Critical acclaim floods in for Tyrone author

The Sunday Times and the Times have praised Disappeared, which is set in the loughshore hinterland of Tyrone, as ‘beautifully haunting’.

Writing in the Times, top reviewer Marcel Berlins gave the book first billing ahead of more renowned crime writers.

“The Troubles of Northern Ireland are not over”, he wrote. “They may no longer reach the headlines, but they continue to damage lives and memories. This is the message so disturbingly, convincingly and elegantly conveyed in Anthony Quinn’s first novel, Disappeared. Its unusual setting — not Belfast or a city made famous by violence, but rural Lough Neagh, full of the sights and sounds of crows and mallards - enhances the touch of unworldliness in a stark tale of multiple betrayals and revenge.”

The Daily Mail has also praised the book’s ‘peerless prose’ and called it ‘unquestionably one of the crime books of the year, set to make Quinn a star’.

Reviewer Geoffrey Wansell went on to say: “The pace is elegiac, with the nuances of who is to be trusted and who not emerging like ghostly trees from the fog around Lough Neagh. But the languor does not blunt its intensity — this is a novel to be read slowly and to be savoured sip by sip, as its spider’s web slowly but surely snares you in its grip.”

Meanwhile, the Irish Independent described Disappeared as ‘outstanding’.

“In the hands of reporter Anthony Quinn, who grew up in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 80s, the beautifully written Disappeared is much more than a routine whodunnit as it unflinchingly lays bare the deep ambivalence that haunts post-peace process Northern Ireland society as it tries to come to terms with its violent past.”

Disappeared, which was shortlisted for the Strand Literary Award when it was first published in the US, was launched by London publisher Head of Zeus on August 14.

Anthony’s next book The Blood Dimmed Tide is released on October 23 and is available for pre-order now on Amazon.

The book has also attracted critical praise already with one advance reviewer describing it as ‘an Irish Shadow of the Wind’.

New York Times bestselling author Brian McGilloway has also described it as ‘a thrilling mystery story from a unique voice in Irish crime fiction’.

To pre-order a copy visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Dimmed-Tide-Anthony-Quinn/dp/1843444658