Event: Louise Phillips in Conversation with Eoin McNamee

Event: Louise Phillips’ Crime Writing Course at the Irish Writers’ Centre

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 …

Reviews: Gerald Seymour, Louise Phillips, Dominique Manotti, Conor Fitzgerald

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.

How To Write A Novel: Louise Phillips

The Irish Crime Novel Of The Year 2013: And The Winner Is …

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 …

The Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year

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 …

Irish Crime Fiction: A Festival

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 …

Derry’s Killer Books

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.

And Into The Riverbank We Dived

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 …

Killer Queens

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 …

Always Be Closing

I won’t, alas; but if you’re likely to be in the vicinity of Galway this Thursday evening, August 8th, do yourself a favour and wander by that emporium of literary wonder, aka Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, where Seamus Scanlon’s collection of short stories AS CLOSE AS YOU’LL EVER BE gets its long overdue Irish launch. The details:

What: Irish launch of crime fiction collection AS CLOSE AS YOU’LL EVER BE by Seamus Scanlon
Where: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Galway
When: Thursday, 8th August @ 6.30
What else: James Martyn Joyce & Alan McMonagle also reading from their books
What else: Tayto & Wine

  Tayto? Now that’s what I call a classy joint …
  If you can’t be in Galway on Thursday, but you’re fond of a well told short story, do yourself a different kind of favour and clickety-click here for reviews of AS CLOSE AS YOU’LL EVER BE. I really can’t remember when I’ve seen so many impressive reviews for a debut title.
  And while we’re on the subject of book launches, Arlene Hunt will be doing the honours on behalf of Louise Phillips’ THE DOLL’S HOUSE at the Gutter Bookshop on Wednesday, August 7th, at 6.30pm. For all the details, clickety-click here …

Well Hello, Dollies

Louise Phillips launches her second novel, THE DOLL’S HOUSE (Hachette Books Ireland), next Wednesday, August 7th, at the Gutter Bookshop. Arlene Hunt will be doing the honours, and festivities kick off at 6.30pm.
  Louise’s debut, RED RIBBONS, was shortlisted for the Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Novel of the Year in 2012, and THE DOLL’S HOUSE sees the return that book’s heroine, criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson. 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 . . .

They Write Wrongs

Author and publisher Arlene Hunt (right) will be running a crime writing course later this month at the Irish Writers’ Centre – it’s a one-week, ‘writing-heavy, intensive course’ that will feature guest speakers Alex Barclay, Louise Phillips, yours truly, and more. Herewith be the gist:

Have you ever considered where you might hide a body? Thought about being the gumshoe who follows clues to find a killer? Daydreamed on a Monday morning where you might like to retire with the proceeds of ill gotten gains? If so, join author and publisher, Arlene Hunt, to explore the underlying themes of crime fiction. Focusing on characters, plot development, story arcs and mystery, we will dissect our story with gory relish. We will explore intent and red herrings, create tension; and ultimately unmask our villain.
  This is a writing-heavy, intensive course that deals with the complicated business of crime fiction. Over five days we are going to develop and craft a functional crime fiction novella to be read on the final day.
  Not for the faint hearted!

  The course takes place from July 29th to August 2nd. For all the details, clickety-click here …

A Horse Of A Different Colour

I’m very impressed with the cover for Arlene Hunt’s forthcoming novel, THE OUTSIDER (Portnoy Publishing), which is due for publication in October. Delicious, no?
  As for what THE OUTSIDER is all about, here’s Arlene chatting to Louise Phillips over at the writing.ie site:

“Living in a small village in Ireland, Emma Byrne has always been considered an odd ball by those who know her. As a child she barely communicated with anyone other than her twin brother, Anthony. Emma’s family are baffled by her. But Emma has a gift, she understands animals - particularly horses - in ways that amaze people and before long folk the length and breadth of the country are lining up to work with her. So why would anyone want to hurt this shy reserved young woman and who was it that tried to shoot her dead in the woods?”

  For more in the same vein, clickety-click here …

The French Connection

You won’t have noticed, of course, but yours truly and his long-suffering family went off on holidays at the start of July, swanning down to the Cote d’Azur for a fortnight of sun, fun, good food and frolics (sample of said frolics, right, taken on the prom in Monaco).
  To be honest, I’m not the best of it yet – I’m still struggling in low gear and trying to get back into the swing of things, which is why this space will very probably remain quiet for the next few days. That said, I should really kick-start myself: I missed a host of stuff while I was away, including a couple of CWA longlist nominations for Stuart Neville and Michael Russell, the announcement of launches for novels by Louise Phillips and Joe Joyce (both of which appear to be launching on August 7th, which is a pity), and the very quiet release of CUT by Frank McGrath, which I suspect will be a crime novel a cut (oh yes) above the ordinary.
  It was a good fortnight, though, a goodly chunk of which was spent on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean with a notebook (and perhaps a cold beer or two) on the table, pen in hand, sketching out the next book. All very pleasant, of course, but I’ve been putting off said book for more than a few months now, and I need to buckle down and write it. I’m dreading the prospect of starting it, because it seems forever since I began writing a new book, and I seem to have forgotten how to do so. Happily enough, that’s generally the case, and a couple of weeks of eating my eyebrows in front of a blank page should soon sort that out.
  Anyway, it’s good to be back. Everyone else well, I trust?

The Irish Crime Novel of the Year

So here we are, halfway through the year, roughly speaking, and I’m throwing an eye forward towards November and the Irish Book Awards and wondering what the shortlist for the Ireland AM Crime Novel of the Year might look like.
  It’s an interesting year in many respects, not least because 2013 is a year in which many of the big names in Irish crime fiction – John Connolly, Tana French, Gene Kerrigan, Eoin McNamee, Colin Bateman, Arlene Hunt, Alex Barclay, Declan Hughes – haven’t published a crime fiction title. That said, the list of possible contenders below contains a number of previously nominated authors, as well as one or two winners.
  Of the 16 titles already published this year, there are at least nine novels that I would consider worthy winners, let alone nominees. And there are a further six titles, that I’m aware of, to be published in the second half of the year.
  If I’ve missed out on any, by the way, please feel free to drop a comment in the box below tipping me off.

  Anyway, here’s the list of possible contenders – in no particular order – that have already been published:

GRAVELAND by Alan Glynn;

THE DEAL by Michael Clifford;

THE STRANGER YOU KNOW by Jane Casey;

THE CITY OF SHADOWS by Michael Russell;

CROCODILE TEARS by Mark O’Sullivan;

SCREWED by Eoin Colfer;

THE TWELFTH DEPARTMENT by William Ryan;

COLD SPRING by Patrick McGinley;

HIDDEN by Casey Hill;

RATLINES by Stuart Neville;

THE POLKA DOT GIRL by Darragh McManus;

HOLY ORDERS by Benjamin Black;

I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET by Adrian McKinty;

THE JERUSALEM PUZZLE by Laurence O’Bryan;

IRREGULARS by Kevin McCarthy;

THE STATION SERGEANT by John McAllister;

ONCE IN ANOTHER WORLD by Brendan John Sweeney;

STIFFED by Rob Kitchin;

  And then there are the novels that will be published in the second half of the year:

THE MEMORY THEATRE by Conor Fitzgerald;

BLINK by Niamh O’Connor;

THE DOLL’S HOUSE by Louise Phillips;

THE CROSS OF VENGEANCE by Cora Harrison;

PURGATORY by Ken Bruen;

ECHOLAND by Joe Joyce;

HURT by Brian McGilloway;

  If you can pick the six titles out that lot that will make the Ireland AM Crime Novel of the Year shortlist, you’re a better man and/or woman than I …

UPDATE: Louise Phillips points out that Arlene Hunt will publish THE OUTSIDER in October. Thanks kindly, ma’am.

Toy Story

Louise Phillips’ debut novel, RED RIBBONS (2012), was shortlisted for the Ireland AM Irish Crime Novel of the Year award, and the heroine of that novel, criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson, returns in THE DOLL’S HOUSE (Hachette Books Ireland). Quoth the blurb elves:

Clodagh Hamilton has never questioned why she can’t remember large parts of her childhood. But when she’s released from rehab following the death of her mother she’s visits a hypnotherapist who, through deep regression, delves into her subconscious - unleashing disturbing childhood memories.
  Meanwhile criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson is called in to investigate a murder along a Dublin canal. She is soon convinced that this murder won’t be the killer’s last but is now in a race to stop him before he strikes again.
  But what links Clodagh Hamilton and a horrific accident 35 years ago to the murder of a television celebrity? As Clodagh grows closer to the truth about what happened to her father - and her sister Emmaline - she unravels a web of lies and deceit over thirty years old. The killer is ready to strike again. Will Kate Pearson discover the vital link to save Clodagh before it’s too late?

  THE DOLL’S HOUSE isn’t published until August 1st but if you’re of a mind to pre-order, you can clickety-click here …

Darkness Visible: Michael Russell’s CITY OF SHADOWS

I’ve been hearing quite a lot about Michael Russell’s CITY OF SHADOWS (Avon) over the last few months, all of it very positive, and most recently from Joe Long – and if it’s good enough for the Long Fella, then it’s good enough for me. Quote the blurb elves:

“She looked up at the terraced house, with the closed shutters and the big room at the end of the long unlit corridor where the man who smiled too much did his work. She climbed the steps and knocked on the door …”
  Dublin 1934: Detective Stefan Gillespie arrests a German doctor and encounters Hannah Rosen, desperate to find her friend Susan, a Jewish woman who disappeared after a love affair with a Catholic priest. When the bodies of a man and woman are found buried in the Dublin mountains, Stefan becomes involved in a complex case that takes him, and Hannah, across Europe to Danzig. Stefan and Hannah are drawn together in an unfamiliar city where the Nazi Party are gaining power. But in their quest to uncover the truth of what happened to Susan, they find themselves in grave danger …

  Over at Writing.ie, Louise Phillips interviews Michael Russell about CITY OF SHADOWS, and during the chat elicited this:

“One of the problems with writing anything historical is that you’ve got to be very careful your characters don’t already know what’s going to happen, and although Nazism was extremely unpleasant, and there was already plenty of evidence of that [at the time the book is set], it’s not the case that people had the knowledge they subsequently learned, so therefore as the writer you have to look at it slightly differently. The association with the swastika flag was important too, and the incident in Chapter 2 came from an old photograph of a tricolour and a swastika flag hanging outside a Dublin hotel, the party held there was reported in the Irish Times as a great party, one for the German community. There were plenty of people who thought, again referring to an old photograph of a branch of Hitler Youth, formed by the German community in Ireland, that they were polite, they were disciplined and in the case of the Hitler Youth on that particular occasion, sang rather nicely.”

  For the rest, 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 …