9: Jess Kidd, Henrietta McKervey and Paddy Hirsch with Declan Burke

Past Crimes: Jess Kidd, Henrietta McKervey and Paddy Hirsch with Declan Burke

From Jess Kidd’s Things in Jars to Henriette McKervey’s Violet Hill, London’s only female Victorian detective, via Hudson’s Kill and the Irish gangs of New York, three novelists use the past as a backdrop to their page-turning adventures of deception, danger – and detection. 

Host Declan Burke is an award-winning author and editor. His novel Absolute Zero Cool won the Goldsboro Award in 2012. Books to Die For (2013), co-edited with John Connolly, won the Anthony Award for Best Non-Fiction Crime. The Lammisters, a comic novel, is published by No Alibis Press.

Paddy Hirsch is a fiction and non-fiction author, journalist, web video host, financial blogger and a commentator on the economy and financial markets. He is the author of the Justice Flanagan series of historical thrillers, including The Devil’s Half Mile and Hudson’s Kill, and of Man vs Markets, Economics Explained, Plain and Simple, a lighthearted, illustrated book explaining the workings of the financial markets, published by HarperCollins.

Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from county Mayo and has a truly unique fictional voice. Her debut, Himself, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2016. She won the Costa Short Story Award the same year. Her second novel, The Hoarder, was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2019. Both books were BBC Radio 2 Book Club Picks. Jess’s work has been described as ‘Gabriel García Márquez meets The Pogues.’

Henrietta McKervey is an award-winning fiction writer and design & advertising copywriter. What Becomes Of Us, and The Heart of Everything and Violet Hill are published by Hachette.

Henrietta won the UCD Maeve Binchy Travel Award in 2014, Hennessy First Fiction Award in 2015 and the Irish Writers Centre Jack Harte Bursary in 2016. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UCD.

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Music in this episode from X3nus at Freesound.org.