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I'm an Irish novelist currently living in St Kilda, Australia
"Hardboiled charm, evocative dialogue, an acute sense of place and a sardonic sense of humour make McKinty one to watch."
---The Guardian
A couple more books, a few birthdays, some shuffleboard then a period spent in the digestive tract of earthworms, followed by molecular breakdown, the sun boiling into space, the heat death of the universe, atomic decay, perpetual darkness, a trillion years of nothingness and then, if we're lucky, brane collapse, a new singularity and a new Big Bang.
About Me
I'm an Irish novelist currently living in St Kilda, Australia
You can read a review of my latest book, The Cold Cold Ground, in The Guardian, here. You can peruse the review from the Irish Independent, here or the review in The Times, here. The Glasgow Herald's verdict is here and The Sydney Morning Herald chips in, here. Not to be outdone The Irish Times weighs in, here and the Irish Sunday Independent adds its two cents, here. If you want to know what all the fuss is about you can be a good chap and get The Cold Cold Ground on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Audible.com or at your local bookshop.
Followers
More about me
I was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. After studying philosophy at Oxford University I emigrated to New York City where I lived in Harlem for seven years working in bars, bookstores, building sites and finally the basement stacks of the Columbia University Medical School Library in Washington Heights.
In 2000 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction in earnest. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best crime novels of the year. The sequel to that book The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.
In mid 2008 I moved to St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My last book Falling Glass was Audible's Best Mystery or Thriller for 2011. I've just published a new novel for Serpents Tail called The Cold Cold Ground.
In 2000 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction in earnest. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best crime novels of the year. The sequel to that book The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.
In mid 2008 I moved to St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My last book Falling Glass was Audible's Best Mystery or Thriller for 2011. I've just published a new novel for Serpents Tail called The Cold Cold Ground.
WORK IN PROGRESS:
All Hail McKinty!
"If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland he would have written The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Times
"Hardboiled charm, evocative dialogue, an acute sense of place and a sardonic sense of humour make McKinty one to watch."
---The Guardian
"A literary thriller that is as concerned with exploring the poisonously claustrophobic demi-monde of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and the self-sabotaging contradictions of its place and time, as it is with providing the genre’s conventional thrills and spills. The result is a masterpiece of Troubles crime fiction: had David Peace, Eoin McNamee and Brian Moore sat down to brew up the great Troubles novel, they would have been very pleased indeed to have written The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Irish Times
"McKinty is a big new talent."
---The Daily Telegraph
"McKinty is a gifted man with poetry coursing through his veins and thrilling writing dripping from his fingertips."
---The Sunday Independent
"McKinty is a big new talent."
---The Daily Telegraph
"McKinty is a gifted man with poetry coursing through his veins and thrilling writing dripping from his fingertips."
---The Sunday Independent
"Adrian McKinty is fast gaining a reputation as the finest of the new generation of Irish crime writers, and it's easy to see why on the evidence of The Cold Cold Ground."
---The Glasgow Herald
"McKinty is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream."
---Kirkus Reviews
"McKinty's literate expertly crafted crime novel confirms his place as one of his generation's leading talents."
---Publishers Weekly
"McKinty crackles with raw talent. His dialogue is superb, his characters rich and his plotting tight and seemless. He writes with a wonderful and wonderfully humorous flair for language raising his work above most crime genre offerings and bumping it right up against literature."
---The San Francisco Chronicle
"McKinty keeps getting better. He melds the snap and crackle of the old Mickey Spillane tales with the literary skills of Raymond Chandler and sets it all down in his own artful way."
---The Rocky Mountain News
"The first of McKinty's Forsythe novels, "Dead I Well May Be," was intense, focused and entirely brilliant. This one is looser-limbed, funnier...so, I imagine, is the middle book, "The Dead Yard," which I haven't read but which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the 12 best novels of 2006, along with works by Peter Abrahams, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and George Pelecanos."
---The Washington Post
"McKinty, who grew up in Northern Ireland, has an ear for language and a taste for violence, and he serves up a terrifically gory, swiftly paced thriller."
---The Miami Herald
"There's nothing like an Irish tough guy. And we're not talking about Gentleman Gerry Cooney here. No, we mean the new breed of bare-knuckle Irish writers like Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen and John Connolly who are bringing fresh life to the crime fiction genre."
---The Philadelphia Inquirer
"McKinty's writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot on dialogue, and fascinating characters."
---The Chicago Sun-Times
"If you like your noir staples such as beautiful women, betrayal, murder, mixed with a heavy dose of blood, crunched bones, body parts flying around served up with some throwaway humour, you need look no further, McKinty delivers all of this with the added bonus that the writing is pitch perfect."
---The Barcelona Review
"I really enjoyed [Dead I Well May Be’s] combination of toughness and a striking literary style. Both those things are evident in Hidden River. McKinty is going places."
---The Observer
"This is a terrific read. McKinty gives us a strong non stop story with attractive characters and fine writing."
---The Morning Star
"[McKinty] draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool...he drops out of conversational mode to throw in a few breathtaking fever-dream sequences for flavor. And then he springs an ending so right and satisfying it leaves us numb with delight and ready to pop for another round. Start the cliche machine: This is a profoundly satisfying book from a major new talent and one of the best crime fiction debuts of the year."
---Booklist
"The story is soaked in the holy trinity of the noir thriller: betrayal, money and murder, but seen through with a panache and political awareness that give McKinty a keen edge over his rivals."
---The Big Issue
"A darkly humorous cross between a hard-boiled mystery and a Beat novel."
---The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A roller coaster of highs and lows, light humour and dark deeds, the powerful undercurrent of McKinty's talent will swiftly drag you away. Let's hope the author does not slow down anytime soon."
---The Irish Examiner
"A virtual carnival of slaughter."
---The Wall Street Journal
"McKinty has once again harnassed the power of poetry, violence, lust and revenge to forge a sequel to his acclaimed Dead I Well May Be."
---The Irish Post
"A pacey, violent caper in which McKinty vividly portrays [Belfast's] sleazy, still-menacing underbelly."
---The Sunday Times
"McKinty writes with the soul of a poet; his prose dances off the pages with Old World grace and haunting intensity. It's crime fiction on the level of Michael Connolly with the conviction of James Hall."
---The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"The Bloomsday Dead is the explosive final installment in a trilogy of kinetic thrillers."
---The New York Times
"Adrian McKinty has garnered nothing but praise for his first two books. The third in the trilogy The Bloomsday Dead should leave no doubt that he is a true star. Fast moving and highly engaging this is a great book. McKinty just gets better and better."
---CrimeSpree
"Until The Dead Yard's relentless, poignant ending you'll turn these pages as quickly as you can."
---The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"McKinty's Dead Trilogy has been praised by critics, who call it "intense," "masterful" and "loaded with action." If your reading pleasure leans toward thrillers offering suspense, close calls, wry wit, sharp dialogue, local color and sudden mayhem, you wont do better."
---The Sacramento Bee
"Le Fleuve caché d'Adrian McKinty impressionne par la richesse et la diversité de son ton et de son écriture, passant avec aisance du lyrisme ample de la nostalgie de l'amour perdu au rythme saccadé du narrateur sous l'emprise de l'héroïne. Ce livre rare et maîtrisé est une réussite bien digne de la Série noire."
---Le Figaro
Eine eigentlich simple Story, die natürlich bereits als Grundlage für Hunderte Bücher und Filme diente, macht Adrian McKinty zu der mitreißenden Odyssee eines jungen Mannes, der in der Lage ist, sich seiner Umwelt anzupassen wie jene Kakerlaken, die er in seinem Harlemer Appartement jagt, studiert und sowohl angewidert awie anerkennend entkommen lässt. Nicht umsonst 1992 angesiedelt, ist Der sichere Tod der kongeniale Kommentar zum Wesen der Neunziger.
- Jochen König, krimi-couch.de
"McKinty - that guy is a friggin genius."
---Ken Bruen
"McKinty is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyan, the toughest, the best."
---Frank McCourt
"McKinty is an exciting new talent."
---Ed McBain
"Daddy's book is really boring."
---Sophie McKinty (aged 2 1/2)
"McKinty is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream."
---Kirkus Reviews
"McKinty's literate expertly crafted crime novel confirms his place as one of his generation's leading talents."
---Publishers Weekly
"McKinty crackles with raw talent. His dialogue is superb, his characters rich and his plotting tight and seemless. He writes with a wonderful and wonderfully humorous flair for language raising his work above most crime genre offerings and bumping it right up against literature."
---The San Francisco Chronicle
"McKinty keeps getting better. He melds the snap and crackle of the old Mickey Spillane tales with the literary skills of Raymond Chandler and sets it all down in his own artful way."
---The Rocky Mountain News
"The first of McKinty's Forsythe novels, "Dead I Well May Be," was intense, focused and entirely brilliant. This one is looser-limbed, funnier...so, I imagine, is the middle book, "The Dead Yard," which I haven't read but which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the 12 best novels of 2006, along with works by Peter Abrahams, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and George Pelecanos."
---The Washington Post
"McKinty, who grew up in Northern Ireland, has an ear for language and a taste for violence, and he serves up a terrifically gory, swiftly paced thriller."
---The Miami Herald
"There's nothing like an Irish tough guy. And we're not talking about Gentleman Gerry Cooney here. No, we mean the new breed of bare-knuckle Irish writers like Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen and John Connolly who are bringing fresh life to the crime fiction genre."
---The Philadelphia Inquirer
"McKinty's writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot on dialogue, and fascinating characters."
---The Chicago Sun-Times
"If you like your noir staples such as beautiful women, betrayal, murder, mixed with a heavy dose of blood, crunched bones, body parts flying around served up with some throwaway humour, you need look no further, McKinty delivers all of this with the added bonus that the writing is pitch perfect."
---The Barcelona Review
"I really enjoyed [Dead I Well May Be’s] combination of toughness and a striking literary style. Both those things are evident in Hidden River. McKinty is going places."
---The Observer
"This is a terrific read. McKinty gives us a strong non stop story with attractive characters and fine writing."
---The Morning Star
"[McKinty] draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool...he drops out of conversational mode to throw in a few breathtaking fever-dream sequences for flavor. And then he springs an ending so right and satisfying it leaves us numb with delight and ready to pop for another round. Start the cliche machine: This is a profoundly satisfying book from a major new talent and one of the best crime fiction debuts of the year."
---Booklist
"The story is soaked in the holy trinity of the noir thriller: betrayal, money and murder, but seen through with a panache and political awareness that give McKinty a keen edge over his rivals."
---The Big Issue
"A darkly humorous cross between a hard-boiled mystery and a Beat novel."
---The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A roller coaster of highs and lows, light humour and dark deeds, the powerful undercurrent of McKinty's talent will swiftly drag you away. Let's hope the author does not slow down anytime soon."
---The Irish Examiner
"A virtual carnival of slaughter."
---The Wall Street Journal
"McKinty has once again harnassed the power of poetry, violence, lust and revenge to forge a sequel to his acclaimed Dead I Well May Be."
---The Irish Post
"A pacey, violent caper in which McKinty vividly portrays [Belfast's] sleazy, still-menacing underbelly."
---The Sunday Times
"McKinty writes with the soul of a poet; his prose dances off the pages with Old World grace and haunting intensity. It's crime fiction on the level of Michael Connolly with the conviction of James Hall."
---The Jackson Clarion-Ledger
"The Bloomsday Dead is the explosive final installment in a trilogy of kinetic thrillers."
---The New York Times
"Adrian McKinty has garnered nothing but praise for his first two books. The third in the trilogy The Bloomsday Dead should leave no doubt that he is a true star. Fast moving and highly engaging this is a great book. McKinty just gets better and better."
---CrimeSpree
"Until The Dead Yard's relentless, poignant ending you'll turn these pages as quickly as you can."
---The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"McKinty's Dead Trilogy has been praised by critics, who call it "intense," "masterful" and "loaded with action." If your reading pleasure leans toward thrillers offering suspense, close calls, wry wit, sharp dialogue, local color and sudden mayhem, you wont do better."
---The Sacramento Bee
"Le Fleuve caché d'Adrian McKinty impressionne par la richesse et la diversité de son ton et de son écriture, passant avec aisance du lyrisme ample de la nostalgie de l'amour perdu au rythme saccadé du narrateur sous l'emprise de l'héroïne. Ce livre rare et maîtrisé est une réussite bien digne de la Série noire."
---Le Figaro
Eine eigentlich simple Story, die natürlich bereits als Grundlage für Hunderte Bücher und Filme diente, macht Adrian McKinty zu der mitreißenden Odyssee eines jungen Mannes, der in der Lage ist, sich seiner Umwelt anzupassen wie jene Kakerlaken, die er in seinem Harlemer Appartement jagt, studiert und sowohl angewidert awie anerkennend entkommen lässt. Nicht umsonst 1992 angesiedelt, ist Der sichere Tod der kongeniale Kommentar zum Wesen der Neunziger.
- Jochen König, krimi-couch.de
"McKinty - that guy is a friggin genius."
---Ken Bruen
"McKinty is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyan, the toughest, the best."
---Frank McCourt
"McKinty is an exciting new talent."
---Ed McBain
"Daddy's book is really boring."
---Sophie McKinty (aged 2 1/2)
Who's been dropping by
What's Next For Me?
A couple more books, a few birthdays, some shuffleboard then a period spent in the digestive tract of earthworms, followed by molecular breakdown, the sun boiling into space, the heat death of the universe, atomic decay, perpetual darkness, a trillion years of nothingness and then, if we're lucky, brane collapse, a new singularity and a new Big Bang.
Me & the Mrs in our survivalist bunker
Adios and thank you for stopping by....
Humiliation, unhappiness, discord are the ancient foods of heroes---Jorge Luis Borges
The measure of a writer isn't success, but how hard he tried to do what he knew he couldn't do---William Faulkner
I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen---J G Ballard
I read the dictionary once . . . It turns out that the zebra did it --- Steven Wright
Times are bad. Children disobey their parents and everyone is writing a book---Cicero
Made in Ireland
33 comments:
I do have to wonder what those weird little lavender zones are, considering that lavender is nowhere in the key. If it was California I would have to say it meant 'irrelevant due to intoxication by other substances." Or possibly, Gay Pride.
Oh, well, probably put together by a drunken Irishman--or to be fair, a drunken Eastern European, the shape of whose country is sadly not familiar enough to me to identify.
Seana
I suspect its even worse in Northern Ireland because there's a large proportion of Free Prebyterian total abstainers - god help them.
Well, I expect that's what they're hoping.
Also the figures for Scandanavia are artifically low; they all make their own moonshine, because of ridiculous tax rates, esp Icelanders. Everyone in Iceland is drunk much of the time. 1/3 of Icelanders believe in or have seen trolls. Thats some serious moonshine. You want a tip? Never have a brain operation in Iceland.
Too late.
If Bjork, or any other Icelanders have been lurking here, now is probably the time you will find out. Don't expect their comments to be particularly pleasant, now that you've discounted the existence of their one remaining national treasure.
Ah, but there is a large section of non-drinkers in Sweden, to counterbalance the home brewing. I was brought up in a completely dry environment, which explains a lot.
You don't believe in trolls?
Uh oh. Apparently you've managed to dis the Swedes too.
And yet still no Irish taking against you. Pubs must still be open.
Miss Witch
In Ireland they were all driven out by the fairies, obviously.
Seana
I've never been to Sweden but I think they seem more like the heroes of Willa Cather novels rather than jump suit wearing Abba fans. Just a hunch. Oh and I did see a great movie called Together a few years back which was enjoyable.
one house; one revolutionary; two open straight marriages; three gay people (maybe four); three children; two carnivores and eight vegetarians; there's only one way they're going to make it... togetherHaven't seen it, but judging by that tagline, it sounds like it could easily be some sort of co-op house right here in Santa Cruz. Except apparently there is snow.
I just saw a Swedish movie myself a week or two ago called Everlasting Moments by the director of The Emigrants, which has to be one of my favorite movies or I guess you might call it a series. I found this one a little slow, and you couldn't call it a big plug for marriage, but the acting by the two people who played the parents was brilliant.
My sister had a Swedish boyfriend named Ulf for awhile, who sounded very nice, though I never met him. I don't think the troll discussion ever came up, or maybe it was responsible for their ultimate break-up. Actually, I think it was just the mileage.
Well, I don't know about whether its more Abba or more Cather. My own most lasting impression comes from being thrown in with a couple of Swedish girls for a day or two on an island off of Thailand. I don't know why it seems as if we rode around with them in a van for a long time, because it wasn't a very big island. I'd say they were definitely more Abba than Cather, though. One of them was reading some novel in English that I kept trying discreetly to look over her shoulder at just to see what it was. I think I did finally figure it out and it was some bestseller, but what else are you going to take along on a trip in a van in your vacation? My sister and I (another sister) did eventually get into a conversation with them, but the only thing I remember is their disbelief and I think disdain that Americans only got two or three weeks off a year. It's odd that this came up, as neither of us had jobs at the time.
Both of them worked on the ferries, and it was not too long after our trip when there was that terrible ferry accident--a fire?--off of Sweden and many lives were lost. I always hoped that they were lucky enough not to have been in it.
I wonder if anyone here can tell that what I am really supposed to be doing right now is packing boxes?
Seana
I'm not sure that I've actually met any Swedes in real life. I knew a lot of Norwegians at Warwick University for some reason but no Swedes. The Norwegians were eccentric.
Before you ask it manifested itself in strange outfits, nudity and trips to odd places - Wolverhampton, etc.
Don't take offense, Book Witch. I'm pretty sure Adrian knows you are real. Just because he doesn't believe in trolls, it doesn't mean he doesn't believe in you.
Although I would be the first to say that the internet isn't quite the real world either.
As far as I know, I don't know any Norwegians. I'll be on the lookout, though. Santa Cruz seems a likely place for sightings.
Wow--that was weird. I'm half listening to this mother-daughter show on the radio. Someone was just talking about her schizophrenic mother and just as I sent that the guest said, 'I don't think she felt very real in the world, or very real with my father,' etc.--I'm now fairly convinced that this is all just the sim script that we keep harking back to.
Glad I keep coming up with my lines...
How is the packing going, Seana?
You mean neither of you believe in bookwitches, either? Adrian, tell your publisher the witch can be your first ever Swede, if they sort their dates right. And not a drink in sight.
My next door neighbour is from NI. So was my first Declan.
Swedes require long holidays, so I'm not surprised your travel pals felt you didn't get enough, Seana. It's that instinct that has me out of the country when the famous author of Fifty Grand makes his appearance.
I'm very eccentric. Or was that obvious? It might cause an inter-Nordic incident for me to say anything about Norwegians
Liters per capita.
13+ a year
roughly means a liter a day of 4% abv beer.
Respectable, considering children, non drinkers, etc.
We did present the list and draft our campaign schedule. Official campaigning day in day out will start on Wednesday after all regularity checks are completed.
I've already begun to listen to my electorate. Since one of my I surest votes comes from an old lady who lives with several cats and reads those novels where a siamese cat solves crimes, I'm now in favor of more cat mysteries, or cozycats.
As to the packing, it goes, is all I can say. My moaning and groaning about it was put in perspective last night though when I was talking to my mom, who had just heard from a friend who had to flee the Santa Barbara fires. Imagine being eighty something and having to decide in a few short hours what to hold on to and what to let go out of a lifetime. Fortunately, though, her home survived.
Marco, keep us posted as you can. You might want to check out Peter R.'s thread on traditional mysteries, which has a lot on cozies for 'talking points'. Unless, being you, you already have.
I was most surprised with Greenland being in 13+ liters category. But when 81% of your land mass is covered with ice sheets, nuff said.
I have nothing to add, except that beer is good. And good luck to Marco, of course.
Miss Witch
I think I'm right that even though the Icelanders are now going to join the EU, the Norwegians for whatever reason never will.
Leopard
I have to say though, I'd love to go to Greenland, it must be an amazing place.
Brian
Speaking of homebrew. I'm trying a new batch soon.
Marco
When's your new batch of brew?
Seana
I much preferred SC to further down and up the coast, although I went surfing once at Pacifica and that was nice. Small waves, lots of guys with grey beards.
Yes, it is it's own milieu. I lived in Carmel for a few years, off and on, and my mom lives there now, but they are worlds apart. It's not just the wealth of Carmel denizens, as there were actually quite a few working people living in pretty humble dwellings when I was there. But even though it was just on the south side of the same bay the climate, the politics and the feeling of it were very different. I liked it well enough. But somehow I always felt like I was out of the loop and away from the action there.
I do like the California coast, though. I suppose we should enjoy it while we can, as it will probably all fall away before too long.
I listened to an interesting radio show last night--an interview about our late and lamented California writer, James Houston. I have yet to read him, despite my promise and despite talking my reading group into doing the same. But more and more I'm realizing that he was a kind of touchstone of the local literary community and his loss is deeply felt here. I was really touched by the ending words of the interview about reading Houston and opening oneself to being a true Californian in soul and spirit. I totally got it for a minute because in point of fact, that's exactly what I am, and yet I do think there is a restlessness in the Californian psyche that makes one reluctant to leap to embrace that identity.
I'll probably try to make my homebrew this fall, along with the wine.
Thanks, Brian!
Adrian,
What are you whipping up this time? I'm going to brew another batch soon, not sure yet what it'll be.
Seana
Did you ever make it up to Pacifica? I liked it a lot the brief little time I was there. And I think I told you already that I also liked the campus of UCSC.
I suppose you know that Robert Heinlein lived nearby too.
Marco
Wine and beer at the same - doesnt seem right somehow, add whisky to that mix and you're really conjuring with evil spirits. (Definitely no pun intended)
Brian
Still in the final stages of making a decision. Obviously its going to be something dark (because its autumn down here). Thee's a Tasmanian dark lager which sounds intriguing and one of my old favourites a Burtonised IPA (pretty idiot proof that one which is what I may need after my last debacle). It'll be out in the shed so smell isnt an issue and the temp should be perfect. We'll see.
You know, I don't think I've ever really stopped in Pacifica--just been past it. But I know it was at one point a kind of alternative to Santa Cruz for people who'd grown up here and were hoping to somehow buy a home.
Yes, I'd heard about Heinlein's residency. I think there are a lot of writer types hiding up in those hills. A lot of my friends seem to be migrating up into the mountains recently--rents better, for one thing. But I don't know--I don't think it's really for me.
Good luck with the brew, man. Let me know how it turns out.
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