Book Club March: The Good Turn by Dervla Mctiernan
Best-selling crime author Dervla Mctiernan shares the secrets behind her award-winning Cormac Reilly series. Here’s how you can win a copy of her new book.
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WHEN Dervla McTiernan was a little girl she always had her nose in a book, travelling to magical worlds beyond the cobblestone streets of Galway.
But as much as she loved watching words dance on a page, she believed she would never be good enough to be a writer.
“Books were always the biggest part of my life but I never thought I could write,” the now international best-selling author says.
“I learned to read when I was three and you would rarely have found me without a book in hand since.
“When looking back on my childhood the only time I would write would be when I wrote plays for my sisters and friends on our school holidays.
“I thought being a writer was only going to be a dream I carried in the back of my head.
It was a dream that was far-fetched and the thing of fairytales. It was never talked about or a possibility in my life. It was something other people did.”
Just like the protagonist in her new novel, The Good Turn, Dervla McTiernan believes one should be sensible but also a risk taker.
The acclaimed crime-author spent twelve years working as a lawyer. Following the global financial crisis, she moved from Ireland to Australia and turned her hand to writing.
“Back in Ireland I would have never been brave enough to start writing a novel,” she says.
“It took me coming to Australia in 2011 for me to feel free enough to live again and be brave and go after the very unrealistic dream of writing.”
When the family of four settled in Western Australia, Dervla worked part-time and started writing every night when her kids went to bed.
“I would write for a couple of hours with a word count in mind,” she says.
“But some nights I would get carried away with a bottle of wine in the kitchen.”
In 2015, the mother of two wrote her first 40,000 words detailing the adventures of Irish Detective Cormac Reilly. This was the start of her first book, The Ruin.
“I stopped and gave up for a while,” she says.
“But after entering a short story competition and being short-listed, I had the confidence to start taking it seriously and finish the book.”
The Perth-based writer finished the manuscript for The Ruin in 2016.
“My manuscript was sent out and I got six offers of publication, which blew my mind,” she says.
It sold to HarperCollins in Australia after a six-way auction for the Australian rights.
In a matter of weeks the novel became a top 10 bestseller in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia.
The Ruin is now being adapted for a television series. It will be the debut project for Colin Farrell’s new production company Chapel Place.
Dervla McTiernan released her second book The Scholar in 2019, which became a number five bestseller.
Dervla says The Good Turn will complete Cormac Reilly’s journey for now. In the third novel, readers meet single mother Anna and her daughter Tilly.
Anna is scared Tilly is going to be taken away from her so they decide to escape to Roundstone, a fishing village on the West Coast of Ireland.
Back in Galway a young girl is abducted and Detective Cormac Reilly and Garda Peter Fisher are doing everything they can to find her.
Under pressure Peter makes a mistake and is relocated out of Galway, but what seems worse than prosecution is working for his overbearing father, a copper in Roundstone.
Detective Reilly remains back in Galway investigating a police corruption case and with every fibre of his body tries not to cross the line.
The seaside village of Roundstone seems like the perfect refuge but now it is home to three unconnected events and the shadows of evil men.
“I feel like now Cormac has completed a journey,” Dervla says.
“He has really been put through the ringer in this book and now is in a really tired state.
“It will be a few years before I write him again.
“He will pick up where he left off – but he will be in a different time and place.”
She has just starting her next novel, which will be a stand-alone book. It will be released next year.
Despite suffering from a chronic medical condition and juggling two children, Dervla remains full of fire. She cannot hold herself back because her passion burns brighter than her fears.
“If I found the strength to make my dreams come true – you can too,” she says.
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