"At last! Brian Cliff's wonderful Irish Crime Fiction is a casefile full of keen insights into Irish crime fiction, a distinct and idiosyncratic genre overdue for meaningful analysis. A thorough and accessible study, this book offers an exploration into how various national anxieties play out in a genre that reaches a broader audience than forms more often associated with national identity. Insights into the anxieties of post-Crash Ireland - what people fear losing or being found by - are brought to the fore in this entertaining investigation. File under 'I for Intrigue'." (Lisa Coen, co-founding publisher at Tramp Press) "The vibrant world of contemporary Irish crime fiction finally has the critical book it needs and deserves: Brian Cliff's thoughtful study tracks developments between and across genres, times and places and offers a nuanced account of the culture and history of Irish crime writing." (Claire Connolly, Professor of Modern English, University College Cork) "Although Scandinavian crime fiction has been all the rage lately, readers would be making a mistake if they don't dive equally deeply into the work of Irish mystery writers who are producing some of the most distinguished literary works of our time. Brian Cliff's exhaustive study should open doors (and eyes) to the best of this talented coterie." (Otto Penzler, The Mysterious Bookshop and The Mysterious Press) "Cliff's book is a wonderful achievement and a landmark in Irish crime fiction criticism.
It wears its impressive scholarship lightly while making some deeply serious claims about the place of Irish crime fiction as the exemplary interlocutor of contemporary Irish social, political and economic life. The scope and range of its account of Irish crime fiction's emergence and proliferation offers new and exciting ways of thinking about Ireland's past, present and future, its global connectedness and about the role and function of crime fiction in society. Lucid, intelligent and comprehensive, this is a must-read for all those interested in crime fiction and the rise and rise of Irish crime fiction specifically." (Dr Andrew Pepper, Queen's University Belfast and The Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice).