» Ten Terrifying Questions with Dervla McTiernanThe Booktopian

We had the pleasure of asking bestselling author Dervla McTiernan Ten Terrifying Questions. If you’re a fan of Jane Harper and Robert Galbraith then you’ll love the new novel in the thrilling Irish detective series from the bestselling author of The Ruin and What Happened To Nina.

To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

Born in Cork, and raised mostly in Galway, Ireland. I had a whole bunch of schools — my dad moved for work a lot, and we went with him.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

At twelve I wanted to be a vet, because I loved animals. My dad discouraged this … he didn’t think I’d like dealing with cows and sheep as much as I would have puppies and kittens! I think he may have underestimated me a little bit, but these days I’m not sorry I went a different direction. At eighteen, I wanted to be a lawyer. Only because I liked studying History and English at school, and the consensus seemed to be that if you were good at those subjects, law might be the right choice for you. By the time I was thirty, the idea of writing was nagging away at the back of my brain.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?

That writing was for other people. That writers had a kind of magical talent that came naturally, and you either have it or you don’t.

4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?

Every day I’m inspired by other writers. I learn from other writers every time I pick up a novel. I’m reading an Anthony Horowitz book right now, and I’m learning. I can’t point to any one work, or even three, and say, these were the books that made me the writer I am because I think, I hope, that I’m only just beginning.

6. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?

Ha! I love your confidence. I can’t dance, sing, or draw with any degree of skill, so I’m not sure I had a lot of avenues open to me. I do believe that writing is a craft that can be learned and honed, but though I didn’t write much when I was younger, I have read voraciously all my life, so in that way I had been training to be a writer for a long time. I also love books more than any other art form.

7. Please tell us about your novel, Unquiet Grave.

The idea for the book came to me when I was reading about bog bodies in Northern Europe. These are bodies that are thousands of years old, preserved by the bog environment, and a number of the bodies that have been found have been found with injuries that are strikingly similar, a pattern of strange injuries that suggest ritual torture.

In THE UNQUIET GRAVE, a body is found in Galway with that exact pattern of injury, but this is not a historic body, it’s the body of a high school principal who disappeared two years earlier. Cormac Reilly and Peter Fisher take on this investigation, and they get nowhere initially, because the trail is ice cold, and the dead man seems to have lived this entirely innocent, blameless life. I mean, there is no reason for anyone to kill him, let alone murder him in this ritualistic way.

Cormac does start to make progress with the investigation and he is pretty certain he’s figured out who the murderer is, when another body is discovered on the other side of the country, a body with the exact pattern of injuries. And then a third body is found. And Cormac’s suspect could not be responsible for these deaths, so he’s suddenly confronted with the possibility that he’s gotten it wrong all along. That he’s wasted time pursuing the wrong suspect, leaving the killer free to kill again. So now he’s got to figure out the truth before there’s another murder, and the reader gets to see if it all comes together in the end.

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

The most important thing for me by far is that people take a few hours of escapism and comfort from my books. That’s what I’ve always gone to books for, that’s still what I go to them for today. Of course there are deeper themes, and some books will leave you maybe with a lingering debate in your head, but mostly I want you to love the characters and places and want to spend some of your precious time with them.

8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?

This is actually really hard, because there are so many writers I admire, but I’d have to say that I think Stephen King is the person who comes to mind. I don’t know him personally, have never met him, but just as a reader, I appreciate his work so much. I think he’s an extraordinary writer. I buy every book he writes, and I set aside a Saturday afternoon so that I can really settle in on the couch, and just sink into the story. When I open a Stephen King book, my inner editor is completely silent, and I read the way I read when I was kid. That moment … it just feels like a gift. And I love that he writes for no other reason than that he wants to. Or needs to, maybe. He writes for the love of it. Isn’t that the best?

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

I want to do this for at least another twenty years. That list of books you see on the inside flap of a Stephen King book? Maybe my list will never be as long (he had a considerable head start!) but I’d like to see another twenty books on there. Books that I love and am proud of. How great would that be?

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?

Oh man. So much advice! But most of it could really only be given over a quiet drink. Here’s the most important bit of it all though … only do it if you love it. A lot of people dream of being published, but the honest truth is that there is no part of publishing that is anywhere close to as joyful or as satisfying as the actual writing. So if you love writing, and you write for the love of it, you’ve already won. No-one can give you that joy, and no-one can take it away. It belongs to you.

The Unquiet Grave

by Dervla McTiernan

Every grave has a story ... The much-anticipated new novel in the Cormac Reilly series, from the no.1 bestselling author of The Ruin and What Happened to Nina.

For years the boglands of Northern Europe have given up bodies of the long-deceased. Bodies that are thousands of years old, uncannily preserved. Bodies with strange injuries that suggest ritual torture and human sacrifice.
When a corpse is found in a bog in Galway, Cormac Reilly assumes the find is historical. But closer examination reveals a more recent story. The dead man is Thaddeus Grey, a local secondary school principal who disappeared two years prior.

There's nothing in Grey's past that would explain why he was murdered, or why his body was mutilated in a ritual manner. At first, progress on the case is frustratingly slow and Cormac struggles to keep his mind on the job. His ex-girlfriend, Emma Sweeney, is in trouble, and she's reached out to him for help - Emma's new husband has gone missing in Paris, and the French police are refusing to open an investigation into his disappearance.

Cormac is sure that he has found Grey's killer, and is within hours of an arrest, when another mutilated body is discovered on the other side of the country. Two days later, a third body is found. Press attention is intense. Is there a serial killer at work in Ireland? Has Cormac been on the wrong trail? And if so, can he find the murderer before they strike again?

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