Murder One, Ireland’s International Crime Writing Festival Returns

After some blockbuster standalone events with international crime-writing stars like Harlan Coben and Karin Slaughter, Murder One, Ireland’s International Crime Writing Festival is back in its weekend format from 6th-8th October in Dun Laoghaire’s stunning dlr LexIcon Library and Cultural Centre, only 30 minutes from Dublin airport and just south of Dublin city.

Former State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, kicks off the festival on Friday 6th.  Once a name synonymous with breaking news of high-profile crime cases, Dr Cassidy has turned her hand to crime fiction and she will be discussing her debut novel, Body of Truth, in conversation with bestselling crime writer, Liz Nugent. The festival will showcase the cream of Irish crime writing talent with Tana French, Jane Casey, Catherine Ryan Howard, Steve Cavanagh, Andrea Mara, Sam Blake, and Catherine Kirwan among those appearing on a range of solo events and hot-topic panels. UK visitors include the hugely popular, Sophie Hannah, 2023 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, Tom Benn, Alice Feeney, author of the phenomenally successful Daisy Darker, plus cosy crime specialist, British Book Awards winner Janice Hallett, and highly praised debutante, Alice Bell.

True crime fans can look forward to events with Award-winning political journalist, Harry McGee whose book, The Murderer and the Taoiseach, retraces the extraordinary happenings in Dublin’s notorious Malcolm Macarthur murder case while Northern Irish academics, Elaine Farrell & Leanne McCormick will discuss their bestselling book, Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women.  Aspiring writers can also sign up for workshops with all-star panels of literary agents, and editors on Friday 6th October.

Wherever your tastes in the crime genre lie, you will be gripped by the plot of MURDER ONE as it unfolds across three days at Dun Laoghaire’s stunning LexIcon Library and Cultural Centre. With free access to two 3 x 10 Readings in the Studio events that make the Festival accessible to all visitors, plus an onsite bookshop - MURDER ONE will have you hooked from the moment you enter the building.  With views of the sea and Dun Laoghaire harbour, easy access to the DART and bus routes, plus plenty of parking and restaurant options, Dun Laoghaire will be the perfect place to enjoy your favourite crime writers this autumn.

Crime is one of the biggest-selling genres in the book business and Ireland boasts some of the world’s top crime writers, Uniquely, MURDER ONE is run by crime author Sam Blake, who together with festival director Bert Wright, further aspires to establish MURDER ONE on the Irish festival circuit.

Sam Blake explains, “Murder One is supported by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Libraries and that library connection is true synergy for us – bringing new authors to new readers and new readers to authors is at the heart of both the festival and the library’s mission.”

Bert Wright said, “MURDER ONE has established a huge following among Irish crime fans in a short space of time and in a country that boasts so many successful crime writers, it’s a joy to get fans and writers together on an annual basis in an ideal location like Dun Laoghaire.  We’ve put together a stellar programme and we’re looking forward to sharing it with our loyal supports. It promises to be enormous fun.”

Catherine Gallagher, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Librarian said “we are delighted to be involved again this year with MURDER ONE and to see this festival continue to develop. Connecting readers and authors is a key part of our remit in dlr Libraries and for our readers crime books are consistently popular. We look forward to welcoming audiences old and new to dlr LexIcon in October.”

Tickets were launched on Monday 17th July. Visit www.murderone.ie for booking details or follow @MurderOneFest on Twitter.

Books to Look Forward to from Penguin Random House incl Michael Joseph

January 2019

One blustery October morning in a quiet suburb of Copenhagen, the police make a terrible discovery. A young woman is found brutally murdered in a playground and one of her hands

is missing. Above her hangs a small doll made of chestnuts. Ambitious young detective Naia Thulin is assigned the case. Her partner, Mark Hess, is a burned-out investigator who's just been kicked out of Europol. They soon discover a mysterious piece of evidence on the chestnut man - evidence connecting it to a girl who went missing a year earlier and is presumed dead - the daughter of politician Rosa Hartung. The man who confessed to her murder is behind bars and the case is long since closed. Soon afterwards, another woman is found murdered, along with another chestnut man. Thulin and Hess suspect that there's a connection between the Hartung case, the murdered women and a killer who is spreading fear throughout the country. But what is it? Thulin and Hess are racing against the clock, because it's clear that the murderer is on a mission that is far from over. The Chestnut Man is by Søren Sveistrup.

BREAKING: Nuclear weapon detonates over Washington.  BREAKING: London hit, thousands feared dead.  BREAKING: Munich and Scotland hit. World leaders call for calm.  Historian Jon Keller is on a trip to Switzerland when the world ends. As the lights go out on civilisation, he wishes he had a way of knowing whether his wife, Nadia, and their two daughters are still alive. More than anything, Jon wishes he hadn't ignored Nadia's last message.  Twenty people remain in Jon's hotel. Far from the nearest city and walled in by towering trees, they wait, they survive.  Then one day, the body of a young girl is found. It's clear she has been murdered. Which means that someone in the hotel is a killer.  As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate. But how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? And what kind of justice can he hope for, when society as he knows it no longer exists?  The Last is by Hanna Jameson.

February 2019

Out of the Dark is by Gregg Hurwitz. As a boy, Evan Smoak was taken from the orphanage he called home and inducted into a top secret Cold War programme. Trained as a lethal weapon, he and his fellow recruits were sent round the world to do the government's dirty work. But the programme was rotten to the core. And now the man responsible needs things to be nice and clean. All evidence must be destroyed. That includes Evan. To survive, Evan's going to have to take the fight to his nemesis. There's just one problem with that. Jonathan Bennett is President of the United States and Evan isn't his only victim. To save himself - and the country - Evan is going to have to figure out how to kill the most well-protected man on the planet...

One night, Annie went missing. Disappeared from her own bed. There were searches, appeals. Everyone thought the worst. And then, miraculously, after forty-eight hours, she came back. But she couldn't, or wouldn't, say what had happened to her. Something happened to my sister. I can't explain what. I just know that when she came back, she wasn't the same. She wasn't my Annie. I didn't want to admit, even to myself, that sometimes I was scared to death of my own little sister.  The Taking of Annie Thorne is by C J Tudor.

'For me it all goes back to that night, the dark corroded hinge between before and after, the slipped-in sheet of trick glass that tints everything on one side in its own murky colours and leaves everything on the other luminous and untouchable.'  One night changes everything for Toby. He's always led a charmed life - until a brutal attack leaves him damaged and traumatised, unsure even of the person he used to be. He seeks refuge at his family's ancestral home, the Ivy House, filled with memories of wild-strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins.  But not long after Toby's arrival, a discovery is made: a skull, tucked neatly inside the old wych elm in the garden.  As detectives begin to close in, Toby is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about his family, his past, and himself.  The Wych Elm is by Tana French.

Day of the Accident is by Nuala Ellwood. Sixty seconds after she wakes from a coma, Maggie's world is torn apart.  The police tell her that her daughter Elspeth is dead. That she drowned when the car Maggie had been driving plunged into the river. Maggie remembers nothing.  When Maggie begs to see her husband Sean, the police tell her that he has disappeared. He was last seen on the day of her daughter's funeral.  What really happened that day at the river?  Where is Maggie's husband?  And why can't she shake the suspicion that somewhere, somehow, her daughter is still alive?

March 2019

Adam Brandt is a forensic psychologist, used to dealing with the most damaged members of society.  But he's never met anyone like Kassie. The teenager claims to have a terrible gift. With just one look, she can foresee when and how you will die.  Adam knows Kassie must be insane. But a serial killer is terrorising the city. And only Kassie seems to know who his next victim will be.  Against all his intuition, Adam starts to believe her.  But he doesn't realise how deadly his faith might prove...  A Gift for Dying is by M J Arlidge.

She Lies in Wait is by Gytha Lodge.  Six friends. One killer. Who do you trust?  On a hot July night in 1983, six school friends go camping in the forest. Bright and brilliant, they are destined for great things, and young Aurora Jackson is dazzled to be allowed to tag along. 

Thirty years later, a body is discovered. DCI Sheens is called to the scene, but he already knows what's waiting for him: Aurora Jackson, found at long last.  But that's not all. The friends have all maintained their innocence, but the body is found in a hideaway only the six of them knew about.  It seems the killer has always lurked very close to home...

The murder of a team of U.N. scientists while investigating mysterious deaths in El Salvador. A deadly collision in the waterways off Detroit. An attack from tomb raiders on an archeological site along the Nile. Is there a link between these violent events? The answer may lie with the tale of an Egyptian princess forced to flee the armies of her father three thousand years ago.  From the desert sands of Egypt to the rocky isles of Ireland to the deep water lochs of Scotland, only Dirk Pitt can unravel the secrets of an ancient enigma that could change the very future of mankind. Celtic Empire is by Clive and Dirk Cussler.

It's one of the most disturbing cases DI Fawley has ever worked.  The Christmas holidays, and two children have just been pulled from the wreckage of their burning home in North Oxford. The toddler is dead, and his brother is soon fighting for his life.  Why were they left in the house alone? Where is their mother, and why is their father not answering his phone?  Then new evidence is discovered, and DI Fawley's worst nightmare comes true.  Because this fire wasn't an accident.  It was murder.  No Way Out is by Cara Hunter.

April 2019

Ellidaey is a collection of isolated islands off the coast of Iceland. It is has a beautiful, unforgiving terrain and is an easy place to vanish.  The Island is the second thrilling book in Ragnar Jónasson's Hidden Iceland trilogy. This time Hulda is at the peak of her career and is sent to investigate what happened on Ellidaey after a group of friends visited but one failed to return.  Could this have links to the disappearance of a couple ten years previously out on the Westfjords? Is there a killer stalking these barren outposts?

Major Leo Black was once one of the SAS's most fearsome and effective warriors and after twenty years of war, is now striving to be a force for peace. A junior tutor without tenure at Oxford University, his lectures on the ethics of conflict are an inspiration to his students but a threat to colleagues wary of admitting him to their gilded circle.  When his oldest friend and comrade is brutally murdered as a part of a dark international conspiracy, Black's new-found principles are put to the ultimate test. There's a violent job to be done and he's the man called upon to do it: the unrivalled expert in the art of killing.  The Black Art of Killing is by Matthew Hall.

Liberation Square is by Gareth Rubin.  1952. Soviet troops control British streets.  After the disastrous failure of D-Day, Britain is occupied by Nazi Germany, and only rescued by Russian soldiers arriving from the east and Americans from the west. The two superpowers divide the nation between them, a wall running through London like a scar.  When Jane Cawson calls into her husband's medical practice and detects the perfume worn by his former wife, Lorelei, star of propaganda films for the new Marxist regime, she fears what is between them. But when Jane rushes to confront them, she finds herself instead caught up in the glamorous actress's death.  Nick is soon arrested for murder. Desperate to clear his name, Jane must risk the attention of the brutal secret police as she follows a trail of corruption right to the highest levels of the state.  And she might find she never really knew her husband at all.

May 2019

My Lovely Wife is by Samantha Downing.  Every marriage has secrets. Everyone has flaws. Your wife isn't perfect - you know that - but then again nor are you.  But now a serial killer is on the loose in your small town, preying on young women. Fear is driving your well-behaved young daughter off the rails, and you find yourself in bed late at night, looking at the woman who lies asleep beside you.  Because you thought you knew the worst about her. The truth is you know nothing at all.

On Halloween night, four households gather for a party in the tiny Yorkshire village of Black Gale. Three hours in, they head outside, onto the darkened moors, to play a drunken game of hide and seek. None of them return. There's no trail, no evidence and no answers. An entire village has just vanished. With the police investigation dead in the water, the families of the disappeared ask missing persons investigator David Raker to find out what happened. But nothing can prepare him for the truth.  The currently untitled book in the David Raker series is by Tim Weaver.

June 2019

If you leave a door half-open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken...  Still devastated after the loss of his wife, Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake move to the sleepy village of Featherbank, looking for a fresh start.  But Featherbank has a dark past. Fifteen years ago a twisted serial killer abducted and murdered five young boys. Until he was finally caught, the killer was known as 'The Whisper Man'.  Of course, an old crime need not trouble Tom and Jake as they try to settle in to their new home. Except that now another boy has gone missing. And then Jake begins acting strangely.  He says he hears a whispering at his window...  The Whisper Man is by Alex North.

Strand Critics Awards

The Strand Critics Awards, recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction, were judged by a select group of book critics and journalists. They were presented on 12^th July 2017 in New York City.

Best Novel 
The Trespasser by Tana French (Viking) 

Best Debut Novel: 
The Lost Girls by Heather Young (William Morrow)

Clive Cussler was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award

Congratulations to All!

2017 Dagger in the Library Shortlist

The British Crime Writers’ Association has announced its shortlist for the 2017 Dagger in the Library Award. This Award celebrates “a body of work by a crime writer that users of libraries particularly admire.” 

CWA Dagger in the Library Shortlist

Andrew Taylor

C.J. Sansom

James Oswald

Kate Ellis

Mari Hannah

Tana French

The winner of this year’s Dagger in the Library award will be announced as part of the Bodies from the Library event at London’s British Library on Saturday, June 17.

Previous recipients of the Dagger in the Library include Christopher Fowler, Sharon Bolton, Stephen Booth, Belinda Bauer, Mo Hayder, Peter Robinson, Stuart MacBride, Craig Russell, Alexander McCall Smith, and of course last year’s winner, Elly Griffiths.