Video: Tyrone author’s new thriller decodes dark secrets of Troubles

During the 30 minute interview, which can be watched online at http://www.nvtv.co.uk/shows/novel-ideas-anthony-quinn/, the Tyrone author talks about Silence, the latest Celcius Daly mystery due out in November, and Blind Arrows, an historical thriller featuring Michael Collins, set to be published in September.

Quinn has enjoyed critical success with his debut novel Disappeared, which is set along the loughshore of Tyrone and Armagh.

Introducing Celcius Daly, a police detective laden with flawed judgment and misplaced loyalties, the book was selected by the Times, the Daily Mail and Strand Magazine as one of the best books of the year.

It was also nominated for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, shortlisted by the book critics of the Washington Post, the LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and other US newspapers for a Strand Literary Award after its US publication, and was listed by Kirkus Reviews as one of the top ten thrillers of the year.

“I take a guilty pleasure in drawing the reader’s attention to the strangeness of the Tyrone landscape”, said Anthony, “making them shudder at a gruesome-looking blackthorn tree, a rotting cottage, or a treacherous bog. I wanted readers to feel the dark gravity of the border countryside, its interlocking parishes of grief and murder, its mesh of twisting roads, the sense that out there amid the blackthorn thickets and swirling mists, loose bits of the past are still wriggling their way through the shadows.

“I was especially drawn to Lough Neagh. It’s the largest freshwater lake in Western Europe, but it must be one of the most unappreciated vistas on these islands, a void in the interior of Northern Ireland. Its water level sank about fifty years ago, removing it from the view of local roads and vantage points, so that might be one of the reasons for its hidden nature. In winter, it’s often shrouded in fog, adding to its air of being withdrawn into itself.

“It felt like a place accessible only to the imagination, and I thought it might be a useful metaphor for the hidden stories of the Troubles, the amnesia that has been operating in the midst of life here after the Troubles, the void at the heart of the peace process, the plight of victims and their quest for justice, the unsolved murders that have been quietly removed from view.”

Silence is available for pre-order at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silence-Inspector-Celcius-Anthony-Quinn-x/dp/1784971235, while Blind Arrows is available at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blind-Arrows-Anthony-Quinn/dp/1843445352