Irish Crime Fiction

Brian Cliff is Assistant Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His recent publications include essays on John Connolly, Tana French, and Deirdre Madden, and Synge and Edwardian Ireland (2012), co-edited with Nicholas Grene. In November 2013, he co-organized “Irish Crime Fiction: A Festival” in Dublin, which featured 18 Irish and Irish-American crime novelists. He is currently completing a monograph about community and contemporary Irish writing.

• 1. Introduction.- 2. Northern Irish Crime Fiction.- 3. Crime Fiction and Contemporary Ireland.- 4. Women and Irish Crime Fiction.- 5. Transnational Irish Crime Fiction.

“Cliff surveys with commendable verve the half-charted terrain of ‘Emerald Noir’. … Cliff illuminates a body of fiction that ‘preserves the ambiguities and ambivalences of a complex society’. … Without doubt, Irish Crime Fiction holds a burnished mirror up to the Celtic Tiger and the northern Troubles.” (Liam McIlvanney, The Irish Times, September 01, 2018)“What Cliff is able to achieve here is an overview, a look at the factors that distinguish Irish crime from the rest of the world, he unlocks the themes and motifs that reoccur. Irish crime writing is rich and diverse and growing. … Cliff uses the example of writers to illustrate themes and trends in Irish crime. … this is a very satisfying read, covering the themes in Irish Crime Fiction.” (Paul Burke, Nudge, nudge-book.com, July, 2018)