24 December 2017

Sherlock Holmes: the Irish connections


A documentary on Irish radio station Newstalk investigates the numerous Irish connections of Sherlock Holmes - and asks why the detective is as popular as ever.

29 November 2017

Julie Parsons wins Irish Crime Novel of Year


Julie Parsons has won the Best Irish Crime Novel of the Year award at this year's Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. Her thriller The Therapy House is her first novel in nine years.

3 November 2017

Voting begins for Irish crime book of the year


Voting is under way in the 12th annual Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards.

4 October 2017

BBC green light for Tana French drama series


The BBC has given the green light for an eight-part adaptation of Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series of novels. Deadline reports that filming will begin in Dublin and Belfast next year. Euston Films and Veritas Entertainment Group optioned the rights in 2015 and have joined up with Irish production company Element Pictures.

28 September 2017

Haughey stars in Peter Cunningham thriller


Peter Cunningham's latest novel Acts of Allegiance (2017) is an espionage thriller set at the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and includes characters based on real people such as politician Charlie Haughey.

21 September 2017

'Lady Killers' at Bray Literary Festival

Crime fiction authors Arlene Hunt, Louise Phillips and Sam Blake will take part in the "Lady Killers" panel discussion at the Bray Literary Festival this Sunday, 24 September 2017. The event takes place in the Town Hall at 2 pm.

12 September 2017

New Belfast thriller by John Steele


John Steele's debut novel Ravenhill is a thriller set in his home town of Belfast. It is the first book in a series featuring Jackie Shaw, and has been described by Tony Parsons as "a taut, intelligent thriller that ranks as the best Belfast thriller since Harry's Game by Gerald Seymour".

4 September 2017

Irish authors at 'Bloody Scotland' festival


Irish author Liz Nugent explores Celtic and criminal connections with Scottish writer Denise Mina this Sunday as part of the Bloody Scotland festival. It takes place in Stirling from 8-10 September.

22 June 2017

Domestic noir debut by OfficeMum blogger


Andrea Mara is a freelance writer and award-winning blogger (OfficeMum.ie) who lives with her family in Dun Laoghaire.

Published by Poolbeg, her debut novel The Other Side of the Wall was partly inspired by the constant night-time waking of her youngest child - though Andrea is quick to point out that unlike her main character she never saw a body in the neighbours' garden!

16 June 2017

Crime fiction panel at Boyle Arts Festival


Declan Burke, Louise Phillips, Arlene Hunt and Andrea Carter will take part in a crime writing panel at the Boyle Arts Festival on 22 July, in the Family Resource Centre at 5 pm.

15 June 2017

Jack Holland (1947-2004)


Belfast-born writer Jack Holland was a journalist, novelist, poet and crime fiction author.

12 June 2017

'Dalkey Noir': rise of female thriller writers


Authors Jane Casey, Liz Nugent and Sinead Crowley will talk about the rise of the female thriller writers who dominate the bestseller lists in "Dalkey Noir", in the Masonic Lodge in Dalkey on Saturday 17 June. The morning event is part of this year's Dalkey Book Festival.

30 May 2017

Video: Chris O'Dowd in latest 'Get Shorty'



Chris O'Dowd and Ray Romano are set to star in the 10-episode reimagining of Elmore Leonard's thriller comedy novel Get Shorty, and Epix has just released the official trailer.

26 May 2017

'Noireland' crime fiction festival for Belfast


Noireland is a new international crime fiction festival in Belfast. It will take place at the Europa Hotel from 27 to 29 October 2017. Further details soon on Noireland.com.

23 May 2017

Irish film 'Sacred Deer' is big hit in Cannes



Revenge movie The Killing of a Sacred Deer has been a big hit with the critics at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and the Irish production from Element Pictures has already been tipped as a Palme d’Or contender.

17 May 2017

Graphic novel 'Savage Town' set in Limerick


Savage Town is a forthcoming graphic novel set in Limerick at the turn of the millennium, and revolves around a gangland criminal called Jimmy "Hardy" Savage.

15 May 2017

Crime times at Belfast Book Festival


There are numerous crime fiction related events at the Crescent Arts Centre in this year's Belfast Book Festival.

11 May 2017

John Connolly on his latest Charlie Parker



Bestselling author John Connolly drops by Easons HQ to chat to Dave O'Callaghan about his fifteenth Charlie Parker crime novel, A Game of Ghosts.

5 May 2017

'Cardboard Gangsters' trailer



Cardboard Gangsters, Mark O'Connor's gritty new Dublin drama starring and co-written with John Connors, is out in Irish cinemas on 16 June. It follows a group of wannabe "cardboard gangsters" trying to gain control of the drugs trade in Darndale.

25 April 2017

First 'Dead in Dún Laoghaire' festival


Penguin Random House Ireland and the Irish Times have joined forces for the inaugural "Dead in Dún Laoghaire" festival this July.

14 April 2017

St Hilda's Mystery and Crime Conference 2017


The role of location in crime fiction is the theme of this year's St Hilda's Mystery and Crime Conference in Oxford, running from 18 to 20 August. Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (above) is guest of honour.

13 April 2017

David Hare pens BBC's new London thriller


Leading playwright David Hare is behind the BBC's new four-part thriller Collateral, starring Carey Mulligan, John Simm, Nicola Walker and Billie Piper.

5 April 2017

Liam Neeson set to play Philip Marlowe


Variety has revealed that Liam Neeson is to play Philip Marlowe in the screen adaptation of The Black-Eyed Blonde. John Banville's novel - writing as Benjamin Black - is based on the iconic private eye character originally created by  Raymond Chandler.

4 April 2017

A night with Jo Nesbø in Dublin's RDS


Best-selling Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø visits Dublin this April in an event marking the launch of the International Literature Festival Dublin.

31 March 2017

Ben Wheatley and Cillian Murphy on 'Free Fire'


Scannain recently interviewed director Ben Wheatley and actor Cillian Murphy at the Dublin International Film Festival about their new black comedy thriller Free Fire.

27 March 2017

Stuart Neville pens 'Haylen Beck' thriller


Award-winning writer Stuart Neville upcoming thriller Here and Gone will be published under the pseudonym Haylen Beck.

23 March 2017

Ciaran Carson's Belfast crime thriller


While Ciaran Carson is best known as a leading poet, he has also written at least one crime novel.

20 March 2017

Gordon Thomas (1933–2017)



Based for many years in County Wicklow in Ireland, the Welsh writer Gordon Thomas (1933–2017) was best known as an investigative journalist and prolific author on secret intelligence topics. He also wrote five thrillers featuring Mossad secret agent David Morton.

7 March 2017

3 March 2017

Sheila Connolly's 'County Cork Mystery' series


American writer Sheila Connolly's "County Cork Mystery" series revolves around Maura Donovan, a Bostonian who goes to Ireland after the death of her grandmother, her last surviving relative, and decides to stay. She later inherits a pub in the town of Leap from a close friend of her grandmother.

17 February 2017

Crime fiction authors at Airfield Readers' Day

Crime authors Alex Marwood, Jane Casey and Sam Blake (Vanessa O'Loughlin) will talk about their latest novels with Declan Burke as part of Airfield Readers' Day in Dundrum on Saturday 18 March 2017.

Other writers taking part in the day include Carmel Harrington, Hazel Gaynor, Fionnuala Kearney, Claudia Carroll and Kate Beaufoy. It is a forerunner of the Mountains To Sea festival, which runs from 22 to 26 March.

16 February 2017

Stefanie Martini stars in 'Prime Suspect' prequel


Stefanie Martini, Sam Reid and Blake Harrison star in the prequel Prime Suspect: 1973. Martini, who has also appeared in Endeavour and Emerald City, will play a 22-year-old Jane Tennison at the start of her career in the Metropolitan Police.

13 February 2017

Len Deighton’s 'SS-GB' begins this week

The BBC's adapatation of Len Deighton’s 1978 alternate history novel SS-GB begins on BBC One next Sunday, 19 February at 9pm.

10 February 2017

Galway event: networks in the crime genre


"Networks and Connections in the Crime Genre" is the theme of the International Crime Genre Research Group's seventh biennial conference. It takes place on 26-27 May 2017 at NUI Galway.

9 February 2017

Lars Mikkelsen in major Eurocrime series


Lars Mikkelsen (The Killing) returns to our screens in six-part pan-European crime drama The Team on More 4 and Walter Presents from 17 February.

5 February 2017

Ardal O'Hanlon stays on in 'Death in Paradise'


Ardal O'Hanlon is to stay on as the latest lead detective in BBC One’s crime drama series Death in Paradise.

3 February 2017

Catherine Ryan Howard on 'Distress Signals'


Distress Signals author Catherine Ryan Howard answers readers' questions about this week's publication of the US edition of the book, and talks about her follow-up novel and what she's reading at the moment.

1 February 2017

Brendan Gleeson in new Stephen King thriller


Irish actor Brendan Gleeson heads the cast of Mr. Mercedes, a new 10-part series based on Stephen King's hardboiled detective novel of the same name.

27 January 2017

Courses with Declan Burke and Louise Phillips


Two leading names on the Irish crime fiction scene, Declan Burke and Louise Phillips, will be presenting writing courses at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin this spring.

23 January 2017

Brian Cleary's thriller 'The Truth Will Out'



Dublin writer Brian Cleary's debut novel The Truth Will Out, a thriller set in Ireland, has already garnered rave reviews, including Joe Duffy's Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1 last month and Liz Nugent.

13 January 2017

15th Charlie Parker novel is due next April


A Game of Ghosts, John Connolly's 15th novel featuring Charlie Parker, his haunted PI from Maine, will be published in the UK and Ireland on 6 April 2017, and in the US about four months later.

12 January 2017

Adrian McKinty on Duffy and locked room mysteries



A recent video interview with Adrian McKinty, shot in a 1980s BMW while driving around Berlin.

10 January 2017

Actor Ciarán McMenamin pens thriller 'Skintown'


Irish actor Ciarán McMenamin may be a familiar face in the theatre and on the big and small screens, but next April will also see his debut thriller Skintown. It is already being touted by publishers Doubleday Ireland as energetic, adrenaline-fuelled and even "reminiscent of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting".

9 January 2017

Ian Rankin's RebusFest to mark 30th anniversary


The 30th anniversary of Ian Rankin's Rebus series will be marked by a RebusFest in Edinburgh. Set in the city, his first Rebus novel Knots and Crosses was released on 19 March 1987.

5 January 2017

Calling crime writers in County Laois


Ballylinan Library in County Laois is to host a crime writers group every second Wednesday at 6.30 p.m., starting this month.