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)

Along Came A Spider, Again

Found guilty of murdering her husband seven years ago, and sentenced to a mandatory life sentence, Catherine Nevin’s (right) story could be headed for a silver screen near you, according to a piece on literary agents by Alison Walsh in yesterday’s Sunday Independent. Written by Liz Walsh and Rita O’Reilly, THE PEOPLE V CATHERINE NEVIN recently secured a film option via the good works of its agent, Jonathan Williams, although no reason is offered as to why the tale of the woman dubbed The Black Widow should be considered movie material seven years on. Spare a thought, meanwhile, for Niamh O’Connor, whose THE BLACK WIDOW: THE CATHERINE NEVIN STORY actually won the battle of the best-sellers in the wake of Nevin’s conviction. Quoth the O’Brien Press blurb elves at the time:

Four years later Catherine Nevin stood in the dock and listened impassively as a jury found her guilty of murdering her husband, and guilty on three counts of soliciting others to murder. The trial had kept the entire country enthralled, as every day more bizarre stories emerged: contract killers, money laundering, the IRA, sexual affairs, plastic surgery, contacts in high places. It had all the ingredients of a bestselling thriller, but this was real life, and with a real victim.

Nope, we’re not really seeing Reese Witherspoon for the movie role …