Sinéad Crowley

Sinéad Crowley is Arts and Media Correspondent for RTE, Ireland’s national broadcaster, working for television, radio and online. Her debut thriller, ‘Can Anybody Help Me?’ was a bestseller in Ireland and shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2014. Her second novel, ‘Are You Watching Me?’ also features Detective Claire Boyle was released this summer. Sinéad lives in Dublin with her husband and two young sons.

1. Can you tell us what your new book ‘Are You Watching Me?’ is about?
   ‘Are You Watching Me’ is about a young woman, Liz who is trying to retreat from life after a difficult couple of years. She doesn’t use social media and has found the most low key job imaginable, as an assistant at a charity for elderly men. But a chance appearance on TV leads her to unexpected and unwanted fame, and then one day she gets a letter from a man called Stephen, who says he is watching her.

   At the same time the body of one of the clients of the centre is found at his home. Could the two events be connected?

2. To the readers of the website, tell us about yourself and how you got into writing.
   I’ve been working as a journalist for over twenty years and am currently Arts and Media Correspondent with RTE, Ireland’s national broadcaster. But I always loved writing as well. I wrote an unpublished novel in my twenties and then in my mid thirties decided to give it another go. On maternity leave with my first child I got the idea for the book that would become ‘Can Anybody Help me?’, which was published in May 2014 and is the first to feature Det Sgt Claire Boyle. She also features in ‘Are You Watching Me?’ and a third book, currently underway.
3. What’s your favourite opening line from a book?
   The house in the hollow was ‘a mile from anywhere’ – so Maywood people said.”
   From ‘Emily of New Moon’ by LM Montgomery.
4. Why did you decide that you wanted to write crime?
   I wrote the type of book I love to read! I love thrillers, and crime fiction, anything with a good twist in the tale. If readers say to me that they were surprised by the endings of my books then that makes me very happy.
5. Who’s your favourite villain?
   Oliver, from ‘Unravelling Oliver’ by Liz Nugent is an interesting baddie. And if I can mention one of my own, can I say I have a soft spot for Stephen, the stalker in my new book. Again, it’s about why they do what they do.
6. What’s your favourite book of all time?
   That’s a hard one but I’m sure you are sick of people saying ‘oh I couldn’t possibly choose!”. So I’m going to go with ‘Flowers on the Grass’ by Monica Dickens.
7. What do you think makes a good crime book?
   Believable plot and characters. I don’t enjoy crime fiction where the villain is bad ‘just because’. I want to know why things happen as well as when and how. I’m also a sucker for a good twist. I can think of two books in the last few years that made me gasp out loud, Claire Mackintosh’s ‘I Let You Go’ and Erin Kelly’s ‘The Burning Air’ and I loved both.
8. What area do you suggest a budding writer should concentrate on to further their abilities?
   Reading and writing, that’s it really. And it’s good to read outside your own genre as well. There are a lot of books out there, it’s a shame to confine yourself to one area. Also read ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King. That’s an order!
9. If you were to start your own book club, what authors would you ask to join?
   Declan Burke for his guidance on crime fiction. Sarah Bannon for literary fiction and YA. Louise O’Neill, because she makes every gathering cooler simply by attending.
10. If you were stranded on a desert island, which 3 books would you bring with you to pass the time?
    I read really quickly so they’d have to be long! ‘Lonesome Dove’ by Larry McMurty, which has been sitting on my shelf for years. Can I cheat and say a compendium of Agatha Christie books? One with about five books in it? And ‘Gone with the Wind’. That should see me through. I like stories.
11. When sitting down to write, what is the one item you need beside you?
    Tall, skinny vanilla latte.
12. And finally, do you have any projects or releases on the horizon that you would like to share with the readers of the website?
    My second book ‘Are You Watching Me’ is now out, and I hope people enjoy the second instalment in the Claire Boyle series. There’ll be at least one other in the series, release date TBC.

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