A taste of Irish Crime Fiction 2016!

There was a terrific Book Event with Penguin Ireland at 37 Dawson Street this month. The idea behind the evening was for authors with novels coming out this year, to connect with book bloggers. I saw many familiar faces there, and it was terrific to be in a room with writers and book lovers.

I caught up with three Irish Crime Writers, all female, and two of which are debut novelists. The first, was Vanessa Rohan, the second, was Bernice Barrington, and the third is an author well known to many of you, Liz Nugent, author of Unravelling Oliver.

All of the upcoming novels sound great, and I can't wait to get stuck into reading them. So here's a taster for you all.....

The Last Days of Summer - Vanessa Rohan, 5th May 2016

She can forgive. They can't forget.

After ten years in the Huntsville State Penitentiary, Jasper Curtis returns home to live with his sister and her two daughters. Lizzie does not know who she's letting into her home: the brother she grew up loving or the monster he became.

Teenage Katie distrusts this strange man in their home but eleven-year-old Joanne is just intrigued by her new uncle.

Jasper says he's all done with trouble, but in a forgotten prairie town that knows no forgiveness, it does not take long for trouble to arrive at their door ...

Sisters and Lies - Bernice Barrington - 24th March 2016

One hot August night, Rachel Darcy gets the call everyone fears. It's the police. Her younger sister Evie's had a car crash, she's in a coma. Can Rachel fly to London right away?

With Evie injured and comatose, Rachel is left to pick up the pieces of her sister's life. But it's hard fitting them together, especially when she really doesn't like what she sees.

Why was Evie driving when she doesn't even own a licence?

Who is the man living in her flat and claiming Evie is his girlfriend?

How come she has never heard of him?

The more mysteries Rachel uncovers the more she starts asking herself how well she ever really knew her sister. And then she begins to wonder if the crash was really the accident everybody says it is.

Back in hospital, Evie, trapped inside an unresponsive body, is desperately trying to wake up. Because she's got an urgent message for Rachel - a warning which could just save both their lives . . .

Lying in Wait - Liz Nugent - 7th July 2016

The last people who expect to be meeting with a drug-addicted prostitute are a respected judge and his reclusive wife. And they certainly don't plan to kill her and bury her in their exquisite suburban garden.

Yet Andrew and Lydia Fitzsimons find themselves in this unfortunate situation.

While Lydia does all she can to protect their innocent son Laurence and their social standing, her husband begins to falls apart.

But Laurence is not as naïve as Lydia thinks. And his obsession with the dead girl's family may be the undoing of his own.

March is a busy month for Irish Crime Fiction....

Well March is another busy month for Irish Crime Fiction, and here are some of the publications due out soon….

A SAVAGE HUNGER by Claire McGowan

The fourth in the crime series featuring forensic psychologist Paula Maguire by Claire McGowan acclaimed as ‘Ireland’s answer to Ruth Rendell’ by Ken Bruen.

Alice Morgan’s disappearance raises immediate questions for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire. Alice, the daughter of a life peer in the Home Office, has vanished along with a holy relic – the bones of a saint – and the only trace is the bloodstains on the altar.

With no body to confirm death, the pressure in this high-profile case is all-consuming, and Paula knows that she will have to put her own life, including her imminent marriage, on hold, if they are to find the truth. A connection to a decades-old murder immediately indicates that all may not be as it seems; as the summer heat rises and tempers fray, can Alice be found or will they learn that those that are hungry for vengeance may be the most savage of all?

PENANCE by Kate O’Riordan

The lives of Rosalie Douglas and her teenage daughter, Maddie, are changed forever when they meet Jed, a beautiful, charismatic young man at Bereavement Counselling. Inexplicably and self-destructively, Maddie holds herself accountable for her brother’s drowning accident in Thailand. Jed moves into their lives and their home. Calming the tensions between mother and daughter. He understands the twisted wilderness of grief. Lover and confidante to a besotted Maddie, gentle surrogate son to a grateful Rosalie – on the surface their lives are transformed. But underneath a deadly and morally corrupt triangle is taking shape…Rosalie commits an unspeakable act which forces her to unravel the truth behind the beautiful stranger in their midst. The truth behind the death of her son. And the true extent of just how far she’s prepared to go – to save what remains of her family.

WHAT SHE NEVER TOLD ME by Kate McQuaile

What do you do when you find out that your whole life could be a lie?

What She Never Told Me pulls you in from the first page in its exploration of love and identity, and the complicated bonds that tie families together. An absorbing read (Karen Perry, bestselling author of The Boy That Never Was)
McQuaile displays great empathy for her characters in this tale of an Ireland where the past can never be left behind (Sinéad Crowley, author of Can Anybody Help Me?

SIREN by Annemarie Neary

HE STOLE HER LIFE. AND NOW SHE WANTS IT BACK.

Róisín Burns has spent the past twenty years becoming someone else; her life in New York is built on lies. A figure from her Belfast childhood flashes up on the news: Brian Lonergan has also reinvented himself. He is now a rising politician in a sharp suit. But scandal is brewing in Ireland and Róisín knows the truth. Armed with the evidence that could ruin Lonergan, she travels back across the Atlantic to the remote Lamb Island to hunt him down. But Lonergan is one step ahead; when Róisín arrives on the island, someone else is waiting for her…

SISTERS AND LIES by Bernice Barrington

One hot August night, Rachel Darcy gets the call everyone fears. It’s the police. Her younger sister Evie’s had a car crash, she’s in a coma. Can Rachel fly to London right away?With Evie injured and comatose, Rachel is left to pick up the pieces of her sister’s life. But it’s hard fitting them together, especially when she really doesn’t like what she sees.Why was Evie driving when she doesn’t even own a licence? Who is the man living in her flat and claiming Evie is his girlfriend? How come she has never heard of him?The more mysteries Rachel uncovers the more she starts asking herself how well she ever really knew her sister. And then she begins to wonder if the crash was really the accident everybody says it is. Back in hospital, Evie, trapped inside an unresponsive body, is desperately trying to wake up. Because she’s got an urgent message for Rachel – a warning which could just save both their lives . . 

PIMP by Ken Bruen & Jason Starr

DEALING… PRODUCING…
ALL IN A DAY’S WORK FOR A DRUGLORD.
OR IN HOLLYWOOD.

Ruined and on the lam, former drug kingpin Max Fisher stumbles upon the
biggest discovery of his crooked life: a designer drug called PIMP that could put him back on top. Meanwhile, a certain femme fatale from his past is pursuing a comeback dream of her own, setting herself up in Hollywood as producer of a series based on her and Max’s life story. But even in La-La Land, happy endings are hard to come by, especially with both the cops and your enemies in the drug trade coming after you…