While many of us here in the States may think of Ireland as a land of rolling green hills and céilí folk music, it's also home to some great crime fiction. Emotionally impactful, hard-boiled, and suspenseful, this month we take a look at some of the best contemporary crime fiction from Ireland, both the Republic and the UK-governed North.
The reigning queen of Irish crime fiction may well be American-born author Tana French, who has followed up her acclaimed Dublin Murder Squad series with two standalone novels, The Witch Elm (2018) and The Searcher (2020). In the Woods, the first entry in the Dublin Murder Squad series, won the Edgar, Anthony, Barry, and Macavity Awards for Best Debut Novel in 2008. The fourth in the series, Broken Harbor, also won the Crime Fiction Award from the Irish Book Awards as well as the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the mystery/thriller category. The first two books (In the Woods and The Likeness) were adapted for television into an 8-episode limited series simply called Dublin Murders that aired on BBC, RTE, and Starz. (Unfortunately, this series hasn't yet received a DVD release in the United States.)
Unlike many crime and mystery series, the Dublin Murder Squad books don't follow a single protagonist, so you can start with any one. Each book in the series (after the first) follows a case investigated by a supporting character in a previous book. Reading them in order may give you a little more insight into the characters, or context that will make a new perspective on them more surprising, but it's possible to read them out of order or skip certain books.
Dervla McTiernan's Cormac Reilly series is newer on the scene, but the first book (The Ruin) also received numerous awards: the 2019 Davitt Award (for Australian crime fiction by women), the Barry Award for best paperback, and the Ned Kelly Award for best first novel. It was also shortlisted for The Guardian's "not the Booker prize." (Like French, McTiernan is an expat: an Irish woman living in Australia, hence the Australian awards for a book set in Northern Ireland.)
As the series name suggests, McTiernan's Cormac Reilly books follow protagonist Cormac Reilly, a Galway detective, through investigations into murder and kidnapping. Over the course of the series, the novels also deal increasingly with police corruption and the ways in which department politics can impede the process of investigation. Readers interested in police procedural aspects as well as finding out who committed the crimes may find this series especially satisfying.
Olivia Kiernan's Frankie Sheehan novels are also fairly new on the scene, with the first book (Too Close to Breathe) debuting in 2018. Like French's Dublin Murder Squad series, Kiernan's Frankie Sheehan novels focus on police investigation of murders in the Dublin area. The Sheehan series, in addition to following one protagonist, seems to be focusing so far on suburban rather than rural or urban crime. This series would be a good fit for those who enjoy hard-boiled mysteries with a complex female protagonist.
While Gerard O'Donovan's two most recent mysteries are set in 1920s Hollywood, he made his name in crime writing with the Mike Mulcahy and Siobhan Fallon books, which take place in modern Dublin. Both The Priest (book 1) and Dublin Dead (book 2) feature a partnership between a police detective, Mike Mulcahy, and a journalist, Siobhan Fallon. It features a different perspective on investigation than pure police procedurals while still retaining some elements of that style enjoyed by many readers. Investigative journalism is a profession that requires a research skill set that differs from police work, but is still a far cry from the amateur sleuthing often found in cozy mysteries.
The Kate Pearson novels, by Louise Phillips, also feature a procedural-adjacent format with a non-police protagonist in the Republic of Ireland. Dr. Kate Pearson is a criminal psychologist and forensic profiler called to consult on police cases, and while the series as a whole follows her, in each book readers get the perspective (however flawed) of other characters involved in the case. The books also deal with righting or uncovering past wrongs, in the form of unjust convictions or overlooked crimes. First in the series is Red Ribbons, available through SHPL as an ebook. Fans of media about profiling (like Criminal Minds or Mindhunter) may find this especially compelling.
Rather than following the process of detection to solve a crime-related mystery, Dublin native Liz Nugent's novels delve into the psychology of criminals and those close to them. Her first novel, Unraveling Oliver, won the 2014 Crime Fiction Award from the Irish Book Awards, and her third, Skin Deep, won the same award in 2018. All standalone novels, Nugent's books feature obsessive and often unlikable but compelling protagonists. They are ideal for those readers interested less in finding out who committed a murder and more in finding out why they did it.
Siobhan MacDonald, who has lived in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, also writes standalone crime novels. Only her first novel, Twisted River, has received a print release in the United States, but with its focus on familial dysfunction, isolation, and secrets, it may be a good choice for fans of Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware.
