Out Of The Past

Brendan John Sweeney launches his debut novel, ONCE IN ANOTHER WORLD (New Island), at Hodges Figgis in Dublin at 6.30pm on Monday, June 10th. Quoth the blurb elves:

Dublin, March 1937. Holland, an idealistic young IRA recruit, is offered a strange assignment. He is told to guard and spy on a sinister Hungarian businessman and Sabine his secretary – a Jewish refugee.
  The mission tests Holland’s loyalties and his idealism to the utmost and ends with a sordid shooting match in a field in England. Holland finds himself fleeing with Sabine into the depths of the Irish countryside, where treacherous swamps and dense woods protect them from their pursuers. An intense love affair between two young people from vastly different worlds suddenly becomes possible.
  But Holland’s closest friend in the Movement knows his mind too well, and seeks him out, leading to a confrontation as fateful and tragic as any Irish myth.

  I’ve been struck lately by the number of Irish writers who are writing historical crime fiction. Apart from Brendan John Sweeney, we’ve had in the last year or so Michael Russell (THE CITY OF SHADOWS), Kevin McCarthy (IRREGULARS), Benjamin Black (HOLY ORDERS), William Ryan (THE TWELFTH DEPARTMENT), Joe Joyce (ECHOLAND), Adrian McKinty (I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET), Patrick McGinley (COLD SPRING), Conor Brady (A JUNE OF ORDINARY MURDERS) and Stuart Neville (RATLINES) – and of course, the doyenne of them all, Cora Harrison (LAWS IN CONFLICT).
  I’m not sure what that means, or if it needs to mean anything, but there may well be a PhD in it for anyone who can figure out (or invent a plausible enough reason) as to why so many Irish crime novelists are delving into the past for inspiration.

Life’s A Riot With Spy vs Spy

Suddenly it’s all about the spies in Irish crime writing. Last year we had Stuart Neville’s RATLINES, Joseph Hone’s GOODBYE AGAIN and Michael Russell’s THE CITY OF SHADOWS; this year we’ve had Kevin Brophy’s ANOTHER KIND OF COUNTRY, and we’re looking forward to Brendan John Sweeney’s ONCE IN ANOTHER WORLD and Joe Joyce’s ECHOLAND.
  Joe Joyce has previously published two very well received crime novels, and ECHOLAND (Liberties Press), which will be published in August, sounds like it could be a cracker. Quoth the blurb elves:

Joe Joyce’s ECHOLAND portrays a nervous and divided Dublin. Some see Britain as an ally, others look to Germany for a hopeful future, while some wish to remain as neutral as possible. In this atmosphere of edgy uncertainty, a young lieutenant, Paul Duggan, is drafted into the army’s intelligence division, G2, and put on the German desk. Paul delves into the double-dealing worlds of spies and politics, where ruthlessness, deviousness and occasional violence prevail, before confronting a surprising secret that challenges everything he has grown up believing.