Author profile: Claire McGowan

Claire McGowan's "Paula Maguire" series is set in the fictional town of Ballyterrin ("which is not a million miles away from my hometown of Newry") and features the missing persons response unit (MPRU), a specialist team devoted to old and new missing persons cases.

Maguire is a forensic psychologist who was born in a border town in Northern Ireland. When she was 13 her own mother disappeared.

The Lost (2013) and The Dead Ground (2014) have been optioned by BBC Drama Production as the basis for a returning TV series.

The next Paula Maguire, The Silent Dead, is due to be published in November 2015.

"Years ago Ian Rankin said the reason there was so much Scottish crime fiction but no Irish crime fiction was that we were all living in a war zone and no one wanted to read books about it as well. But since the Good Friday agreement people are now ready to deal with it, and the fictionalisation of it helps."
- Claire McGowan

Her debut novel The Fall (2012) is about a woman whose life falls apart when her banker boyfriend is accused of murder.

McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After studying English and French at Oxford University and travelling to China and France, she moved to London where she now lives. She has been running the MA in Crime Thriller Novels at City University London since 2012.

Besides writing crime fiction under her own name she publishes contemporary women's fiction as Eva Woods, and writes scripts, articles, and the occasional bit of stand-up.

Official author website: Ink-stains.co.uk

The author on Twitter: @inkstainsclaire

See also: the author's blog

Claire McGowan on 'A Savage Hunger'

Irish writer Claire McGowan talks about The Silent Dead, the fourth book in her crime series featuring forensic psychologist Paula Maguire.

Free Claire McGowan story is Paula Maguire prequel

Claire McGowan's short story Controlled Explosions is currently available in a free Kindle edition on Amazon.

It's a prequel to her Paula Maguire full-length series about the forensic psychologist, as it brings the character back to her teenage years.

Cream of Irish crime writing at Dulwich

The third "Deadly in Dulwich" event in London is devoted to Irish crime fiction. Authors Sinead Crowley, Jo Spain and Kate McQuaile will talk about their work at Dulwich Books on 26 April 2016. Tickets for the evening are £10 including whiskey cocktails.

Irish crime fiction in Silicon Valley

Irish crime fiction is under the spotlight in several sessions at this year's Los Gatos Listowel writing festival in Silicon Valley. The Californian town of Los Gatos is twinned with Listowel in County Kerry, and the festival takes place from 6 to 9 October 2016.

Panels to die for at Bristol's Crimefest

The Irish contingent off to Bristol for this May's Crimefest will include authors Claire McGowan, Alan Glynn,  Ruth Dudley Edwards and the Karen Perry writing duo Karen Gillece and Paul Perry.

10 highlights from this year's Aye Write!

Claire McGowan is among the Irish contingent at this year's Aye Write! literary festival in Glasgow. She will be on the panel discussing "Criminal Neighbours" on 20 March in the Mitchell Library at 6 pm.

Peter McKenna: king of 'Red Rock'

by Tom Comiskey

Peter McKenna is probably best known as the "showrunner" - creator, executive producer, initial chief writer and overall brains - behind TV3's serial Red Rock, first broadcast on 7 January 2015.