Irish detective fiction has enjoyed an international readership for over a decade, appearing on best-seller lists across the globe. But its breadth of hard-boiled and amateur detectives, historical fiction, and police procedurals has remained somewhat marginalized in academic scholarship. Exploring the work of some of its leading writersincluding Peter Tremayne, John Connolly, Declan Hughes, Ken Bruen, Brian McGilloway, Stuart Neville, Tana French, Jane Casey, and Benjamin Black The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel opens new ground in Irish literary criticism and genre studies. It considers the detective genre's position in Irish Studies and the standing of Irish authors within the detective novel tradition.

Contributors: Carol Baraniuk, Nancy Marck Cantwell, Brian Cliff, Fiona Coffey, Charlotte J. Headrick, Andrew Kincaid, Audrey McNamara, and Shirley Peterson.

The critical scholars chosen to contribute to the collection are as diverse as the books examined, and this brings much to the table. The Contemporary Irish Detective serves as a powerful tonic to those upset by poor service from the academic world. (Gerard Brennan, Breac - A Digital Journal of Irish Studies, breac.nd.edu, June 19, 2019) This collection of nine insightful essays opens new ground and advocates for a more considered appraisal of detective fiction, within Irish literary studies. Each essay offers a broad overview of several texts, considering reoccurring thematic issues across the series, rather than close readings of a single novel. The range and scope covered by the nine essays is commendable and a judiciously light theoretical emphasis, the absence of elitist academic jargon, will warm even casual readers to the analysis. (John Singleton, Review of Irish Studies in Europe RISE, Vol. 2 (1-3), March, 2018)

The collection of essays in The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel proposes and provides an expansion of Irish Studies to include also Irish detective fiction in a serious way. As stated earlier, I consider this anthology to be of interest to many readers, both those interested in Irish studies, and those interested in crime fiction generally. The chapters successfully combine and expand both areas. (Katarina Gregersdotter, Nordic Irish Studies, Vol. 16, 2017)

Autorentext

Elizabeth Mannion earned her PhD at Trinity College, Dublin. Her research and teaching cover an interdisciplinary range of Irish studies, from modern drama to contemporary crime fiction. Recent publications include The Urban Plays of the Early Abbey Theatre: Beyond O'Casey, as well as chapters in the forthcoming Shaw and the Making of Modern Ireland and A Cambridge History of Irish Working-Class Writing .

Inhalt
Introduction; Elizabeth Mannion.- 1.Hello Dálaigh; Nancy Marck Cantwell.- 2.A 'honeycomb world'; Brian Cliff.- 3.'Where No Kindness Goes Unpunished'; Charlotte J. Headrick.- 4.Detecting Hope; Andrew Kincaid.- 5.Negotiating Borders; Carol Baraniuk.- 6.'The Place You Don't Belong'; Fiona Coffey.- 7.Voicing the Unspeakable; Shirley Peterson.- 8.'Irish by Blood and English by Accident'; Elizabeth Mannion.- 9.Quirke, The 1950s and Leopold Bloom; Audrey McNamara.