A Murder of Crowe’s

I don’t know what they’re putting in the water in Northern Ireland these days, but we’d hazard a guess that it’s a lot more potent than fluoride. Tony Bailie’s third novel A VERSE TO MURDER (Ecopunks Fiction) sounds like a trippy, kinky murder mystery, if the blurb elves are to be believed:

When police find Northern Ireland’s leading poet with a noose around his neck and his trousers around his ankles they assume it is a case of death by sexual misadventure. However, when Sunday tabloid hack Barry Crowe looks into the dead poet’s background he uncovers blackmail, an erotic trio of muses and experimentation with psychedelic drugs … he also gets off with a foxy PSNI woman with a handcuff fetish. Sex, drugs, violence and some damn fine poetry combine to make Tony Bailie’s third novel A VERSE TO MURDER a stylish, comic and rather kinky read.

  So there you have it. If you were one of those readers complaining that FIFTY SHADES OF GREY could have done with less handcuffs and much more murder, comedy and poetry, this could well be the one for you.

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?”: Matt McGuire

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...

What crime novel would you most like to have written?
Peter Temple, TRUTH. An Aussie crime novel that won the Miles Franklin Award in 2010, their version of the Booker Prize!

What fictional character would you most like to have been?
Dracula.

Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY.

Most satisfying writing moment?
A very short email from an agent to whom I had sent the 3 chapters of my first book - ‘Is very good. Send rest. Peter.’

The best Irish crime novel is …?
Colin Bateman, MYSTERY MAN.

What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway

Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst thing - the blank page. Best thing - the blank page.

The pitch for your next book is …?
Police corruption in the new Northern Ireland. Can you ever really shake off the hand of history?

Who are you reading right now?
Northern Irish writer David Park’s new novel, THE LIGHT OF AMSTERDAM.

God appears and says you can only write OR read. Which would it be?
Read.

The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Tight, lean, original.

DARK DAWN: KILLING IN COLD LIGHT by Matt McGuire is published by Corsair, an imprint of Constable & Robinson, price €16.99