The Audio Version

In response to the plethora of emails and twitter questions (ok 2 emails and 1 twitter question) I can inform the world (ok ok 3 people) that Gerard Doyle told me that he's reading In The Morning I'll Be Gone this week and will be recording the book in the next fortnight for Blackstone Audio. As usual Doyle had lots of whinging complaints polite queries about how to pronounce various things in the book, queries that I was occasionally able to answer. 
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If you're a fan of audiobooks, and I for one am a huge fan, I hope you already know about Audible.com. I've been on Audible as a listener for several years now and I have the plan whereby I get one credit a month to download any audiobook I want. This works well for me as it usually takes me 3 weeks - 1 month to listen to an audiobook. I think there are 4 criteria that go towards making a good audiobook: 1) you need a good text to begin with 2) you need a reader whose voice is clear but which also exudes a lot of character 3) the book should ideally last more than 6 hours so you get your money or credit's worth 4) it must never ever be abridged or substantially different from the original text.
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My books have been on Audible since the beginning of the service and I was surprised and delighted last Friday to get a check from Audible as part of their honorarium programme. With absolutely no obligation to do so Audible decided to give all the authors on Audible in a certain quarter period (I think it was the last two quarters of 2012) a honorarium of 1 dollar per book. My check came at a time when the post Christmas bank balance was looking decidedly dodgy and while not a King's ransom it was free money and there's few things in this life that beat free out-of-the-blue-cash. So thank you Mr Doyle for recording In The Morning I'll Be Gone and thank you Audible for providing a great service and for the lovely honorarium check. 

The Booklist Review of The Cold Cold Ground

And here, mes amis, is the second American print review of The Cold Cold Ground. From Booklist:

*Starred Review* 

Irish novelist McKinty returns to his roots with the first book of the Troubles Trilogy, set in his hometown during the time he grew up. At the height of conflict between the Catholic IRA and Protestant paramilitary factions in 1981, Sean Duffy, a Catholic police sergeant in the Protestant town of Carrickfergus, near Belfast, gets an unusual case. Two gay men have been murdered, their right hands severed (the classic modus for killing an informant) and switched between the two bodies. Duffy initially suspects a serial killer, but when no more gay men are targeted, he comes to believe that the second killing was done simply to cover up the first, in which the head of the IRA’s feared internal security force was the victim. Even after the case is reassigned, Duffy defies orders and keeps digging, coming up against corruption and collusion. Everything in this novel hits all the right notes, from its brilliant evocation of time and place to razor-sharp dialogue to detailed police procedures. McKinty, author of the Forsythe and Lighthouse Trilogies, has another expertly crafted crime trilogy going here, and readers will want to see what he does in the concluding two books. --Michele Leber

You can get The Cold Cold Ground right now on Amazon.com, here. 

Or you can get it right now from Barnes and Noble, here.

And of course you've been able to get it on Audible since January, here.  Audible has already picked TCCG as one of its "best of 2012 so far" (You should see who else is on that list. . .TCCG seems to be the only book not written by a celebrity or with an Oscar winning celebrity narrator. So thank you Audible!)

Book Of The Year

Audible.com has picked Falling Glass as its best mystery or thriller of the year. I am absolutely delighted and also amazed; there are thousands of mysteries released as audiobooks every year and if you look at who I topped in this category its quite the collection of superstars. These are big names whose publishers supported their books with massive amounts of advertising, book tours and media appearances. Because I have been unable to find a US publisher Falling Glass had zero advertising, I didn't do a book tour and I did zero media. Falling Glass got the top spot on its writing and more importantly, I'm sure, because of the excellent performance by that brilliant actor and narrator Gerard Doyle. 
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I give a lot of credit to the editors at Audible who saw through the hype machines of the big publishers and picked the book they liked the best. I thank also the writers who reviewed Falling Glass on their blogs, the 207 listeners who rated the book on Audible and the people who took the time and trouble to review Falling Glass on Audible's web site, on Amazon proper and Good Reads. I really do appreciate it. I always read reviews and though I often violently disagree I take them all on board. A big thank you also to Mr Doyle and everyone at Blackstone Audiobooks. 
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Despite this award and the great reviews in the British press I still don't have a US publishing house. Why? Well, the book business is an arcane world. Publishers and editors say they like to try the new and the different but in fact they don't. Apart from the rebel badasses at Serpents Tail everywhere its the same story: if you don't fall neatly into one of their genre boxes they don't know what to do with you. I've always had that problem and rather than pander to the lowest common denominator I've always wanted to write my own books in my own way. Sometimes you pay the price: Here in Australia my publishers Allen and Unwin were so unconvinced by Falling Glass they didn't email me about it or tell me when it was coming out and it was a huge surprise when I just happened to see it in my local bookshop. It's hard enough to write a book but when you struggle to get noticed even by your own local publisher you do sometimes wonder what's the bloody point.
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But maybe the struggle is the point. I bet if I put my mind to it I could write a knock off Michael Connolly or Lee Child and make boatloads of cash. But I don't want to. I'm not that much of a cynic and books are too important to me. I don't want to write for money or for the whims of editors in corner offices, I want to write the books that move me and make me think and make me excited. My readers get invested not just in the characters and the story but also in the words and sentences that make up the story. My readers like irony and judicial profanity. My readers like a good joke and a well turned phrase. My readers admire wit. My readers know who Seamus Heaney is. My readers DONT HAVE TO HAVE EVERY LAST THING EXPLAINED TO THEM. My readers aren't prudes. My readers don't have to be told why its wrong to pour a shamrock on the head of a pint of Guinness. My readers can spot the gag in the sentence that begins chapter 2 of Falling Glass. My readers can recite poems from memory. My readers aren't frightened by a page without dialogue. My readers can name the Presidents back to 1932. My readers are sometimes poleaxed but seldom banjaxed. My readers are a select group and, you know what, I'm really glad about that. Slainte. 

Review This Book!

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed me so far on Amazon.com, Audible.com, Good Reads and Amazon.co.uk. I also really appreciate the blogger and newspaper reviews! I know that you all have busy lives and I'm so touched when you take the time to write a review of my book. As I've said I do read every review and I learn a lot from them, even from the ones where they clearly hate my stuff.  

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Falling Glass has been out one month and although its hard to get in the US I've got 8 reviews so far on Amazon.com, 7 on Audible, 4 on Good Reads and a slightly disappointing 2 on Amazon.co.uk.  I haven't received a bad review yet and I really think that if people learned about the novel it would be appreciated by a wider audience. The blog reviews I've found have come from Glenna, Rob, Peter, Shullamuth & Jon - if I missed you do let me know. Special thanks to everyone who reviewed me in in more than one place. I know who you are, you little devils. So again many many thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to read me and then review me!
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If there are any other review sites I don't know about please let me know and please if you have an Amazon.co.uk account I'd appreciate your help...it's looking a bit pathetic over there.
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Slainte and go raibh maith agat...