Making Her Marc

Is it just me, or has it all been about Northern Ireland writers on these pages lately? The latest is Catriona King, a name that has popped up on the CAP radar on a number of occasions over the last six months. THE GRASS TATTOO (Crooked Cat Publishing) is the second in her Belfast-set series featuring DCI Marc Craig, a book that finds the blurb elves in an unusually clipped, staccato mood:

Belfast is in trouble.
A body is discovered at a Belfast public place, with symbolism originating far from Northern Ireland.
The beauty of the Fermanagh Lakelands and Donegal, disturbed by death.
High public office with a dark agenda.
Join D.C.I. Marc Craig and his team as they lead the hunt for the daring killer that leaves a body at one of Northern Ireland's most famous landmarks.
They uncover answers further afield.
THE GRASS TATTOO. The second in the D.C.I. Craig detective series.

  So what’s it all about, then? Over to you, NI Scene:

Set in modern-day Belfast (very modern, each book is released on the date the story starts) the series deals with what King calls ‘ordinary crime’. So, murder, black-mail, extortion – anything as long as it is nothing to do with the Troubles.
  ‘I wanted a story that could happen in Belfast or in Paris,’ King explains, adding with a grin. ‘Once you’ve changed the place-names and dialects, that is.’

  For the full NI Scene interview with Catriona King, clickety-click here …