I hope that you are reading this feeling hale and hearty and if you are unwell and/or self-isolating I hope you have everything you need to get you through this rather startling time.
It is times like these that we need to focus on the positives around us, and though I hate to jump on a bandwagon I’m joining the call to indulge ourselves in reading if we find ourselves without our usual entertainments.
Naturally, my usual entertainments are reading!
When I look at my credit card I often think I indulge myself far too much, then I remember there are such things as libraries and that these days we can download e-books as well as reserve print copies.
So today, I thought I’d share some of my favourite recent-reads with you. And as it’s St Patricks day as I write this, I figured why not share books I’ve loved written by Irish authors.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, everyone!
I suppose, being Saint Patrick’s day, I probably should be sharing books about snakes or saints or some such. Instead I’m sharing my top 10 books by Irish authors, books I’ve read and loved so much I’ve read some of them two or three times.
My top ten books by Irish writers
As far as I have been able to ascertain all of these authors are Irish and most of them use Ireland as a backdrop to the drama. Church, English occupation, and the fate of babies born to unwed mothers shape much of the drama in these books.
Crime and psychological thrillers
Tana French: Famous for her Dublin Murder Squad series, two of her most popular books are the basis of the Dublin Murder tv series. My absolute favourite is Broken Harbour. It’s layered and twisty and Scorcher Kennedy is most intriguing.
In Broken Harbour, a ghost estate outside Dublin – half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned – two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case. It seems cut and dried, but there are too many inexplicable details and the evidence is pointing in two directions at once. And Scorcher has his own secrets connected to Broken Harbour
Patricia Gibney: another author whose books I always read. She writes the Detective Lottie Parker series. Great layers to her crimes and family is at the heart of most of them, including hers.
Lottie Parker is brilliant, short-tempered and struggling to hold herself and her family together after the death of her husband. With a complex family history of her own, Lottie and her ever-faithful partner solve some of the most complex crimes in the fictional town of Ragmullin in the Irish Midlands.
Laura Elliot: a recent discovery for me. So far I have only read her latest, The Thorn Girl, and loved it. Family, small town attitudes and the mother and baby homes are front and centre in this book. The tagline for The Thorn Girl is ‘a totally addictive and emotional psychological thriller’ and while I’ve found most books that makes those claims don’t live up to the hyperbole, this one does.
After the death of the grandmother who bought her up Adele stumbles across the secret diary of the mother she has never met, and a shocking account of a crime committed twenty-five years ago. Returning to the last place her mother was seen alive, Adele’s stirs old memories and opens fresh wounds. And the deeper Adele digs, the more lies she uncovers.
Dervla McTiernan: Now living in Western Australia, this Irish writer has burst onto the Aussie crime fiction scene with her Cormack Reilly series. So far I’ve only read her first book The Ruin, but the next two in the series are on my TBR.
When a body surfaces in the icy black waters of the River Corrib, Cormac is thrown back into the cold case that has haunted him his entire career – what links the two deaths, two decades apart? As he navigates his way through police politics and the ghosts of the past, Detective Reilly uncovers shocking secrets and finds himself questioning who among his colleagues he can trust.
Julie Parsons: I first discovered Julie Parsons in a discount box at the local supermarket years and years ago. That book was Mary, Mary. While it’s listed as book 1 in the Michael McLaughlin series it is primarily the story of Mary’s mother seeking vengeance for the murder of her daughter. A very emotive tale. Years later I rediscovered Julie Parsons on e-book and have read every one of her books.
Mary is missing. When her frantic mother Margaret calls the police only Detective Inspector Michael McLoughlin listens. Then Mary’s body is found in the canal — battered, mutilated and broken — and Margaret must decide how far she will go to ensure her daughter’s sadistic killer is brought to justice. By hunting him down will she become his next victim?
Literary Fiction
Maggie O’Farrell: I can’t boast to have read all of Maggie O’Farrell’s books, but I’m pretty damn close. The first book I read was The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. Extraordinary. I still think about it today. Still, my absolute favourite is The Hand That First Held Mine. Beautiful, moving and utterly unforgettable. I loved it so much It’s filled with post-its with notes on structure and story.
Lexie Sinclair meets the love of her life and vanishes into the 1950s Soho art scene… In the present day, new father Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don’t tally with his parents’ version of events. What is the link between Lexie and Ted and how will knowing change his life and relationships?
Romantic Comedy
Marian Keyes: No list on favourite Irish writers would be complete without Marian Keyes!! To my shame I have so far only read one book—Rachel’s Holiday. Filled with humour, honesty and insight. I can’t understand why I haven’t read more. Something I need to rectify, for sure.
Rachel’s been having a whale of a time. She’s twenty-seven; she’s meant to party. But when her older sister and family stage and intervention she only agrees to incarceration in a rehab centre because she’s heard that rehab is wall-to-wall jacuzzis, gymnasiums and rock stars going cold turkey – plus it’s about time she had a holiday. Saying goodbye to fun will be hard. But not as hard as losing the man that, too late, she realises might just be the love of her life . . .
Eithne Shortall: Eithne is another new discovery. I’ve had a bit of a yearning for rom.com lately (the news is just too distressing). My first Shortall book was her most recent: Grace After Henry. It popped up in a search and looked interesting. And it certainly was that!
Grace sees her boyfriend Henry everywhere. In the supermarket, on the street, at the graveyard.
Only Henry is dead. He died two months earlier, leaving a huge hole in Grace’s life and in her heart. But then Henry turns up to fix the boiler one evening, and Grace can’t decide if she’s hallucinating or has suddenly developed psychic powers.
Grace After Henry is hilarious at first and then becomes a little more sombre. It is, after all, dealing with death and grief. But it is so much more than that. Perhaps it is the best kind of entertainment, because it makes you laugh and it makes you think. I’ve since read Love in Row 27 and am currently reading Three Little Truths. This last one is taking it’s time to build but is becoming quite suspenseful. I’m interested to see where it goes.
My Top Ten Books By Irish Writers
The eagle-eyed among you will know that I’ve only listed eight. Oopsie!
So how about you nominate the other two?
Any Irish writers you love that I’ve missed here?
Let me know in the comments below.
Happy St Patricks Day!
I’ll leave you with a good old Irish proverb:
May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far.
I consider myself a reformed academic who discovered fiction writing was preferable to the real world. My love of suspense fiction is thoroughly indulged through writing novels and short stories about Fractured Families and Killer Secrets. My novels have been nominated for the Ned Kelly Award and semi-finaled in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and my short stories have been included in several anthologies including the Anthology of Award Winning Australian Writing. I also review my favourite books, interview fellow writers, and blog about books and writing.
- the links to various sites in this article are purely for your convenience. I do am not affilliated with any businesses and do not generate income when you click a link.
