Irish Fiction Thrillers

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the police service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan's past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice?

He’s heartsick and battle weary. Maverick Carson returned home from war with too much pain and not enough honor. Searching for a way to forgive and forget, he quits The Team. He's in Wyoming when the sight of a pretty girl atop a massive draft horse steals his breath away - until the hillside gives way beneath beast and maiden. When he rushes to her aid, he runs straight into the world of China Wolf, the headstrong owner of the Wild Wolf Ranch and the owner of the finest Percherons in the country.

Seamus, a down-to-earth park ranger, has always been modest about his background. Living with three roommates and driving a trusty old pickup truck, he never gave Shayla any reason to suspect he was anything but ordinary. Until they land in Ireland, and Shayla discovers he's practically Irish royalty. A holiday that was meant to be filled with festive family fun now carries the weight of public scrutiny. The getting-to-know-you dinner party sets the stage for a complicated holiday. But the celebration takes a dark turn when a guest ends up dead.

After mom's death, it's just me and my dad running the family pub - and I've got big plans for it once dad retires. But everything changes when he shows up in the middle of the night. Daniel Kelly. When he tells me he's back for good, I have half a mind to throw his arrogantly handsome arse out and send him back to Dublin. But his visit isn't just a coincidence. No, it's very much intentional. Because our parents have been conspiring, and it seems that Daniel is back...for me.

Fifteen of Ireland's finest writers collaborated on this murder mystery that involves searching for the only manuscript of an unpublished novel by James Joyce. Raucous, raunchy, and completely hilarious, Yeats Is Dead! is a diabolically entertaining mulligan stew of a novel. James Joyce would be proud.

After returning from her father-in-law’s funeral in Florida, Lucy can almost hear the death knell of her part-time reporter job the instant she meets new hire Rob Callahan. He’s young, ambitious, and positioning himself to become the Pennysaver’s next star reporter. Adding insult to injury, Lucy only gets assigned the local St. Patrick’s Day parade once Rob passes on the story. But before beer flows and bagpipes sound, Rob becomes suspected of destroying more than other people’s careers.

Raised in a tribe of street urchins, Maddie Grande was taught to be a thief and beggar on the streets of New Orleans. But Maddie doesn't know her real name or where she came from.Raised by Dexter Grande, Maddie and her twin "brothers" have recently left New Orleans and moved to the bayou. The twins are rarely there, but Maddie has come to love the swamp. She has learned to fish and trap and sell pelts at the local mercantile.

Ex-cop-turned-PI Maggie Doyle is stuck chaperoning a group of bratty summer camp kids on an archaeological dig on Whisper Island. After a day of fart jokes, fidget spinners, and fistfights, Maggie's regretting volunteering - and then one of her feral charges unearths a skeleton. At first, it looks like a cold case, but the situation takes a sinister turn when a member of the excavation team winds up dead.

It's been over a year since Megan found herself entangled in a murder—much to everyone's relief, including her girlfriend Jelena and Detective Paul Bourke. So when a body of a young woman quite literally lands in her lap at her favorite Dublin cafe, Megan tries to do the right thing and leave the crime-solving to the police so she can enjoy the St. Patrick's Day weekend. After all, she has no connection to the victim. Or does she?

When former San Francisco cop Maggie Doyle extends her stay in Ireland, dealing with more murder and mayhem isn’t on her to-do list. Can she solve two crimes before St. Patrick’s Day? Or will the island’s annual celebrations end in a glittery flame of green, white, and orange?

In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. "A Is for Ax" offers alphabetized look at the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Other works here offer multiple-quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories show us a young writer who was already a master of wicked formal play, and whose sly takes on life and death remain profoundly unsettling.

A wave lifts the stern of the boat, rigging groans in protest and a crash comes from down below, as the wails of the cargo rise above the howl of the storm. It's a wild Christmas Day on the rugged Northern Irish coast. But there's no time for turkey and pud with the family for Detectives Harvey and Birch. DS Aaron Birch leans into the wind and driving sleet. Thick, scudding clouds make the streets of Lisburn almost as dark as early evening. Then he gets the tip-off. Smugglers coming into a boatyard in Bangor.

Sue Hearn is planting a herb garden on the site of her grandfather's old greenhouse. She's spent the morning digging up all sorts of odds and ends already. But she doesn't expect this grisly find. A skull. Could it be the remains of her mother, Monica, who went missing thirty years ago? Sue's father, in hospital with dementia, insinuates that a police officer was involved in her mother's disappearance. But can he be trusted?

Sparkle McCavity, young drag queen and employee of Miss Merkin, is missing, presumed kidnapped or even worse. Naturally, Merkin turns to reluctant sleuth and friend to the community Fi for help, but clues and suspects are worryingly thin on the ground—and the drag king Stan the Man is proving somewhat distracting. When Merkin’s niece is then found murdered, spiked on a light pole in nightclub TRASH, it becomes clear that Fi’s friends are in danger. Again.

Fi McKinnery is full of nerves as the gorgeous Mae B (aka her best friend Robyn) takes to the stage for her debut at drag club TRASH, but Mae B is dazzling…that is until local queen Eve lampoons her performance and ruins the show. So when Eve turns up dead later that night, face down in the gutter of a rain-soaked Dublin street, the timing seems awfully suspicious… The police are quick to rule Eve’s death an accident, but Fi is convinced it was foul play.

When Mariana Rivas arrives from Spain to work as an au pair in the Dublin home of the Mac Converys, Garda Inspector Fionn Mac Convery tries to seduce her. In the course of avoiding Fionn, Mariana experiences the mean streets of Dublin city and meets some of the characters who, in his ambitious rise in the police force, have been damaged by him.

Crookedwood, quiet Irish midlands town, place of secrets, past and present. Sarah left it behind years ago for life in the city, where she's now a rising star of the Dublin culinary scene. She's home to help her mother sell the family farm. One evening, while out walking in the nearby woods, Sarah is chased by a man and his vicious dog, narrowly escaping injury. In the days to follow—as painful memories resurface of another dark night in the woods years before—further unsettling events unfold, and Sarah becomes convinced that she is under threat.

A relaxing sailing trip on his day off becomes anything but for DSI Mick Hays when a body is found at sea. The coastguard pluck the corpse from the ocean with ease, but establishing the dead man's identity won't be straightforward. And when pathology indicates he was murdered, Hays' partner DI Maureen Lyons is put in charge of the investigation. Good forensics and a nose for trouble lead Lyons to a small hamlet in an isolated part of the coast. But the locals, who are running a smooth bootleg liquor operation, are none too forthcoming with information.

Lucy Hall arrives in the Seychelles determined to leave her worries behind. The tropical paradise looks sun-soaked and picture-perfect - but as Lucy soon discovers, appearances can be very deceptive. A deadly secret lurks in the island's history, buried deep but not forgotten. And it is about to come to light. As black clouds begin to gather over what promised to be a relaxing family break, Lucy realises that her father stands in the eye of the coming storm.

The mystery of the modern thriller pervades the twists in the plot of this remarkable Victorian novel about the disappearance of a young man and the lady who is haunted by more than one terrible secret.