Crime along the Irish Borderlands: The Novels of Brian McGilloway

Brian McGilloway is author of the critically acclaimed Inspector Benedict Devlin series. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974. After studying English at Queen’s University, Belfast, he took up a teaching position in St Columb’s College in Derry, where he is currently Head of English.

His first novel, Borderlands, published by Macmillan New Writing, was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger 2007 and was hailed by the London Times as “one of (2007’s) most impressive debuts.” The second novel in the series, Gallows Lane, was shortlisted for both the 2009 Irish Book Awards/Ireland AM Crime Novel of the Year and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2010. Bleed A River Deep, the third Devlin novel, was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of their Best Books of 2010. The fourth novel, The Rising, was published this spring alongside the new standalone novel, Little Girl Lost, featuring DS Lucy Black.

Read Full Post »

Under the Veil: Zoë Ferraris’s Jeddah Mystery Novels

Zoë Ferraris is the author of two critically-acclaimed mysteries set in Saudi Arabia: Finding Nouf (Night of the Miraj in its British edition) and City of Veils. Both feature Arab protagonists in novels that are as much socio-cultural introductions to the region as they are first-class mysteries. The Washington Post noted of her 2008 debut: “[Ferraris] weaves a richly detailed tapestry of the country’s gender-segregated and pious Muslim culture.” The San Francisco Chronicle also praised that work, noting, “In Finding Nouf, first-time novelist [Zoë Ferraris] gives us an imaginative and closely observed murder mystery set in the Saudi port town of Jeddah, a literary detective novel that balances the pleasures of plot with finely milled prose.” And London’s Sunday Times termed it a “tense psychological drama, and a riveting portrait of everyday life in a society with paranoid attitudes towards women and sex.”

Ferraris’s sequel from 2010 earned similar praise. London’s Guardian thought that City of Veils “more than lives up to the promise of her magnificent debut.” The London Independent also hailed this as a “fascinating crime novel with an astonishing denouement…modern crime fiction at its very best.” Booklist dubbed it a “suspenseful mystery and a sobering portrait of the lives of Muslim women,” and a starred Publishers Weekly review called the novel “stellar,” as well as a “searing portrait of the religious and cultural veils that separate Muslim women from the modern world.”

Read Full Post »