Of the 110 books I read and reviewed last year 20 were books by Irish authors, all but two of which were crime fiction. I think that proportion is a reasonable slice of my overall reading and hope to continue in the same vein this year. Irish authors are presently producing some really top-notch, engaging and entertaining crime stories and all the books below are worth a read.
Zugzwang
by Ronan Bennett ***
The
Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke ***
The
Reckoning by Jane Casey ***.5
The
Deal by Michael Clifford ***
Screwed
by Eoin Colfer ***.5
The
Guts by Roddy Doyle ***.5
Graveland
by Alan Glynn *****
Echoland
by Joe Joyce ***
Little
Criminals by Gene Kerrigan *****
The
Devil I Know by Claire Kilroy ****
Irregulars
by Kevin McCarthy ****.5
Landscape
and Society in Contemporary Ireland by Brendan McGrath ***.5
Bogmail
by Patrick McGinley ***.5
The
Lost by Claire McGowan ***.5
I
Hear Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty ****
The
Polka Dot Girl by Darragh McManus ****
Ratlines
by Stuart Neville *****
Crocodile
Tears by Mark O'Sullivan ****.5
The
City of Strangers by Michael Russell *****
The
Twelfth Department by William Ryan ****
Once
in Another World Brendan John Sweeney *****
5 comments:
Rob - Thanks for this summing-up. There's certainly lots of top-quality Irish crime fiction out there to savour.
I'm loving your lists, Rob.
I didn't do so well on my Irish authors last year so will keep this as a handy reference.
Still don't seem to be a huge number of Irish women crime writers getting noticed/mentioned/reviewed. But I shall try one of your Claires I think - the one who reminds you of Elly Griffiths sounds right up my street
Bernadette, I'm presently reading Tana French's Broken Harbour and have Alex Barclay and Ruth Dudley-Edwards on my tbr, so maybe there'll be better balance this year. Others you might look at are Arlene Hunt, Louise Phillips and Niamh O'Connor.
Thanks Rob for the suggestions, I've downloaded the Claire McGowan audio book and will listen to it next; I do have Broken Harbour on my TBR too - I must admit the size puts me off but I will tackle it soon.
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