ADRIAN MCKINTY
The Northern Ireland-raised, now New York-based author publishes his second thriller, following on from bestseller The Chain
What’s the best book you’ve read? Impossible question to answer. Every few months a book comes along that shakes me to the core and which I end up loving with a passion. When I was about 16, I read Catch 22 and shortly thereafter Pride and Prejudice. Those are two that have stayed with me all my life.
A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?
Don Winslow’s The Power of the Dog and James Ellroy’s American Tabloid showed me the possibilities of crime fiction and started me down that road to writing my own books.
The book you couldn’t finish?
I’m sorry but I’m one of those people who will always finish a book that they start. So far, no book has defeated me. Even books I have ended up not liking very much, I somehow struggled through to the end, such as Finnegans Wake.
A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?
I haven’t read all the volumes of A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. I plan to at some point, but that’s a big commitment.
What book do you re-read?
I’ve read the entire Aubrey-maturin series by Patrick O’brian three times all the way through.
The book you are most proud to have written?
That’s another tricky one. How can you choose between your offspring? I suppose The Chain was the biggest challenge for me. I had only ever written noirs before, and this was my first thriller. I’m proud about how that one came out.
What books are on your bedside table?
Right now a book called I Hate The Internet by Jarett Kobek and Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA by Tim Weiner.
Fans are excited about the prospect of new Sean Duffy novels (set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles). When might we see them?
Yes, at all my recent tour events,
I got a lot of questions about Sean Duffy and quite a few fans showed up, some bearing gifts of Guinness and soda bread, which I gratefully accepted. Every few days I get asked this question on twitter too. There are three more Duffy books coming. The first, The Detective Up Late, will hopefully be out by the end of the year. It’s really gratifying to see how many of the original fans have hung in there and to see so many new fans for Sean’s adventures.
What are you writing next?