Adrian McKinty

Adrian McKinty is an Irish crime novelist who has won the Ned Kelly Award and been shortlisted for the Edgar Award, Dagger Award and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1968 and grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. He read law at the University of Warwick and politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York and from 2001 onwards Denver, Colorado where he taught high school English and began writing fiction. He currently lives in Melbourne with his wife and two children.^[1]

Adrian McKinty
Born	1968 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	British/Irish
Education	University of Warwick, University of Oxford
Period	1990s-
Genre	Crime fiction, young adult fiction
Literary movement	Celtic New Wave in Crime Fiction
Notable works	The Cold Cold Ground (Sean Duffy series)
Notable awards	Ned Kelly Award 2014, Dagger Award Shortlist, Edgar Award Shortlist
Spouse	Leah
Children	Arwynn, Sophie
Website
adrianmckinty.blogspot.com

Writing career

McKinty has written sixteen books ten of which form two trilogies and a quartet.^[2] He is primarily known as a writer of genre fiction: crime and mystery novels and young adult fiction. McKinty writes in a stylised prose manner with echoes of James Ellroy, and Elmore Leonard. Publishers Weekly has called him "one of his generation's leading talents"^[3] and Patrick Anderson of the Washington Post has praised McKinty as a leading light in the new wave of Irish crime novelists whose most celebrated members are Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly.^[4] McKinty has been criticised for the explicit use of violence in his novels,^[5] however John O'Connor reviewing McKinty's "Fifty Grand" in The Guardian^[6] called him a "master of modern noir, up there with the likes of Dennis Lehane." McKinty uses the classic noir tropes of revenge and betrayal to explore his characters' existential quest for meaning in an often bleak but lyrically intense universe.^[7] Steve Dougherty writing in The Wall Street Journal praised McKinty's use of irony and humour as a counterpoint to the violent world inhabited by McKinty's Sean Duffy character.^[8]

Awards

• His debut crime novel Dead I Well May Be was short-listed for the CWA Steel Dagger Award 2004.^[9]
• His debut young adult novel The Lighthouse Land was shortlisted for the 2008 Young Hoosier Award^[10] and the 2008 Beehive Award^[11]
• The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 Best Novels of 2006^[12] and won the 2007 Audie Award for best thriller/suspense.^[13]
• The Bloomsday Dead was long-listed for the 2009 World Book Day Award.^[14]
• Fifty Grand won the 2010 Spinetingler Award for best novel^[15] and was longlisted for the 2011 Theakston Best British Crime Novel Award.^[16]
• Audible.com selected Falling Glass as the Best Mystery or Thriller of 2011.^[17]
• The Cold Cold Ground won the 2013 Spinetingler Award for best crime novel,^[18] was shortlisted for The 2013 Prix Du Meilleur Polar,^[19] was shortlisted for the 2015 Prix SNCF Du Polar,^[20] and Crime Fest's 2013 Last Laugh Award.^[21]
• I Hear The Sirens In The Street won the 2014 Barry Award for best mystery novel (paperback original),^[22] was shortlisted for best crime novel at the 2013 Ned Kelly Awards,^[23] was shortlisted for the 2014 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière,^[24] and for the 2014 Theakston Best British Crime Novel Award.^[25]
• In The Morning I'll Be Gone won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for best fiction,^[26] was shortlisted for the 2015 Audie Award For Best Thriller ^[27] and was named as one of the 10 best crime novels of 2014 by the American Library Association.^[28]
• Gun Street Girl was shortlisted for the 2016 Edgar Award (best pbk original), ^[29] the 2015 Ned Kelly Award,^[30] the 2016 Audie Award for Best Mystery,^[31] was a Boston Globe "Best Book of 2015"^[32] and an Irish Times "Best Crime Novel of 2015."^[33]

Journalism

McKinty has written articles and book reviews for The Washington Post,^[34] The Times,^[35] The Guardian,^[36] The Independent,^[37] The Australian,^[38]The Sydney Morning Herald,^[39] The Melbourne Age,^[40] and Harpers Magazine.^[41]

Michael Forsythe Trilogy

1. Dead I Well May Be (Scribner) 2003
2. The Dead Yard (Scribner) 2006
3. The Bloomsday Dead (Scribner) 2007

The Lighthouse Trilogy

1. The Lighthouse Land (Abrams) 2006
2. The Lighthouse War (Abrams) 2007
3. The Lighthouse Keepers (Abrams) 2008

The Sean Duffy series

1. The Cold Cold Ground (Serpents Tail in the UK/Seventh Street Books in the US) 2012
2. I Hear The Sirens in the Street (Serpents Tail in the UK/Seventh Street Books in the US) 2013
3. In The Morning I'll Be Gone (Serpents Tail in the UK/Seventh Street Books in the US) 2014
4. Gun Street Girl (Serpents Tail in the UK/Seventh Street Books in the US) 2015
5. Rain Dogs (Serpents Tail in the UK/Seventh Street Books in the US) 2016

Standalone Books

1. Orange Rhymes With Everything (Morrow) 1998
2. Hidden River (Scribner) 2005
3. Fifty Grand (Holt) 2009
4. Falling Glass (Serpents Tail) 2011
5. Deviant (Abrams) 2011
6. The Sun Is God (Serpents Tail in the UK/Seventh Street Books in the US) 2014

As Editor

1. Belfast Noir (Akashic) 2014 with Stuart Neville

Personal life

After graduating from Oxford University in 1993 McKinty moved to New York City and found work as a security guard, barman, bookstore clerk, rugby coach, door to door salesman and librarian. In 2000 he relocated to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher. In 2008 he and his family moved to St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia.^[1]

Trivia

• In 2008 McKinty alleged that he had been offered books for sale from Ernest Hemingway's Cuban residence,^[42] the Finca Vigia.
• In 1999 McKinty played loose head prop forward for the Jerusalem Lions Rugby Club.^[43]

Notes and references

External links

• http://www.serpentstail.com/adrian-mckinty
• http://adrianmckinty.blogspot.com