A murder mystery set in County Tyrone

Padraig O'Hannon's debut novel is the murder mystery Murder in County Tyrone (2015).

Books 3 and 4 in 'Eddie Flynn' series

The Plea, Steve Cavanagh's follow-up to his debut novel - the best-selling legal thriller The Defence - goes on release in Ireland and the UK this May. Steve also reveals on his blog that he is putting the finishing touches to the third Eddie Flynn novel in the series, The Oath, and about to begin a fourth one too.

Books 2 and 3 in 'Eddie Flynn' series

The Plea, Steve Cavanagh's follow up to his acclaimed debut novel The Defence, is due to be published on 19 May 2016.

Steve Cavanagh at the BritCrime festival

Belfast writer Steve Cavanagh has been making waves with his debut novel The Defence (2015), the legal thriller set in New York City featuring former con-artist turned trial lawyer Eddie Flynn.

At the weekend Steve took part in the first BritCrime crime fiction festival on Facebook. Here are some edited highlights from the online session - including his plans for book two...

Irish crime fiction set in... Nova Scotia

Anne Emery is a Canadian writer whose crime novels have a strong Irish slant but are squarely aimed at a North American audience. Her "Collins-Burke" series is mainly set in Nova Scotia, and occasionally Ireland or London.

Patrick Marrinan's courtroom thrillers

Belfast-born writer Patrick Marrinan is a leading barrister, and one of Ireland's most prominent lawyers to turn to crime fiction. He worked on major terrorist trials in Northern Ireland before moving to Dublin, where he became a Senior Counsel in 2000.

Author profile: Andrea Carter

Dublin-based barrister Andrea Carter is about to join a growing list of Irish legal eagles who have turned to crime fiction. She kicks off her "Ben (Benedicta) O’Keeffe" crime series with Death at Whitewater Church, due to be published on 3 September 2015.

Legal eagles turn to crime fiction

Belfast solicitor Steve Cavanagh, whose legal thriller The Defence is currently getting rave reviews, is not the only real-life lawyer to turn his hand to crime fiction lately.

The Monday Grilling: Pat Mullan

In Interview Room #4 this week: Pat Mullan (right).

His M.O.: poetry, short stories, best-selling thrillers.

What's under the spotlight: his crime fiction work, in particular his "Ed Burke" series about a burnt-out lawyer who quits the New York rat race and ends up investigating murder and corruption in Ireland.

Chief interrogator: Lucy Dalton.

How do you balance your poetry and thrillers hats?

When I am engrossed in a thriller I must stay focused. But I have poetic thoughts that do invade. I simply scribble those thoughts on paper and put them in my poetry folder.

Author profile: Catriona King

Catriona King grew up in Belfast and moved to central London to live and work as a doctor. She also trained as a police forensic medical examiner, and worked with the Metropolitan Police.

In recent years she has lived and worked in Belfast, basing her "DCI Craig" crime novels in Northern Ireland, with the Docklands Coordinated Crime Unit based in "one of Belfast's most colourful and oldest districts", Sailortown.

Steve Cavanagh on lawyers and conmen

Steve Cavanagh has a dual career as a lawyer and legal thriller novelist, and has recently hit the headlines with his debut novel The Defence, the first of his series of legal thrillers.

Here he talks to Nottingham writer and blogger Rebecca Bradley about writing and research, how the law works in Northern Ireland and the US, artistic licence, John Mortimer (Rumpole) and what the difference is between lawyers and con artists.

Apologies for the sound quality.

Steve Cavanagh on his Big Apple setting

Belfast writer Steve Cavanagh has been revealing some key reasons why he picked a New York setting rather than an Irish one for his new series of legal thrillers featuring former con artist turned trial lawyer Eddie Flynn.

As he explains to Matt Craig on his Reader Dad blog this month:

"One thing that stands out to me is that I’m mainly influenced by American crime writers and books set in the US. Michael Connelly is a major influence and I would’ve read mostly US based fiction – although in recent years there has been more of a balance between US, UK and Irish fiction.

"The other major factor was that I wanted to write a legal thriller and that creates its own difficulties if you set that book in Northern Ireland. Largely because we have a dual system of representation; if you find yourself in court you will have a solicitor and a barrister representing you. The solicitor does most of the early court appearances and prepares the case for trial and the barrister performs the role of the trial advocate.

"At the time I didn’t feel confident about creating two lead characters – particularly when one character, the barrister, would inevitably be the one doing all the cool courtroom scenes. It didn’t seem balanced to me.

"So I felt setting the book in the US solved that problem as attorneys in America perform both roles and I could concentrate on a single lead character to focus the story."

Steve Cavanagh's novel The Defence is published on 12 March 2015.

Author profile: Liz Allen

During the 1990s Liz Allen was one of Ireland's best-known crime correspondents. In 2001 she won a constructive dismissal case against her former employers, the Sunday Independent, and was awarded over £70,000 by the Employment Appeals Tribunal .

She then left journalism and began work on her first novel, the bestselling Last to Know (2004).

Deborah Parker is the newest recruit at Jennings and Associates solicitors, and she’s just bagged herself one of the biggest clients of all time. Michael Mooney Jr. is wanted by police for the brutal rape of a prostitute, but he just happens to be the son of one of the major players in Irish organized crime. Deborah is his key to freedom, but you can’t play with the Devil without getting burned.

The story is set over three decades and spans the downright seedy to the high-flying lives of Irish crime bosses. This debut novel was followed by The Set Up (2005).

During Allen's time as a journalist she testified against several major gangland figures of the 1990s including John Gilligan, giving evidence under armed guard at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

Allen was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for her undercover investigative work into the criminal gangs and the State's failures in investigating them. She was found guilty under the Act for publishing a document, available to police nationwide, which contained details of a bank robbery.

She now lives in Wicklow with her family.

Author profile: Steve Cavanagh

Steve Cavanagh's debut novel The Defence (2015) is the first of his series of legal thrillers are set in New York City featuring Eddie Flynn, former con-artist turned trial lawyer.

"It's been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy.

"Eddie only has 48 hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial - and win - if he wants to save his daughter."

The second book in the series has the working title of The Plea.

Cavanagh was born and raised in Belfast and is a practising solicitor in the city. He studied law in Dublin and Cardiff.

Official author website: Stevecavanagh.com

Author on Twitter: @SSCav

See also: Declan Burke's review of The Defence

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Author profile: Pat Mullan

In Pat Mullan's novel Last Days of the Tiger (2011), burnt-out lawyer Ed Burke flees New York, a failed marriage, and a high-pressure career as a criminal lawyer and returns home to Dublin at the height of the Celtic Tiger boom.

Burke's new job is to represent a prominent developer in a tribunal investigating property rezoning, and he is drawn into an affair with a glamorous old flame, now the wife of a corrupt and powerful political leader. Then she is murdered in his bed...

In the follow-up Creatures of Habit (2011) Burke returns to Ireland to investigate the death of a boy at a Catholic boarding school; the boy's father cannot believe the authorities' assertion that his son died accidentally.

Mullan's first novel, The Circle of Sodom (2002), was an American based political thriller, followed by the conspiracy tale Blood Red Square (2005).

He was born in Ireland and has lived in England and North America. He is a graduate of St Columb's College, Northwestern University and the State University of New York. Formerly a banker, he now lives in Connemara, in the west of Ireland.

He is Ireland Chair of International Thriller Writers, Inc. and is a member of Mystery Writers of America.

He has published articles, poetry and short stories in a wide range of magazines, has two collections of poetry online.

Official author website: Patmullan.com

Author on Twitter: @PatMullan

See also: Pat's blog Noir by Noir West