Ли Чайлд - Belfast Noir

Lucy Caldwellwas born in Belfast in 1981. She is the author of three novels, along with several stage plays and radio dramas. Her writing has won numerous awards, including the George Devine Award, the Imison Award, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She is currently working on her fourth novel—her first crime novel—and a debut collection of short stories.

Steve Cavanaghwas born and raised in Belfast and is a practicing solicitor. Someday he might get the hang of it. He has won a number of high-profile criminal, disability, and racial discrimination cases that have set new laws. His debut novel, The Defence, featuring former con artist turned trial lawyer, Eddie Flynn, will be released internationally in 2015.

Lee Child, previously a television director, union organizer, theatre technician, and law student, was fired and on the dole when he hatched a harebrained scheme to write a best-selling novel, thus saving his family from ruin. Killing Floor went on to win worldwide acclaim. Lee was born in England of a Belfast-born father, but now lives in New York City and leaves the island of Manhattan only when required to by forces beyond his control.

Garbhan Downeystudied and worked in Belfast—his mother’s hometown—before returning to his native city of Derry to ply his trade as a reporter and editor. In his youth, he covered courts, crime, and corpses for media groups such as the Irish News and the BBC, before turning his hand to fiction. His work has been described by the Sunday World as “a superb blend of comedy, political dirty tricks and grisly murder, and bizarre twists.”

Ruth Dudley Edwardsis an Irish-born journalist, historian, and prize-winning biographer. The targets of her twelve satirical crime novels include gentlemen’s clubs, academia, literary prizes, conceptual art, and, always, political correctness. Lawyers are next on her list. She won Last Laugh Awards for Murdering Americans in 2008 and Killing the Emperors in 2013, and in 2010 the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction for Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing and the Families’ Pursuit of Justice .

Arlene Huntis the author of eight novels, including her most recent, The Outsider . When not writing or walking a huge hairy dog, she reviews novels for RTE’s Arena , and is the co-owner of Portnoy Publishing. She is currently working on a new novel, Into the Fire .

Ian McDonaldlives in Holywood, County Down, and his most recent novel is Empress of the Sun (the third book in the Everness Series). He has won the Locus Award, Hugo Award, Theodore Sturgeon Award, Philip K. Dick Award, and John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Brian McGillowaywas born in Derry in 1974. He is a recipient of the University of Ulster’s McCrea Literary Award and his novels have been short-listed for a CWA Dagger, Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and Irish Book Awards’ Crime Novel of the Year. His first Lucy Black novel, Little Girl Lost, was a Kindle #1 best seller in 2013. He lives near the Irish borderlands with his wife and their four children.

Claire McGowanwas born in 1981 in a small Irish village where the most exciting thing that ever happened was some cows getting loose on the road. After studying at Oxford and living in China and France, she now resides in London, where there aren’t any cows but there is the occasional murder in her street. She was previously director of the Crime Writers’ Association and now teaches at the first crime-writing MA at City University London.

Adrian McKintywas born and grew up in the North Belfast suburban town of Carrickfergus. His first crime novel, Dead I Well May Be , was short-listed for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. His novel about a Belfast-based detective in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, The Cold Cold Ground , won the 2013 Spinetingler Award. Its sequel, I Hear the Sirens in the Street , was short-listed for the Ned Kelly Award.

Eoin McNameeis the author of seventeen novels, including Resurrection Man, The Blue Tango, The Ultras, 12:23, and Orchid Blue. He is the author of a series of thrillers under the pseudynom John Creed. His first book for young adults, the Navigator , was a New York Times best seller. The last novel of the Blue Trilogy, Blue Is the Night , was published in early 2014.

Sam Millaris an author and playwright living between Belfast and Dublin. His crime fiction includes the Karl Kane Series and the novels The Redemption Factory , Dark Souls, Darkness of Bones, and The Bespoke Hitman. He also writes for the stage ( Brothers In Arms and Bloodstorm ) and radio. His memoir, On the Brinks , has been optioned by Warner Bros. and was named a Top Twenty thriller by Le Monde for 2013. He is the recipient of the Golden Balais d’or, France, for Best Crime Book 2013-14.

Stuart Neville’sdebut novel, The Ghosts of Belfast , won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was picked as one of the top crime novels of 2009 by both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times . His subsequent three novels have been short-listed for various awards, including the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. The French edition of The Ghosts of Belfast , Les Fantômes de Belfast , won Le Prix Mystère de la Critique du Meilleur Roman Étranger and Grand Prix du Roman Noir Étranger.

Glenn Pattersonis the author of nine novels, most recently The Rest Just Follows. His nonfiction works are Lapsed Protestant and Once Upon a Hill: Love in Troubled Times. His first film, Good Vibrations (cowritten with Colin Carberry), was released in 2013.

BONUS MATERIAL

USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series

Now available from Akashic Books

INTRODUCTION

WRITERS ON THE RUN

From USA NOIR: Best of the Akashic Noir Series, edited by Johnny Temple

In my early years as a book publisher, I got a call one Saturday from one of our authors asking me to drop by his place for “a smoke.” I politely declined as I had a full day planned. “But Johnny,” the author persisted, “I have some really good smoke.” My curiosity piqued, I swung by, but was a bit perplexed to be greeted with suspicion at the author’s door by an unhinged whore and her near-nude john. The author rumbled over and ushered me in, promptly sitting me down on a smelly couch and assuring the others I wasn’t a problem. Moments later, the john produced a crack pipe to resume the party I had evidently interrupted. This wasn’t quite the smoke I’d envisaged, so I gracefully excused myself after a few (sober) minutes. I scurried home pondering the author’s notion that it was somehow appropriate to invite his publisher to a crack party.

It may not have been appropriate, but it sure was noir.

From the start, the heart and soul of Akashic Books has been dark, provocative, well-crafted tales from the disenfranchised. I learned early on that writings from outside the mainstream almost necessarily coincide with a mood and spirit of noir, and are composed by authors whose life circumstances often place them in environs vulnerable to crime.