Look Back Murder One 2021: Murder In The Library

THIS EVENTS HAVE NOW PASSED

 

Murder One are delighted to be supported by the DLR LexIcon for their 2021 events, and will be running a special event in conjunction with the Dublin Book Festival and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.

Join us for our Monday Night Murder Club and get your week off to a deadly start! Our events are online and free but booking is required.

Find out more about our 2021 Murder One authors here.

Event quick link menu, click to book our free events (full details below):

Masterclasses Quick links (click here or see below for full details)

The Murder One Masterclasses are €25 each per person plus booking fees and numbers are limited so don’t leave your booking to chance!

Creating Compelling Characters  with Sam Blake, Olivia Kiernan and Andrea Mara.  Sat 6th Nov 2pm-4pm

Killer Opening Chapters with William Ryan, Nadine Matheson and Femi Kayode. Sat 13th Nov 10.30am-12.30pm

How to Write a Bestselling Crime Novel with Sophie Hannah Sat 20th Nov 10am -12.00

Murder One Masterclass: On the Editor’s Desk with William Ryan, Stefanie Bierweth (Quercus Books) and Sarah Hodgson (Corvus Atlantic) Sat 27th Nov 10.30am-12.30pm

Murder One in the Library Event Details:

Deadly Women with Vaseem Khan

Monday 8th November 8pm      FREE but booking required

Both Adele Parks and Jane Casey have stepped into new worlds with gripping psychological thrillers – both with strong female leads. Vaseem Khan, the award winning creator of Inspector Persis Wadia, India’s first female detective, quizzes them on the what, where, and how, and why women make such compelling lead characters.

Adele Parks was born in North Yorkshire. Selling over 4 million books in the UK and translated into 31 languages, she is the author of twenty bestselling novels including the recent Sunday Times Number One hits Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck. Both optioned for development for TV in conjunction with Netflix producers. She’s an ambassador for The National Literacy Trust and a judge for the Costa. Adele has lived in Botswana, Italy and London, and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey, with her husband, son and cat. Both of You is Adele’s 21st book in 21 years.

Crime is a family affair for Jane Casey. Married to a criminal barrister, she has a unique insight into the brutal underbelly of urban life, from the smell of a police cell to the darkest motives of a serial killer. This gritty realism has made her books international bestsellers and critical successes; while Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan has quickly become one of the most popular characters in crime fiction.

Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know, Jane has been shortlisted four times for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award and longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library Award. She is a top ten Sunday Times bestselling author. Her No 1 bestseller, standalone thriller The Killing Kind is out now.

Vaseem Khan is the author of two crime series set in India, the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime novels set in 1950s Bombay. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was a Times bestseller, now translated into 15 languages. The second in the series won the Shamus Award in the US. In 2018, he was awarded the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Award for Literature. Vaseem was born in England, but spent a decade working in India. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House won the Crime Writers Association Historical Dagger. His latest book is The Dying Day about the theft of one of the world’s great treasures, a 600-year-old copy of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, stored at Bombay’s Asiatic Society.

Book HERE

Crime in the City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 9th November  7pm    FREE but booking required

Presented by Dublin Book Festival in partnership with Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and Murder One

Join Vanda Symon, Awais Khan and Lilja Sigurðardóttir in conversation with Sam Blake for an evening of crime! Crime writers from four UNESCO Cities of Literature: Dublin, Lahore, Dunedin and Reykjavík meet to discuss the influence their home cities have had on their writing, how crime fiction crosses geographical divides and what prompted them to start a life of crime. Also available as a Podcast

Vanda Symon is a crime writer, TV presenter and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the chair of the Otago Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. The Sam Shephard series has climbed to number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. She currently lives in Dunedin, with her husband and two sons.

Awais Khan is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Durham University, and studied creative writing with Faber Academy. His debut novel, In the Company of Strangers, was published to much critical acclaim, and he now regularly appears on TV and radio. Awais also teaches a popular online creative writing course to aspiring writers around the world. He lives in Lahore and is currently working on his third novel.

Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, her English debut shortlisting for the CWA International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon followed suit, with the third in the trilogy Cage winning the Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Guardian Book of the Year. Lilja’s standalone Betrayal, was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Lilja is also an award-winning screenwriter in her native Iceland. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.

Based just outside Dublin, No 1 bestseller Sam Blake is the founder of the Murder One International Crime writing festival, a board member of the Society of Authors and of the Crime Writers Association. Her debut novel ‘Little Bones’ (Bonnier 2016) was No 1 in Ireland for four weeks, remained in the top 10 for another four, and was shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year. It launched the bestselling Cat Connolly trilogy. Moving away from police procedurals Sam is keeping a focus on strong female characters, writing psychological thrillers: ‘Keep Your Eyes On Me’ went straight to No 1 in January 2020 and ‘The Dark Room’ hit the bestseller list in January 2021

Book HERE

Murder Under the Microscope

Monday 15th November 8pm  FREE but booking required

Ex State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy will be in conversation with Professor Jim Fraser in what will be one of the most enthralling discussions online this year.

Professor Fraser is a forensic scientist who has been involved in some of the biggest cases in recent UK history. Professor Dr Marie Cassidy was Ireland’s State Pathologist from 2004 until 2018 and involved in many high-profile cases that grabbed national headlines. The two experts in their fields will draw on their experience to discuss what can and cannot be discovered in the lab, how essential the chain of evidence is, how evidence-gathering must be meticulous and what can go wrong if it isn’t.

Professor Jim Fraser is a forensic investigator who has been involved in hundreds of murder investigations as an expert witness and cold case reviewer. He has given evidence many times as an expert witness. A Research Professor in Forensic Science at the University of Strathclyde and a Commissioner on the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, he has advised many public agencies including police organisations in the UK and abroad, the Home Office, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. He is the author of Murder under the Microscope. Find out more at http://www.jimfraser.net

Professor Dr. Marie Cassidy was Ireland’s State Pathologist from 2004 until 2018. During that time, she was involved in many high-profile cases, including the Stardust exhumation and the deaths of Siobhan Kearney, Rachel O’Reilly, Robert Holohan and Tom O’Gorman. In her memoir, Beyond the Tape, she invites us into the world of forensic pathology, and shares her remarkable personal journey, from working-class Glasgow to becoming Ireland’s head pathologist.

Book HERE

Murder in Mind: Val McDermid in conversation with Liz Nugent

 Monday 22nd November 8pm   FREE but booking required

Number one bestselling crime novelist, Val McDermid, discusses her new novel, 1979, with our own Liz Nugent in what is sure to be a sparky and marvellously engaging event.  In 1979 Val kicks off her first new series in nearly twenty years with the story of Allie Burns, a young investigative journalist whose work leads her into a world of corruption, terror, and murder.

It’s only January, and the year 1979 has already brought blizzards, strikes, power cuts, and political unrest. For Allie Burns, however, someone else’s bad news is the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking, a chance to escape the “women’s stories” to which her editors have confined her. Striking up an alliance with budding investigative journalist Danny Sullivan, Allie begins covering international tax fraud and a group of Scottish ultranationalists aiming to cause mayhem ahead of a referendum on breaking away from the United Kingdom. Their stories quickly get attention and create enemies for the two young up-and-comers. Drawing on McDermid’s own experiences as a young journalist, 1979 is redolent of the thundering presses, hammering typewriters, and wreaths of smoke of the Clarion newsroom. A journey to the past with much to say about the present, it is the latest pitch-perfect, suspenseful addition to Val McDermid’s crime pantheon.

Val McDermid’s novels have been translated into forty languages, and have sold over seventeen million copies. A remarkably versatile writer, as well as novels, Val has written radio plays, short stories, non-fiction and even a children’s book and has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011. In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Liz Nugent worked in Irish film, theatre and television. Her novels – Unravelling Oliver, Lying in Wait and Skin Deep and Our Little Cruelties have been Number One bestsellers in Ireland and she has won four Irish Book Awards (two for Skin Deep). She lives in Dublin with her husband.

Book HERE

A Narrow Door: Joanne Harris in conversation with Declan Burke

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 29th November 8pm  FREE but booking required

Multi genre international bestseller Joanne Harris discusses the inspiration behind A Narrow Door, her writing process and what made her turn to crime, with author, editor and journalist, Declan Burke.

Joanne Harris (MBE) was born in Barnsley in 1964, of a French mother and an English father. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years, during which time she published three novels, including Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche .

Since then, she has written 18 more novels, plus novellas, short stories, game scripts, the libretti for two short operas, several screenplays, a musical and three cookbooks. Her books are now published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, has honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of Sheffield and Huddersfield, and has been a judge for the Whitbread Prize, the Orange Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Award, the Prima Donna Prize and the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science, as well as for the Fragrance Foundation awards for perfume and perfume journalism (for which she also received an award in 2017).

She is a passionate advocate for authors’ rights, and is currently the Chair of the Society of Authors (SOA), and member of the Board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).

Declan Burke is an award-winning author and editor. His novel Absolute Zero Cool won the Goldsboro Award in 2012. Books to Die For (2013), co-edited with John Connolly, won the Anthony Award for Best Non-Fiction Crime. The Lammisters, a comic novel, is published by No Alibis Press.

Book HERE

Murder One Writing Masterclasses

For crime writers everywhere we’ve created a series of masterclasses for you to hone your writing skills and kick start your Work in Progress.

Please note that while all our Masterclasses run on a Saturday, the START TIMES VARY, so please make a note! Eventbrite will automatically send out a reminder link prior to the event but do put it in your diary!

Murder One Masterclass: Creating Compelling Characters

With bestselling authors Sam Blake, Olivia Kiernan and Andrea Mara

€25 plus booking fees.

Saturday 6th November 2pm-4pm Book HERE

While plot is vital in crime writing, characters are the lifeblood of great fiction. If you want your reader to remember your book long after they put it down, you need to create compelling characters that resonate with them. Whether you are creating serial or standalone characters, Sam Blake reveals her process and cross examines her expert witnesses bestselling authors Olivia Kiernan and Andrea Mara on theirs.Find out how to create a character that will captivate an agent and how to build your readership from book to book with characters readers’ cannot forget!

 

 

Murder One Masterclass: Killer Opening Chapters

With multiple award shortlisted William Ryan, Nadine Matheson and Femi Kayode

€25 plus booking fees

Saturday 13th November 10.30am-12.30pm Book HERE

The first 3 chapters of your book are crucial to get right, not only to hook an agent or editor, but to hook your reader – how do you make them the best that they can be? William Ryan will explain the essential ingredients to create a killer opening and is joined by critically acclaimed debut authors Nadine Matheson and Femi Kayode to explain how they did it.

 

Murder One Masterclass: How to Write a Bestselling Crime Novel with Sophie Hannah

€25 plus booking fees

Saturday 20th November 10am -12.00 Book HERE

International bestseller Sophie Hannah will take you through her top tips for writing a bestelling crime novel, teaching participants:

  • how to massively increase your chances of success
  • how to change incorrect, unhelpful and limiting beliefs
  • how to avoid unnecessary suffering
  • how to thrive in the face of the psychological and emotional challenges that life as a writer brings with it
  • how to start and finish the best possible book you can write, and how to use Sophie’s amazing Literary Diagnostics method (which is very different from editing), to take your writing to the next level.

 

 

Murder One Masterclass: On the Editor’s Desk

With multiple award shortlisted William Ryan, Stefanie Bierweth (Editorial Director Quercus Books) and Sarah Hodgson (Editorial Director Corvus Atlantic)

€25 plus booking fees

Saturday 27th November 10.30am-12.30pm Book HERE

Find out what two of London’s top editors are looking for in crime fiction! William Ryan outlines what you need to know to submit to succesfully submit to agents, what goes into your covering letter and how to write a synopsis. Joined by the Editoral Directors of Quercus and Corvus, William has successfully assisted numerous authors to publication – this is a must do masterclass for anyone looking to submit, both William and the editors are ready to answer your questions!

Look Back Murder One Masterclasses 2021

For crime writers everywhere we’ve created a series of masterclasses for you to hone your writing skills and kick start your Work in Progress.

Please note that while all our Masterclasses run on a Saturday, the START TIMES VARY, so please make a note! Eventbrite will automatically send out a reminder link prior to the event but do put it in your diary! Find out more about our authors here.

Masterclasses Quick links (see below for full details)

The Murder One Masterclasses are €25 each per person plus booking fees and numbers are limited so don’t leave your booking to chance!

Creating Compelling Characters  with Sam Blake, Olivia Kiernan and Andrea Mara.  Sat 6th Nov 2pm-4pm

Killer Opening Chapters with William Ryan, Nadine Matheson and Femi Kayode. Sat 13th Nov 10.30am-12.30pm

How to Write a Bestselling Crime Novel with Sophie Hannah Sat 20th Nov 10am -12.00

Murder One Masterclass: On the Editor’s Desk with William Ryan, Stefanie Bierweth (Quercus Books) and Sarah Hodgson (Corvus Atlantic) Sat 27th Nov 10.30am-12.30pm

Murder One Masterclass: Creating Compelling Characters

€25 plus booking fees.

Saturday 6th November 2pm-4pm Book HERE

While plot is vital in crime writing, characters are the lifeblood of great fiction. If you want your reader to remember your book long after they put it down, you need to create compelling characters that resonate with them. Whether you are creating serial or standalone characters, Sam Blake reveals her process and cross examines her expert witnesses bestselling authors Olivia Kiernan and Andrea Mara on theirs.Find out how to create a character that will captivate an agent and how to build your readership from book to book with characters readers’ cannot forget!

Murder One Masterclass: Killer Opening Chapters

€25 plus booking fees

Saturday 13th November 10.30am-12.30pm Book HERE

The first 3 chapters of your book are crucial to get right, not only to hook an agent or editor, but to hook your reader – how do you make them the best that they can be? William Ryan will explain the essential ingredients to create a killer opening and is joined by critically acclaimed debut authors Nadine Matheson and Femi Kayode to explain how they did it.

 

Murder One Masterclass: How to Write a Bestselling Crime Novel with Sophie Hannah

€25 plus booking fees

Saturday 20th November 10am -12.00 Book HERE

Sophie Hannah will take you through her top tips for getting the correct mindset for writing a bestelling crime novel, teaching participants:

  • how to massively increase your chances of success
  • how to change incorrect, unhelpful and limiting beliefs
  • how to avoid unnecessary suffering
  • how to thrive in the face of the psychological and emotional challenges that life as a writer brings with it
  • how to start and finish the best possible book you can write, and how to use Sophie’s amazing Literary Diagnostics method (which is very different from editing), to take your writing to the next level.

 

Murder One Masterclass: On the Editor’s Desk

€25 plus booking fees

Saturday 27th November 10.30am-12.30pm Book HERE

Find out what two of London’s top editors are looking for in crime fiction! William Ryan outlines what you need to know to submit to succesfully submit to agents, what goes into your covering letter and how to write a synopsis. Joined by the Editoral Directors of Quercus and Corvus, William has successfully assisted numerous authors to publication – this is a must do masterclass for anyone looking to submit, both William and the editors are ready to answer your questions!

Look Back Murder One 2020 with Dublin Book Festival

In a year when live performances have had to be rethought, we were delighted to work with the Dublin Book Fesitval to bring you The Murder One Festival  2020 in a series of boutique online events. All events were presented digitally for audiences to enjoy at home.

Murder One with Dublin Book Festival 2020 headline with an event in association with Eason:

Dr. Marie Cassidy, Beyond the Tape: The Life and Many Deaths of a State Pathologist

on 11th October 2020

Former State Pathologist Dr. Marie Cassidy will release her memoirs Beyond the Tape: The Life and Many Deaths of a State Pathologist this October and to mark this Dr. Cassidy will be in conversation to discuss translating her experiences into her memoirs.

“For over thirty years, bodies have been my business. The lucky ones have died peacefully in their own bed, surrounded by loved ones. But, life, or should I say death, is not always like that. This is your opportunity to duck under the police tape with me. Walk carefully in my footprints and follow me into the scene but don’t touch anything, just look. Remember Locard’s principle, every contact leaves a trace . . .”

The ticket price of €20 includes access to this exclusive event via a custom url link and a signed copy of Beyond the Tape. Ticketholders will receive their signed copy of the novel in the post as quickly as possible after its release date on 1st October 2020. Instructions on how to view the event via your custom url will be sent to all ticket holders in advance of the event.

Dr. Marie Cassidy was Ireland’s State Pathologist from 2004 until 2018. During that time, she was involved in many high-profile cases, including the Stardust exhumation and the deaths of Siobhan Kearney, Rachel O’Reilly, Robert Holohan and Tom O’Gorman. In Beyond the Tape, she invites us into the world of forensic pathology, and shares her remarkable personal journey, from working-class Glasgow to becoming Ireland’s head pathologist. A fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of real-life forensics, the intricate processes central to solving modern crime, and the stories from behind the crime tape.

#MurderOneFest2020  #DBF2020 #EasonEvent

The Dublin Book Festival

Since 2006 the Dublin Book Festival has been a mainstay of the Irish writing and publishing scene and a highlight of the literary year. With its special focus on Irish-published authors, the 2020 Festival continues that tradition of promoting and supporting Irish literary voices, both established and emerging. This year the festival will be presenting its programme online from 27th November to 6th December, due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

The festival will be running events every week throughout the Autumn in the run-up to the festival, many in collaboration with publishers, arts organisations and other literary festivals, for families, schools and book lovers of all ages to enjoy from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

The programme will showcase the wealth of talented authors published in Ireland, supporting our home-grown talent and publishers. Events will be presented from many of our usual attractive and intimate venues throughout Dublin city, even if audiences cannot attend in person, authors will bring the unique character of these Dublin locations to their virtual events.

The Dublin Book Festival has always been one of collaboration, and in 2020 the range of these partnerships has grown. The festival will host events in collaboration with literary festivals including Listowel Writers’ Week, IMRAM, Belfast Book Festival, Cuirt International Literature Festival and Murder One, literary organisations such as Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, Dublin City Libraries, Children’s Books Ireland, Poetry Ireland and many more. In a time when the arts are struggling Dublin Book Festival will bring together as many as possible, to work together to showcase the breadth of talent in Ireland today.

Other events include:

Dublin UNESCO City of Literature in association with Dublin Book Festival: Dublin One City One Book: Christine Dywer Hickey in conversation with Niall MacMonagle and musical performances (Thursday 24th September)

Dublin Book Festival and Eason present: Graham Norton in conversation with Rick OShea (Sunday, 4th October)

Dublin One City One Book: Christine Dywer Hickey in conversation with Niall MacMonagle and musical performances  Join us for a special evening with Christine Dwyer Hickey, author of this year’s Dublin One City One Book choice Tatty. Christine will be in conversation with literary critic Niall MacMonagle in the beautiful setting of Kevin Street Library, Dublin. She will discuss Tatty, her varied writing career, and in particular how music influences her writing.

Musical interludes will be contributed by pianist Leonora Carney, trumpeter Colm Byrne and piper Donnacha Dwyer.

Tatty was originally published in 2004 and earlier this year a special Dublin One City One Book edition, with a new introduction by Dermot Bolger, was published by New Island Books. Christine recently won the 2020 Dalkey Literary Award and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for her most recent novel The Narrow Land. This event is in association with Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.

This event will be available to watch online via www.dublinbookfestival.com and www.rte.ie/culture. Please note that you will need to register in advance to watch the event.

Graham Norton, Home Stretch, (4th October)   To celebrate the October release of his new novel Home Stretch, Graham Norton will join RTÉ broadcaster Rick O’Shea in conversation, to discuss his new novel, his writing process, and his love of literature.

This exclusive event will take place with a link sent to all ticket holders in advance of its airing on 4th October 2020. Price of admission includes a signed copy of Home Stretch, which ticket holders will receive by post as quickly as possible after its release date on 1st October. Instructions on how to view the event via your custom url will also be sent to all ticket holders in advance.

Graham Norton’s novels Holding and A Keeper were an Irish bestsellers and loved by readers everywhere. His new novel, Home Stretch begins in 1987 where a small Irish community is preparing for the wedding of two of its young inhabitants. They’re barely adults, not so long out of school and still part of the same set of friends they’ve grown up with. As the friends head home from the beach that last night before the wedding, there is a car accident. Three survive the crash but three are killed. And the reverberations are felt throughout the small town.

Connor, the young driver of the car, lives. But staying among the angry and the mourning is almost as hard as living with the shame, and so he leaves the only place he knows for another life. Travelling first to Liverpool, then London, by the noughties he has made a home – of sorts – for himself in New York. The city provides shelter and possibility for the displaced, somewhere Connor can forget his past and forge a new life.

But the secrets, the unspoken longings and regrets that have come to haunt those left behind will not be silenced. And before long, Connor will have to meet his past.

This event is co-presented with Eason.

The Dublin Book Festival is supported by Arts Council of Ireland, Irish Copyright Licensing Agency, Dublin City Council, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.

All events will be presented digitally for audiences to enjoy at home.

Tickets can be booked at – dublinbookfestival.com

 

Look Back Murder One Writing Workshops 2019

Writing a Best Selling Series with Patricia Gibney

How do you create an original and empathetic character that is strong enough to carry a series? What are the essential ingredients to make sure every book must work on its own as well as part of the series? How many should you write before you approach an agent, and how do you construct a series character arc? Patricia Gibney has sold over a million books, find out her secrets and how to make them work for you!


Pearse Street Library   €25  
Thursday 31 October, 11.00am-1.00pm 
Book now


What’s Your Story? Writing from Life with Shane Dunphy

Are you planning to fictionalise elements of your life or write a memoir? Find out the essential first steps and the key techniques of fiction writing that will make your story leap off the page. Shane Dunphy is an Irish and London Times bestseller, and the movie adaptation of his memoir, The Boy They Tried to Hide, is in development with Hollywood production company Rumble Films. His series of non-fiction titles, relating the years he spent as a child protection worker, have been internationally successful and sold in
translation across several territories. These include the Number 1 bestseller Wednesday’s Child, and The Girl Who Couldn’t Smile, which spent five weeks on the London Times Top 10 list.


Pearse Street Library   €25
Thursday 31 October, 2.00pm-4.00 pm
Book now


Plot the Perfect Murder with Catherine Ryan Howard

Learn how to plot the perfect crime novel with Dagger and Edgar shortlisted crime author Catherine Ryan Howard. This workshop will explore the mechanics of storytelling and the best methods for taking your idea from brain to blurb. Catherine will share each step of her own process, from interrogating the initial idea to getting to ‘THE END’ of the first draft, with lots of Post-It Notes in between. Even if you’re more of a pantser than a plotter, this workshop will offer techniques, tips and tricks that will help you strengthen your storytelling and keep your readers turning the page.


Pearse Street Library    €25
Friday 1 November, 11.00am-1.00pm
Book now


Breaking Bad with Liz Nugent

Before becoming a full-time writer, Liz Nugent worked in Irish film, theatre and television. At the 2018 Irish Book Awards, Liz enjoyed a rare double success, winning both Crime Fiction Book of the Year and the Ryan Tubridy Show Listeners’ Choice Award for Skin Deep, her third bestseller. Unravelling Oliver and Lying in Wait were previous winners in the same category. In 2017, Liz was named Irish Woman of the Year in Literature. In this Masterclass, Liz will talk about the core principles of writing drama that can apply to tv, radio, cinema or novels. Using the pilot episode of Breaking Bad as a teaching tool, she will examine plot, dialogue, characterisation, structure and awareness of the medium in question. Participants are required to bring only a pen, paper and their imagination!


Pearse Street Library    €25
Friday 1 November, 2.00pm-5.00pm
Book now


 

Jeffery Deaver 24th May 2019

Jeffery Deaver is the No.1 international bestselling author of more than thirty novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into 25 languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.

He’s received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. A former journalist, folksinger, and attorney, he was born outside of Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.

Deaver’s  stunning new thriller,  The Never Game, the first in an exciting series featuring enigmatic investigator Colter Shaw is out on 16th May. Join Jeffery Deaver on 24th May at 7.30pm in Dublin’s stunning City Hall where he will be in conversation with Declan Burke


Book now
The Never Game is a gripping page-turner that in true Deaver style will keep you awake all night:

The killer is changing the rules. One murder at a time . . .

You wake up all alone, in the middle of a forest, miles from anywhere.

Beside you lie five objects – a lighter, grease, picture-frame wire, a piece of silk, a bottle of water – which you will need to use if you want to survive.

You’ve been taken by the Whispering Man and there is no escape. He makes the rules and nobody ever gets out alive.

Enigmatic investigator Colter Shaw is fighting to stop the murders. But another victim has been snatched from her family and he’s running out of time.

In the darkest corner of Silicon Valley, a new breed of killer is emerging: someone with a deadly obsession, whose twisted game is spiralling out of control.

The Never Game is the very definition of a page-turner’ IAN RANKIN

Masterful storytelling — The Never Game is Deaver’s most riveting, most twisty, most unputdownable novel yet.’ KARIN SLAUGHTER

‘As always, Deaver gets you in his stealthy grip on page one, and then takes you on a wild and inventive ride …this time with new star character Colter Shaw.  No one in the world does this kind of thing better than Deaver’ LEE CHILD

‘Jeffery Deaver scores yet again with a fascinating new detective, Colter Shaw, and a plot as full of thrills and twists and turns as you would expect from him. With The Never Game you know you are in the hands of a master. But be warned—don’t start this too late in the evening because sleep would be an annoying interruption once you’ve started reading!’ PETER ROBINSON

You can visit his website at www.JefferyDeaver.com

Or you can see him in person on 24th May in Dublin’s stunning City Hall at 7.30pm.

Tickets €15, €12


Book now

The Never Game will be available for sale on the night.

James Ellroy May 30th 2019

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed ‘LA Quartet’: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz. His novel Blood’s a Rover completes the magisterial ‘Underworld USA Trilogy’– the first two volumes of which (American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand) were both Sunday Times
bestsellers. His most recent novel, Perfidia, is the first instalment in Ellroy’s second ‘L.A.Quartet’.

Like Perfidia, the first volume, This Storm is populated with characters from
Ellroy’s previous novels – including arch villain Dudley Smith from L.A. Confidential – in a grand drama of L.A. This Storm is Ellroy’s first novel in five years, and only his fifth in the last twenty.

Jame Ellroy will be in conversation with Eoin McNamee in Dublin’s stunning City Hall, on Thursday 30th May  at Midsummer Murder One

Book now
From ‘one of the great American writers of our time’ (Los Angeles Times BookReview) – This Storm is a brilliant historical crime novel, a pulse-pounding, as-it-happens narrative that unfolds in Los Angeles and Mexico in the wake of Pearl Harbor.

January, ’42. L.A. reels behind the shock of Pearl Harbor. Local Japanese are rounded up and slammed behind bars. Massive thunderstorms hit the city. A body is unearthed in Griffith Park.

The cops tag it a routine dead-man job. They’re wrong. It’s an early-warning signal of Chaos. There’s a murderous fire and a gold heist, exploding out of the past. There’s Fifth Column treason – at this moment, on American soil. There are homegrown Nazis, commies and race racketeers. There’s two dead cops in a dive off the jazz-club strip. And three men and one woman have a hot date with History.

Elmer Jackson is a corrupt Vice cop. He’s a flesh peddler and a bagman for the L.A. Chief of Police. Hideo Ashida is a crime-lab whiz, lashed by anti-Japanese rage. Dudley Smith is a PD hardnose working Army Intelligence. He’s gone rogue and gone all-the-way fascist. Joan Conville was born rogue. She’s a defrocked Navy lieutenant and a war profiteer to
her core.

This Storm is James Ellroy’s most audacious novel yet. It is by turns savage, tender, elegiac. It lays bare and celebrates crazed Americans of all stripes.

‘There has never been a writer like James Ellroy.’ – Telegraph
‘The master of American crime fiction.’ – Sunday Times
‘There surely can’t be a more richly or brutally realised city in world literature than James Ellroy’s Los Angeles.’ – Independent on Sunday
Perfidia: ‘James Ellroy is back doing what he does best, weaving a tangle of tales set in wartime Los Angeles…I look forward, eagerly, to the next three instalments.’ – The Times

Find out more at www.jamesellroy.net

Or see James Ellory in conversation with Eoin MacNamee in Dublin’s stunning City Hall on Thursday 30th May 2019 at 7.30pm.

Tickets €15, €12


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Pick up your copy and get it signed on the night!

 

 

Karin Slaughter 13th June 2019

Karin Slaughter is already a No. 1 bestselling author and worldwide household name, with over 35 MILLION copies sold – and is now set to become even bigger with a gripping new crime thriller featuring Will Trent and Sara Linton  The Last Widow, Karin’s first book following Will Trent and Sara Linton for 3 years.

One of the world’s most popular and acclaimed storytellers, Karin is published in 37 languages. Her eighteen novels include the Grant County and Will Trent books, as well as the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and the instant New York Times bestselling novels Pretty Girls and The Good Daughter. A native of Georgia, Karin currently lives in Atlanta. Her novels Cop TownThe Good Daughterand Pieces of Her are all in development for film and television.

Karin Slaughter will be in conversation with RTE’s Sinead Crowley in Dublin’s stunning City Hall on Thursday 13th June at 7.30pm. Tickets €15, €12
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The Last Widow begins with an abduction. The routine of a family shopping trip is shattered when Michelle Spivey is snatched as she leaves the mall with her young daughter. The police search for her, her partner pleads for her release, but in the end…they find nothing. It’s as if she disappeared into
thin air.

A month later, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, medical examiner Sara
Linton is at lunch with her boyfriend Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation. But the serenity of the summer’s day is broken by
the wail of sirens.

Sara and Will are trained to help in an emergency. Their jobs – their
vocations – mean that they run towards a crisis, not away from it. But on
this one terrible day that instinct betrays them both. Within hours the
situation has spiralled out of control; Sara is taken prisoner; Will is forced
undercover. And the fallout will lead them into the Appalachian mountains,
to the terrible truth about what really happened to Michelle, and to a remote
compound where a radical group has murder in mind…

I’d follow her anywhere’ Gillian Flynn
‘One of the boldest thriller writers working today’ Tess Gerritsen
‘Her characters, plot, and pacing are unrivaled’ Michael Connelly
‘Passion, intensity, and humanity’ Lee Child
‘A writer of extraordinary talents’ Kathy Reichs
‘Fiction doesn’t get any better than this’ Jeffery Deaver
‘A great writer at the peak of her powers’ Peter James
‘Karin Slaughter has – by far – the best name of all of us mystery novelists’ James Patterson
‘Raw, powerful and utterly gripping’ Kathryn Stockett
‘With heart and skill Karin Slaughter keeps you hooked from the first page until the last’ Camilla Lackberg

Find out more at www.karinslaughter.com

Or come to listen to Karin reveal what makes an international bestseller and the story behind Will Trent and Sara Linton on Thursday 13th June at 7.30pm at Dublin’s City Hall.

Tickets €15, €12


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Pick up your copy of The Last Widow and get it signed on the night!

Jane Harper 16th July 2019

Jane Harper is the author of international bestsellers The Dry, Force of Nature and The Lost Man. Her books are published in more than 35 territories worldwide.

Jane has won numerous top awards including the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year and the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year.

The Dry is to made into a major motion picture starring Eric Bana as Aaron Falk; filming concluded in April.

Jane will be in conversation with one of Ireland’s most successful Irish female crime writers, Liz Nugent, at CITY HALL (please note VENUE CHANGE) on 16th July.

Jane was born in Manchester in the UK, and moved to Australia with her family at age eight. She spent six years in Boronia, Victoria, and during that time gained Australian citizenship. Returning to the UK with her family as a teenager, she lived in Hampshire before studying English and History at the University of Kent in Canterbury.

On graduating, she completed a journalism entry qualification and got her first reporting job as a trainee on the Darlington & Stockton Times in County Durham. Jane worked for several years as a senior news journalist for the Hull Daily Mail, before moving back to Australia in 2008.

She worked first on the Geelong Advertiser, and in 2011 took up a role with the Herald Sun in Melbourne.

In 2014, Jane submitted a short story which was one of 12 chosen for the Big Issue’s annual Fiction Edition. This inspired her to pursue creative writing more seriously, breaking through with The Dry at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in 2015.

The Lost Man is Jane’s latest blockbuster…

Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of outback Queensland.

They are at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron.

The Bright family’s quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish.

Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he lose hope and walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects…

The Lost Man is on sale in Australia and New Zealand (Pan Macmillan), the United States (Flatiron Books) and the United Kingdom (Little, Brown). The Lost Man has also been sold to more than 20 foreign language territories.

Jane will be in conversation with one of Ireland’s most successful Irish female crime writers, Liz Nugent, at CITY HALL (please note VENUE CHANGE), Dame Street, Dublin 2 on 16th July.


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Author Liz Nugent Picture: Maura Hickey

Liz first began to write for broadcast in 2003. Between 2003 and 2013, she worked as a Story Associate on the popular television soap opera Fair City. She had several pieces accepted for Sunday Miscellany, a radio series on RTE Radio 1 specialising in nostalgic autobiographical writing.
Subsequently, she had two children’s stories accepted by the Fiction 15 series for the same broadcaster.

In 2006, her first short story for adults, Alice, was shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story Prize. Liz went on to write a children’s animation series called The Resistors for TG4. Her half-hour drama, The Appointment was one of four winners chosen to be broadcast live on TG4 in the Seomra Sé series. Liz’s radio drama, Appearances, represented Ireland at the New York Festivals in 2008. She was the winner of an EATC bursary and writing workshops in Geneva and Berlin for pilot episode of drama series Campus in 2007.

Liz’s first novel Unravelling Oliver was published to critical and popular acclaim in Ireland in March 2014. It quickly became a firm favourite with book clubs and reader’s groups. In November of that year, it went on to win the Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and was long listed for the International Dublin Literature Prize 2016. She was also the winner of the inaugural Jack Harte Bursary provided by the Irish Writers Centre and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Dec 2014.

Her second novel, Lying in Wait, was released in July 2016. It went straight to number 1 in the Irish Bestseller lists, remaining there for nine weeks and spent eight months in the top ten.

In September 2016, Liz was awarded the Ireland Funds Monaco bursary and went to Monaco for a month to write in the Princess Grace Irish library.
In November 2016, Lying in Wait won the RTE Ryan Tubridy Show Listener’s Choice Award at the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards. The book was also shortlisted in the Crime Fiction category. It has been long listed for the Dublin International Literary Award 2018.

Lying in Wait was chosen as part of the Spring 2017 list for the very prestigious Richard & Judy Book Club in the UK. In April 2017, Lying in Wait was the winner of the Reader’s Choice Award of the Richard & Judy Spring List. Lying in Wait will be published in the U.S. in June 2018.

Liz was honoured to win the Irish Tatler Woman of the Year award in Literature in October 2017.

Her third novel, Skin Deep was published by Penguin books in the UK and Ireland in Spring 2018 and again hit the bestseller list.

Adrian McKinty 23rd July 2019

Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in a working class housing project in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the worst decades of the Troubles. He attended Oxford University on a full scholarship to study philosophy. He fell in love with a girl there and followed her to New York City where he worked as an illegal in bars and building sites and as a Teamster driver for three years before marrying the girl and becoming a US citizen. He taught high school in Denver and Boulder before moving to Melbourne Australia where he decided to write full time.

His Sean Duffy series has currently sold in excess of 250,000 copies since its debut in 2012.

Adrian has won the Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award, the Audie Award and the Anthony Award. He has been shortlisted for the Dagger Award, Theakston Crime Novel of the Year Award and the Prix du Meilleurs Polar.

His debut crime novel Dead I Well May Be was short-listed for the CWA Steel Dagger Award 2004 and was picked as the best debut crime novel of 2003 by the American Library Association.

His debut young adult novel The Lighthouse Land was shortlisted for the 2008 Young Hoosier Award and the 2008 Beehive Award.

The Dead Yard was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 Best Novels of 2006 and won the 2007 Audie Award for best thriller/suspense.

Fifty Grand won the 2010 Spinetingler Award for best novel and was long-listed for the 2011 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.

Audible.com selected Falling Glass as the Best Mystery or Thriller of 2011.

The Cold Cold Ground won the 2013 Spinetingler Award for best crime novel, was shortlisted for The 2013 Prix Du Meilleur Polar and was shortlisted for the 2015 Prix SNCF Du Polar.

I Hear The Sirens In The Street won the 2014 Barry Award for best mystery novel (paperback original), was shortlisted for best crime novel at the 2013 Ned Kelly Awards, was shortlisted for the 2014 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and for the 2014 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the year Award.

In The Morning I’ll Be Gone won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for best fiction, was shortlisted for the 2015 Audie Award For Best Thriller and was named as one of the 10 best crime novels of 2014 by the American Library Association.

Gun Street Girl was shortlisted for the 2016 Edgar Award (best pbk original), the 2015 Ned Kelly Award, the 2016 Anthony Award (best pbk original), the 2016 Audie Award for Best Mystery, was a Boston Globe “Best Book of 2015” and an Irish Times “Best Crime Novel of 2015.”

Rain Dogs was shortlisted for the 2016 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the 2016 Ned Kelly Award and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 2016.

His latest novel The Chain is already garnering critical acclaim:

“This nightmarish story is incredibly propulsive and original. You won’t shake it for a long time.”
STEPHEN KING

“McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years. His plots tempt you to read at top speed, but don’t give in: this writing – sharply observant, intelligent and shot through with black humor – should be savored.”
TANA FRENCH
“A masterpiece. You have never read anything quite like THE CHAIN and you will never be able to forget it.”
DON WINSLOW
* * * * *

YOUR PHONE RINGS.A STRANGER HAS KIDNAPPED YOUR CHILD.

TO FREE THEM YOU MUST ABDUCT SOMEONE ELSE’S CHILD.

YOUR CHILD WILL BE RELEASED WHEN YOUR VICTIM’S PARENTS KIDNAP ANOTHER CHILD.

IF ANY OF THESE THINGS DON’T HAPPEN:
YOUR CHILD WILL BE KILLED.

YOU ARE NOW PART OF THE CHAIN

Adrian McKinty is in Dublin on  23rd July at Pearse Street Library


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