Third We Take Manhattan

Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2012 for his debut thriller, THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE, Laurence O’Bryan publishes his third book in less than two years with THE MANHATTAN PUZZLE (Avon). To wit:

A global puzzle. A secret symbol. A conspiracy that ends in death. An international cover-up that could change the course of history …
  Sean has been tracking a symbol from another age. It provides a clue to a barbaric conspiracy. A puzzle with an answer feared for millennia.
  When Isabel wakes to find Sean hasn’t come home she doesn’t worry. At first. But when the police turn up on her doorstep wanting to interview him, she has to make a decision.
  Does she keep faith in him or does she believe the evidence?
  The symbol Sean and Isabel have been chasing will finally be revealed in Manhattan as one of the greatest banks in the world totters. Can Isabel uncover the truth before time runs out … or will she too be murdered?

  For all the details, clickety-click here …

A Tangled Web He Weaves

Writing a great book is only half the battle; getting it noticed is just as tough, if not tougher. Laurence O’Bryan, author of THE JERUSALEM PUZZLE, will be running a one-day course on social media for writers at the Irish Writers Centre next week, with the details running thusly:

Getting Your Writing Noticed Using Social Media
with Laurence O’Bryan

Saturday, 20th July
10.30am-4.30pm €80/70 members
One-Day course
Facilitator: Laurence O’Bryan, author THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE, shortlisted for Irish crime novel of 2012 at the Irish book awards. Laurence has over 100,000 followers around the world and three blogs including www.socialmedia4writers.com

  For more, clickety-click here …

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” Joe McCoubrey

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?
It would have to be ROSES ARE RED by James Patterson. This was one of his early assignments for Alex Cross, and was delivered with such tension that Patterson hooked a generation on his works. The twists and turns of the story, coupled with the down to earth detective having to struggle with the usual fist of domestic problems that face us all, was a blueprint for the way authors should develop their characters.

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
I’d go for Sherlock Holmes. Imagine having all that deductive reasoning? I like the idea, no matter how fanciful, of taking a cursory look at a crime scene and being able to pinpoint exactly how it happened and, more importantly, who did it. These days we’re overloaded with CSI teams, which kinda has the poor old crime writer scrambling to keep up with all the latest forensic technologies.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
Believe it or not, it was Jane Austen who got me hooked on reading! From the moment I started into PRIDE AND PREJUDICE there was no turning back. These days I settle for the inimitable works of Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, and Lee Child. I’ve got to say though that over the past few years I’ve enjoyed a collection of new Indie authors, such as Andy Scorah, Ian Graham and Mel Comley. My current cycle of reading has taken me into the world of Irish authors – what a great collection of books just waiting to be read! I’ve started the journey with Robert Craven, Laurence O’Bryan, Paul O’Brien, Louise Phillips, and a certain Declan Burke! I passionately believe that Irish authors are getting set to rule the world!

Most satisfying writing moment?
It was the moment I brought my first novel SOMEONE HAS TO PAY over the finishing line. I had been working on the story, off and on, for almost 20 years, so it was a big thrill to close it out.

If you could recommend one Irish crime novel, what would it be?
I hate being put on the spot when there are so many great Irish novels to choose from. I remember reading Gene Kerrigan’s THE MIDNIGHT CHOIR some years ago and was struck by the sweep of the topics covered. This was a clever montage of crime that Kerrigan managed to bring together in one of those reads that you want to have at your bedside for long, wintry nights.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
There’s a lot of great material out there that would easily transfer to the big screen. One possibility is the recently released RED RIBBONS by Louise Phillips. It’s got all the ingredients – a serial killer targeting schoolchildren, a criminal profiler trying to get one step ahead, and a few twists and turns to keep everyone guessing.

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
The best thing about writing is letting my characters take me into situations I hadn’t planned for them. Getting them out of there - and realising the story has just gotten better as a result of the detour – is what makes the overall writing journey worthwhile. The worst thing about being a writer is not getting the time to be constantly at it.

The pitch for your next book is …?
ABSENCE OF RULES sees the return of Mike Devon. To some people Devon is a highly trained counter-terrorism operative. To others, he’s little more than a Government- sanctioned assassin. Either way, he always takes the line of least resistance to get the job done, particularly when he’s faced with two al-Qaeda leaders preparing to unleash a new terror campaign against America and its European allies. But Devon also has to deal with a sinister Russian oil billionaire, pulling the strings in a determined bid to return to the days of East-West conflict. He has to fight his way through a plot to blow up the Eiffel Tower, and stop the assassination of some of the world's leading businessmen in a roller-coaster that becomes highly personal. The stakes couldn’t be higher

Who are you reading right now?
THE FORGOTTEN by David Baldacci. It features his latest hero, Army CID operative, John Puller, who is trying to solve the murder of his aunt and stumbles into the sleazy world of people-trafficking. Authors like Baldacci rarely let you down when it comes to a page-turner.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
That would be cruel. I’m totally split between both, but if push came to shove I would have to opt for writing. When I got my first portable typewriter, some forty years ago, I haven’t stopped dancing my fingers across a keyboard ever since. I can’t imagine an existence without the ‘fix’ that creating words on a page does for me.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Fast and Furious!!

Joe McCoubrey’s ABSENCE OF RULES is published by Master Koda Select Publishing.

Get It On, Bang A Gong …

The warmest of congratulations to all the authors shortlisted for gongs at the Irish Book Awards launch last Thursday. It’s no easy thing, writing a book; and it’s harder still these days to get a book published. To write it well enough that it is recognised as worthy of a prize is certainly worth celebrating.
  It’s fair to say, I think, that the books nominated in the Crime Fiction category caused a number of finely plucked eyebrows to be raised at CAP Towers. Herewith be the list:

VENGEANCE by Benjamin Black.
SLAUGHTER’S HOUND by Declan Burke.
BROKEN HARBOUR by Tana French.
THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE by Laurence O’Bryan.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT by Niamh O’Connor.
RED RIBBONS by Louise Phillips.

  Some of the crime fans I’ve spoken with have expressed surprise that two debut novels - by Laurence O’Bryan and Louise Phillips - made it onto the list, especially as there is a category dedicated to Newcomer of the Year, although I’d be inclined to applaud the fact that the judges were prepared to include books by newly minted authors (I was lucky enough to have my debut, EIGHTBALL BOOGIE, shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards when it came out in 2003). Besides, it looks like 2012 might well go down as a particularly quirky year for the Irish Book Awards - the Best Novel category, for example, contains no less than three collections of short stories, by Emma Donoghue, Joseph O’Connor and Kevin Barry.
  It might also be argued that Keith Ridgway’s HAWTHORN & CHILD and Marian Keyes’ THE MYSTERY OF MERCY CLOSE should have been nominated in the Crime Fiction category rather than Best Novel and Popular Fiction, respectively.
  Back with the Crime Fiction category, there are some glaring absences - although to be fair, I have no idea if any of the following books were even submitted for consideration. That said, a potential alternative shortlist would be a rather impressive thing, comprised of the following:

BLOOD LOSS by Alex Barclay.
A JUNE OF ORDINARY MURDERS by Conor Brady.
THE LAST GIRL by Jane Casey.
THE NAMESAKE by Conor Fitzgerald.
THE NAMELESS DEAD by Brian McGilloway.
THE COLD COLD GROUND by Adrian McKinty.

  There were also very fine novels this year from Michael Clifford (GHOST TOWN), Claire McGowan (THE FALL), Casey Hill (TORN), Matt McGuire (DARK DAWN) and Anthony Quinn (DISAPPEARED).
  As for the actual Crime Fiction list, I was particularly pleased to see Niamh O’Connor finally receive the recognition she deserves. I was also very pleased to find my own name there, as you may imagine, especially as SLAUGHTER’S HOUND is a very different book to my previous offering, ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL, which was also nominated last year. Mind you, I’ve said all along this year that it’ll take a hell of a book to beat Tana French’s BROKEN HARBOUR, and given that the only Irish crime novel capable of doing so - Adrian McKinty’s THE COLD COLD GROUND - hasn’t been shortlisted, I’d imagine that Tana French will be scooping the gong on November 22nd.
  So there it is - my two cents on the IBA Crime Fiction shortlist. If anyone has any thoughts, the comment box is open …

A Critical Juncture

Another day, yet another Irish crime writing debutant. CRITICAL VALUE by DC Gogan comes to my attention via the good works of Bryan Roche over at the Irish Crime Writing Facebook page, with the blurb elves wittering thusly:

A research project on homicidal fantasies ...
A murdered woman in the largest university in Ireland ...
Does a psychology student’s thesis hold the key to catching a killer?

Adam Twohig is in his final year of Psychology at University College Dublin. He never settled into the college lifestyle, never plugged into the social scene, and never excelled at his studies. Which is why he’s puzzled when Greg Taylor comes to him looking for help with his thesis.

Greg is studying the homicidal fantasies of UCD students, getting hundreds of written accounts of students’ darkest, murderous desires. When high-profile Entertainments Officer Christine Harvey is savagely murdered, the investigating detective wants access to his data. At first Adam thinks that the police are clutching at straws, but another murder on campus draws him deeper into the investigation.

The secrets buried in Greg’s data force Adam into an unlikely alliance between the Irish police and two FBI agents on the hunt for a serial killer, and put him and his friends in the sights of a murderer whose depravity seems to stand outside everything Adam knows about human psychology.

  Sounds intriguing, not least because it’s been quite a while - when Cormac Millar last deigned to grace us with his presence, basically - since we’ve had a good old-fashioned campus novel.
  What’s most interesting to me, though, is that it’s still only June and I’ve already seen or heard of eleven - now twelve - Irish crime writing debuts. Some are traditionally published, others are e-book only, one - Seamus Scanlon’s - is a collection of short stories; but regardless of format or form, 2012 marks something significant in the development of the Irish crime novel.
  To the best of my knowledge, the list of Irish crime debutants in 2012 runs as follows:

A JUNE OF ORDINARY MURDERS by Conor Brady;
BLOOD FROM A SHADOW by Gerard Cappa;
GHOST TOWN by Michael Clifford;
EL NINO by Mick Donnellan;
CRITICAL VALUE by DC Gogan;
THE FALL by Claire McGowan;
EVEN FLOW by Darragh McManus;
BLOOD RED TURNS DOLLAR GREEN by Paul O'Brien;
THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE by Laurence O’Bryan;
RED RIBBONS by Louise Phillips;
DISAPPEARED by Anthony Quinn;
AS CLOSE AS YOU’LL EVER BE by Seamus Scanlon.

  If I’ve missed out on anyone, or if you have a novel on the way later in the year, please drop me a line and I’ll include you on the list.
  Meanwhile, Louise Phillips (crimescenewriter@gmail.com) is putting together a series of features on debutant Irish crime writers for the writing.ie site. If you’re a new Irish crime writer, why not drop over to writing.ie and introduce yourself? I’m sure she’d be delighted to hear from you.

Philadelphia, Here We Come!

Yours truly had a piece published in the Irish Times yesterday about how the latest generation of Irish crime writers - including Claire McGowan (right), Eoin Colfer and Laurence O’Bryan - are increasingly turning to foreign settings for their novels, rather than set them here on the Emerald Isle. Is this a simple matter of where said novelists are based? A personal fascination with a particular location? Is it a commercially driven development made by author savvy enough to realise that Ireland just doesn’t cut it as ‘sexy’ enough as a location for crime fiction, or an inevitable reflection of our emigrant experience?
  I’m kind of hoping it’s not the last reason, given that my current tome is set here in Ireland, as is my tome-to-be. Then again, this is probably the first time the words ‘Declan Burke’ and ‘commercially savvy’ have appeared in the same sentence.
  Anyhoo, on with the piece, which opened a lot like this:

THEY’RE QUITE fond of Irish crime novels over at the LA Times. Eoin Colfer is better known for his young adult novels featuring Artemis Fowl, but it’s PLUGGED, his debut adult crime novel, that is currently shortlisted for the LA Times Crime/Mystery Book of the Year.
  In 2011, two of that category’s five shortlisted novels were written by Irish authors, Tana French and Stuart Neville; in 2010, Neville won the award for his debut novel, THE TWELVE.
  In a nutshell, those LA Times nominations reflect the wider popularity and critical acclaim Irish crime writers are receiving in the US. John Connolly and Ken Bruen blazed a trail that was followed by French and Neville, Alan Glynn, Alex Barclay, Benjamin Black, Declan Hughes, Arlene Hunt, and more.
  They in turn paved the way for a new generation of Irish crime writers, one that differs from its forerunners in one crucial way: its reluctance to set its novels in Ireland.
Eoin Colfer’s PLUGGED, for example, is set in New Jersey.
  “Originally,” says Colfer, “PLUGGED was set in Dublin but it just never felt right to me, perhaps because noir novels are traditionally set in the US, or the fish I had created was not far enough out of water. When I moved it to New Jersey the whole thing clicked in my head and that’s about as much as I can explain it. It felt right. Daniel was an Irish guy out of his depth in America. As his adopted countrymen might say, it had the right vibe.”

  For the rest, clickety-click here …

Phew! It’s Tana French’s Scorcher …

I have no idea if the image on your right will be the official cover for Tana French’s BROKEN HARBOUR, but I kind of hope it is - it’s all very dramatic, indeed, and pretty timely in terms of where we are in Ireland, with storm clouds overhead and the waves crashing up onto the shores.
  Anyway, the novel isn’t due until next June (boo), but it will feature a minor character from Tana’s previous / current offering, FAITHFUL PLACE, one Scorcher Kennedy, and the blurb elves have been busy already, with their combined best efforts reading a lot like this:

In Broken Harbour, a ghost estate outside Dublin - half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned - two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case because he is the Murder Squad’s star detective. At first he and his rookie partner, Richie, think this is a simple one: Pat Spain was a casualty of the recession, so he killed his children, tried to kill his wife Jenny, and finished off with himself. But there are too many inexplicable details and the evidence is pointing in two directions at once. Scorcher’s personal life is tugging for his attention. Seeing the case on the news has sent his sister Dina off the rails again, and she’s resurrecting something that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control: what happened to their family, one summer at Broken Harbour, back when they were children. The neat compartments of his life are breaking down, and the sudden tangle of work and family is putting both at risk …

  Can’t wait to see this one. And with Conor Fitzgerald’s THE NAMESAKE and Adrian McKinty’s THE COLD COLD GROUND already on the way, Laurence O’Bryan’s THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE due in January, and the perennial offering from John Connolly in the shape of THE ANGELS OF WRATH, 2012 is shaping up to be yet another cracking year for Irish crime fiction …

Time To Talk Turkey

There are a number of interesting aspects to Laurence O’Bryan’s debut thriller, THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE, not all of them related to the novel’s plot. For starters, the back cover of the ARC I’ve been sent tells us that O’Bryan is ‘the second writer to be discovered through the Authonomy programme’. It’s also the first book I’ve ever seen to mention an author’s Twitter followers, claiming over 13,000 on behalf of @LPOBryan (as it happens, the number is now in excess of 15,000). The emphasis on marketing capacity is further enhanced by the fact that THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE has its own book trailer and a number of story-related puzzles for readers to solve. All in all, it’s an impressive set-up for a debutant writer.
  But what of the story itself, I hear you yodel. Well, the blurb elves have been wittering thusly:

Buried deep under Istanbul, a secret is about to resurface with explosive consequences … Alek Zegliwski has been savagely beheaded. His body is found hidden near the sacred archaeological site of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. When Sean arrives in the ancient city to identify his colleague’s body, he is handed an envelope of photographs belonging to Alek and soon finds himself in grave danger. Someone wants him dead but why? Aided by British diplomat Isabel Sharp, Sean begins to unravel the mystery of the mosaics in the photographs and inch closer to snaring Alek’s assassin. Evil is at work and when a lethal virus is unleashed on the city, panic spreads fast. Time is running out for Sean and Isabel. They must catch the killer before it’s too late. An electrifying conspiracy thriller which will entice fans of Scott Mariani, Sam Bourne and Dan Brown.

  So there you have it. Is Laurence O’Bryan the Irish Dan Brown? Only time, that notoriously doity rat, will tell …
  Meanwhile, if you’re in the mood for a taster, you can read the first chapter of THE ISTANBUL PUZZLE here …