The TIES That Bind

Off with yours truly to the Fingal Readers’ Day in Blanchardstown in north Dublin yesterday, there to take lunch with the ever-lovely Niamh O’Connor, whose BLOOD TIES was published last week by Transworld Ireland. Quoth the blurb elves:

Husband against wife … Wife against husband … Discover what happens when the bonds of family break …
  Find out more about the gruesome case of the so-called ‘Scissor Sisters’, whose bloody slaughter of their mother’s lover ended with an unsolved mystery as to the final resting place of the victim’s head – see the only interview with killer Charlotte Mulhall since she entered prison.
  Read the most up-to-date account of the murder of mother-of-two Rachel O’Reilly, including her husband’s latest appeal.
  And get the full story behind the sensational case of Sharon Collins and the ‘Lying Eyes’ hitman-for-hire scandal.
  As a leading crime reporter for the Sunday World, Niamh O’Connor has interviewed killers, has sat in court as justice was done, and spoken to the condemned in prison to give us the inside stories on three of Ireland’s most notorious murder cases.

  Meanwhile, the point of the Blanchardstown excursion for yours truly was to interview Stuart Neville, whose terrific novel THE TWELVE is about to be published Stateside as the equally terrific THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST. Stuart being a self-confessed ‘affable chap’, it was all very pleasant indeed, with none of the pyrotechnics you can probably expect when Stuart hosts James Ellroy at Belfast’s Waterfront on November 7th, in a gig organised by No Alibis. To wit:

No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to announce that we will be hosting an event with none other than the Demon Dog of American crime fiction, James Ellroy, in early November to celebrate the release of the final book in his Underworld USA trilogy, BLOOD’S A ROVER. This event will be held in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, on Saturday 7th November at 8:00PM. Tickets are now on sale, and are priced £12.

  Twelve quid to see James Ellroy, when it was eighty-odd quid to see Beyoncé earlier this year? Now that’s a steal …

The Right Kind Of BLOOD

Another week, another Irish crime fiction writer. Sunday World crime correspondent Niamh O’Connor’s best-selling non-fiction book THE BLACK WIDOW goes out in paperback next month, with an update on the story of ‘the life and crimes of Catherine Nevin’, but a little birdie cheep-a-cheep-cheeps to the effect that Niamh will be publishing her first crime fiction opus next year, when IF I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN arrives courtesy of Transworld Ireland. No details as to plot et al just yet, but I’m hearing rumours of Lynda LaPlante-style shenanigans. I’ll keep you posted …
  As if that wasn’t enough, Niamh has another non-fiction true crime book arriving later this year, when BLOOD TIES hits the streets.
  I was on a panel with Niamh a couple of months ago, alongside the über-glam* Alex Barclay, so I got in touch with Niamh earlier in the week, to see if I couldn’t pick her brains about a character I’m working on in a new story. She was incredibly helpful. “Anything you want to know,” she said, “just ask.” So I said, “Okay, my character is radiantly gorgeous. How does a girl manage to pull that off and be brilliant at the same time?”
  It was all downhill from there, really …

* (that umlaut’s for you, Ms Witch)