stuart neville

Those We Left Behind by Stuart Neville

I read Stuart Neville’s The Twelve for Reading Ireland Month back in March and was impressed with a thrilling, well-paced crime novel that perfectly depicted a Northern Ireland trying to come to terms with life after the ostensible end of the Troubles. His new novel Those We Left Behind, he has moved on immeasurably from…

No 686 The Twelve by Stuart Neville

Following the shooting dead of a friend in his home during the height of the Troubles, the poet Michael Longley said …when somebody walks into a home where there is a smell of cooking and where BBC Radio is playing music and takes out a gun…they are offending the gods really…they are desecrating civilisation. They…

The Irish Crime Week Giveaway!

Following the Roddy Doyle giveaway last week (which was won by Col at The Only Way is Reading), this week I have a crime related prize up for grabs! As I’m going to be spending the week reading and reviewing Irish Crime Fiction, I’m offering one lucky winner signed copies of Eoin McNamee’s…

The Irresistible Rise of Irish Crime Fiction

When asked why he chose to set his first crime novel in the US, Irish writer John Connolly said, ‘Because in Ireland everybody would’ve known who done it within days.’ Exaggeration aside, in the pre-Celtic Tiger landscape of Ireland, this may well have been the case, but it certainly isn’t nowadays as Irish crime fiction…