[caption id="attachment_71661" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Jane Casey."]
The former children’s books editor and now full-time writer Jane Casey describes herself as a “reluctant exile from Dublin.” Her character Maeve Kerrigan isn’t an exile as such, but her parents are and that is one factor making her feel an outsider as a junior detective in the London Metropolitan Police’s murder squad. The other is gender.
“The Reckoning” (Minotaur Books; $29.99), the second of her Maeve Kerrigan books, helps establish Casey as one of the interesting recent additions to Irish noir.
The author says “The Reckoning” sees the young detective constable “investigating the gruesome deaths of several men who are convicted pedophiles. The investigation takes a new turn when the news breaks that a teenage girl has disappeared, and it’s Maeve who makes a connection between the two cases.”
Echo reviewer Seamus Scanlon commented in March: “Kerrigan juggles a complicated personal and professional life. Her interaction with her boss, her police partner and her police boyfriend are all compelling and capture the authentic interactions and conflicts of a police station. Casey’s writing is assured and the story deftly drawn.”
Casey told the magazine Marie Claire a couple years
ago that her lawyer husband “has a passion for accuracy and gets very huffy if I ever try to bend the rules of police procedure for the sake of dramatic tension.”
She added: “I'm a frustrated matchmaker in real life - there's nothing better than bringing two people together and watching them fall for one another. If I have to invent them to make it happen, so be it.”
It’s not surprising then that Scanlon was impressed with how “Casey manages to write about the love life of Kerrigan with humor, pathos and aplomb, which is a good antidote to the more disturbing crime core of the novel.”
Date of birth: April 19, 1977
Place of birth: Dublin
Spouse: James, a criminal lawyer
Children: Edward (2) and Patrick (3 months)
Residence: London
Published works: “The Missing”; “The Burning” “The Reckoning,” “The Last Girl” (forthcoming in U.K.)
What is your writing routine? Are there ideal conditions?
I write when I can and where I can. I make a point of writing every day and that usually happens late at night. I have written in lots of odd places, even hotel bathrooms – anywhere will do. My only rule is that I don’t stop at the end of a chapter. I have to start the next one – even if it’s only the first sentence – before I can switch off my computer.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Read. A lot. Read outside your favorite genres because there’s always something to learn. Then get on with writing – no excuses. You can always improve on a piece of writing, however bad it is to begin with, but the most brilliant idea is just an idea if you don’t write it down. Do take advice from others but don’t be discouraged – just keep trying. I always think of Samuel Beckett’s surprisingly uplifting quote: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
Name three books that are memorable in terms of your reading pleasure
“Ulysses” by James Joyce – a very moving portrait of my home city. “A Gun for Sale” by Graham Greene is a perfect, lethal novella where the tension builds unbearably. “Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris: I literally jumped at a tense moment. It made me want to have that effect on a reader.
What book are you currently reading?
“Shelley” by Richard Holmes.
I love reading literary biographies, and Shelley was a fascinating character. I don’t read much fiction when I’m writing but in between books I read nothing but novels.
Is there a book you wish you had written?
“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt. Beautiful prose and a crime fiction classic that changed the rules of the genre.
Name a book that you were pleasantly surprised by
“Dark Matter” by Michelle Paver – a very effective ghost story that gets progressively nastier without ever being too graphic.
If you could meet one author, living or dead, who would it be?
Jane Austen, because she is such an enigma and her books suggest she had a great sense of humor.
What book changed your life?
“Soundings,” a wonderful poetry anthology edited by Augustine Martin that I studied in school. It gave me an amazing grounding in English literature. I got the national medal for my Leaving Certificate English exam (presented by Seamus Heaney), and I was offered a place at Oxford University, where I met my future husband. The poems have stayed with me ever since.
What is your favorite spot in Ireland?
The coast road near Westport, Co. Mayo, where it runs between Croagh Patrick and Clew Bay. There are ancient standing stones on the seaward side of the road that are a link to pre-Christian Ireland. It’s stunningly beautiful. Especially if it’s not raining.
You’re Irish if…
…your response to everything from triumph to disaster is a nice cup of tea.
