette Books Ireland)

• AFTER THE FIRE by Jane Casey (Ebury Press)

  For the details of all the books nominated in all Irish Book Award categories, clickety-click here …

A last shout for Louise Phillips’ (right) crime writing course at the Irish Writers’ Centre, which begins on February 5th. To wit:

This course covers many elements of successful crime writing – creating tension, pace, memorable characters, effective dialogue, plot and a gripping page-turning story.
  Over ten weeks, workshop exercises and editorial critique will sharpen your fictional voice. Since commencing workshops, two of Louise’s students have achieved publishing deals and another two are signed with agents.
  If you’re looking to start or finish your crime novel, this course will get you closer to the finish line.
  Louise Phillips is the bestselling author of psychological crime thrillers, Red Ribbons, The Doll’s House (Winner of the Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year) and Last Kiss.
  Contact the Irish Writers Centre at 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

  For all the details, clickety-click here …

Gerald Seymour’s Vagabond (Hodder & Stoughton, €20.85) opens in contemporary Northern Ireland, with MI5 shadowing a dissident Republican group trying to buy weapons from a Russian arms dealer. In France, the former British Army intelligence agent-handler Danny Curnow – call sign ‘Vagabond’ – is now employed driving tourists around the historical sites of the Normandy Landings. When Malachy Riordan leaves Tyrone for Prague in the company of double agent Ralph Exton, Danny gets the call he has dreaded for two decades: come in from the cold, there’s dirty work to be done. Seymour’s multi-stranded narrative of dark deeds and black ops is fuelled by an exhilaratingly bleak cynicism. Here the ambitiously self-serving prosper, and the traditionally noble virtues of loyalty, friendship and patriotism are so many exploitable weaknesses. The pace is funereal and the tone elegiac as the story draws together a number of strands of recent history, with ‘Desperate’ Dan Curnow at the heart of the tale and emblematic of the novel’s overall thrust in his beguiling blend of pragmatism, brutality and unswerving faith in the notion of sacrifice on behalf of the greater good. Seymour, who debuted with Harry’s Game in 1975 (this is his 30th novel in total), tends to be overshadowed by John le Carré as one of the great British post-Cold War novelists, but Vagabond confirms that he deserves to be seated at the top table.
  Louise Phillips’s The Doll’s House, her second novel, won the crime fiction award at the Irish Book Awards in 2013. Last Kiss (Hachette Books Ireland, €14.99) is Phillips’ third novel to feature Dr Kate Pearson, a Dublin-based criminal psychologist who assists the Gardai in investigating their more perplexing murders. Here Dr Pearson attends a bizarre murder scene, in which the male victim is discovered laid out in what appears to be a homage to Tarot card scenario. By then the reader has already met the killer, an unnamed character who offers a first-person insight into her motives. It’s an unusual and deliberately unsettling narrative gambit, as the first-person voice affords the killer a chilling intimacy (“I kill people,” she states in the opening chapter) that somewhat distances the reader from Dr Pearson’s third-person account, and the truth and justice she pursues. Nevertheless, the blend of first- and third-person narratives gives the story tremendous pace as Dr Pearson is dispatched to Paris and Rome in the company of DI Adam O’Connor, their personal and professional lives overlapping as they try to build a profile of the killer from her previous murders. The recurring Tarot card motif and references to archetypal European folktales serve notice that Phillips is engaged in exploring the dark matter of damaged sexual identity, and while the third act veers off into potboiler territory, the abiding impression is of the empathy Phillips evokes on behalf of her anti-heroine, who is as fragile as she is lethal.
  The fifth of French author Dominique Manotti’s novels to be translated into English, Escape (Arcadia Books, €11.99) opens in 1987 with a prison break in Italy. Filippo, a petty criminal, and Carlo, a former leader in the Red Brigades, immediately go their separate ways; but when Carlo is subsequently shot to death during a bank raid, Filippo makes his way to Paris, claims refugee status, and writes a novel about his experience. The book’s blend of fact and fiction makes it a literary sensation in France, where Lisa, an expatriate Italian journalist, and Carlo’s former lover, realises that Carlo’s death was a murder designed to cover up political corruption. “People don’t do politics any more in Italy, they do business, it’s the grand ball of the corruptors and the corrupt,” Lisa tells one of her friends, which gives a flavour of the bracing cynicism that underpins Escape. Translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz, and rooted in the radical Italian politics of the 1960s and 1970s, it’s an unconventional tale more concerned with the unintended consequences of writing a political crime novel than pandering to the genre’s traditional pursuit of justice. Indeed, there may well be an autobiographical aspect to the character of Lisa, as Manotti – who was herself a union activist during the 1960s – charts Lisa’s growing awareness that fiction rather than fact may prove the more effective long-term strategy in ‘the battle to salvage our past’.
  Rome-based police detective Commissario Alec Blume returns for his fifth outing in Conor Fitzgerald’s Bitter Remedy (Bloomsbury, €13.99), although it’s a rather offbeat police procedural, given that Blume – recently a father, and apparently suffering something of a nervous breakdown as a result – is taking a sabbatical in a picturesque mountaintop village in order to study herbal remedies. Approached by a local nightclub owner, Niki, to investigate the whereabouts of one of his employees, the missing Romanian dancer Alina, Blume reluctantly agrees, and finds himself dragged into the sordid world of people-trafficking. The American-born Blume has an outsider’s eye for the quirky detail in Italian culture (and particularly its policing), which is given an added dimension here with Blume out of his jurisdiction and the comfort zone of his beloved Rome. There’s an element of the old-fashioned ‘Golden Age’ mystery investigation at play here, with Blume something of an amateur sleuth bumbling his way around a picture-postcard setting, trying to lay to rest some of his own ghosts even as he excavates some long-buried skeletons. As always, the incorruptible Blume’s attempts to locate the truth is given a blackly comic sheen courtesy of the detective’s spiky, morose personality – the deadpan dialogue is often hilariously abstruse – but the comedy is invariably contrasted with the brutality of the crime being investigated, via the missing Alina’s parallel narrative, which details the harrowing experience of being trafficked into prostitution.

  This column first appeared in the Irish Times.

The Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards were held last night, November 26th, and it’s a hearty Crime Always Pays congratulations to Louise Phillips, who won the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel Award for THE DOLL’S HOUSE (Hachette Ireland). I’m delighted for Louise, who is a very popular winner indeed. Quoth the blurb elves:

People say that the truth can set you free. But what if the truth is not something you want to hear?
  Thirty-five years ago Adrian Hamilton drowned. At the time his death was reported as a tragic accident but the exact circumstances remained a mystery. Now his daughter Clodagh, trying to come to terms with her past, visits a hypnotherapist who unleashes disturbing childhood memories of her father’s death. And as Clodagh delves deeper into her subconscious, memories of another tragedy come to light - the death of her baby sister. Meanwhile, criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson is called in to help in the investigation of a murder after a body is found in a Dublin canal. When Kate digs beneath the surface of the killing, she discovers a sinister connection to the Hamilton family.   What terrible events took place in the Hamilton house all those years ago? And what connects them to the recent murder? Time is running out for Clodagh and Kate. And the killer has already chosen his next victim . . .

  Heartfelt commiserations go out, of course, to all the other nominees. For the full shortlist, clickety-click here …

UPDATE: Tonight’s the night! Best of luck to the nominees in the Ireland AM Crime Fiction category at the Irish Book Awards tonight …

It’s that time of the year again, when the Irish Book Awards release their shortlists. I’m delighted to announce the shortlisted authors and books in the crime fiction category, and offer a hearty congratulations to all concerned. To wit:

Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year:

• The Twelfth Department by William Ryan (Pan Macmillan/Mantle)
• The Convictions Of John Delahunt by Andrew Hughes (Doubleday Ireland)
• The Doll’s House by Louise Phillips (Hachette Ireland)
• Inquest by Paul Carson (Century)
• The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey (Ebury Press)
• Irregulars by Kevin McCarthy (New Island Books)

  For more, clickety-click here …

UPDATE: Ahead of ‘Irish Crime Fiction: A Festival’, which begins today at Trinity College in Dublin, I found myself last night fondly remembering the symposium at NYU in 2011 in the company of some of Irish crime writing’s finest. The details remain hazy, possibly because I found myself caught up in an Alan Glynn novel …

For all the details on the Trinity College festival, clickety-click here …

Brian McGilloway is curating the ‘Killer Books’ event in Derry next month, which takes place under the aegis of the City of Culture 2013 and runs from November 1st to November 3rd. Brian took to Facebook a couple of days back to give a flavour of the event, which runs a lot like this:

“I’m hugely excited to be curating Killer Books at the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry, supported by Easons, from 1-3rd Nov. Guest authors include Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Colin Bateman, Stuart Neville, Claire McGowan, Declan Burke, Declan Hughes, Louise Phillips, William Ryan, John McAllister, Gerard Brennan, Andrew Pepper, Alan Glynn, Arlene Hunt, Paul Charles, Dave Barclay, Garbhan Downey, Des Doherty and more. I’ll also be launching HURT on Friday 1st in the Verbal Arts at 7pm. There will also be CSI demonstrations, Victorian murder tours of the city walls, story telling, special kids events and much, much more.”

  For details on how to book tickets, etc., contact the Verbal Arts Centre on 02871 266946.

I was in the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge yesterday, where I hosted a conversation between Brian McGilloway and Declan Hughes for the Kildare Readers Festival, which was – no, really – a lot more lively than the picture suggests. Brian read an excerpt from HURT, which will be published later this month, a follow-up to the Lucy Black novel LITTLE GIRL LOST (which has sold in excess of a very impressive 300,000 e-book copies). Declan, meanwhile, read an intriguing taster from his forthcoming novel, ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE, which will be published next February. A departure from his Ed Loy series of private eye novels, it’s a domestic suspense novel set in the US.
  All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable event. The Kildare Readers Festival is always meticulously organised, hosted in a beautiful setting at the Riverbank, and the hospitality is superb. I bumped into Louise Phillips, who had been speaking at an earlier event, and also Niamh Boyce, who told me that she’d taken part in a writer’s workshop in Castlecomer in Kilkenny many moons ago, co-hosted by myself and Garbhan Downey. I was relieved, to be honest, to learn that I hadn’t put her off writing entirely; indeed, Niamh was holding a copy of THE HERBALIST, her debut novel, which was published earlier this year to a veritable chorus of critical acclaim. Happy days.
  That’s it for public appearances in October, but November is shaping up to be a busy month. Brian McGilloway curates ‘Killer Books’ in Derry on the first weekend of the month, and ‘Irish Crime Fiction: A Festival’ takes place at Trinity College on November 22nd / 23rd. I’ll also be hosting a public interview with Scott Turow at Smock Alley on November 11th, which should be a real treat. If you can make it along to any of those, I’d love to see you there …

The Red Line Book Festival in Tallaght will feature an intriguing evening’s conversation between some of Ireland’s best female crime writers on October 18th, as Susan Condon hosts a discussion between Alex Barclay, Arlene Hunt and Louise Phillips. Also taking part is Joanne Richardson, a former county coroner from Colorado, a state where Alex Barclay has set her last couple of novels. Should be a terrific evening. The details:

Main Auditorium @ Civic Theatre, Tallaght
Friday 18th October, 8pm
Tickets €12/€10 concession
Booking at 01 4627477; boxoffice@civictheatre.ie

A killer evening not to be missed! Popular crime writers Alex Barclay, Arlene Hunt and Louise Phillips share insights into creating a gripping thriller with special guest Joanne Richardson, former County Coroner of Summit, Colorado. Writer Susan Condon chairs this lively panel discussion.

  For all the details, clickety-click here …