Best-selling Strabane author releases new book

THE New  York Times best-selling author, Brian McGilloway releases his latest book today (Thursday) and after a nine year gap, Ben Devlin is back.

‘Blood Ties,’ the Holy Cross College teacher’s second novel in a year, following last March’s highly acclaimed, ‘The Last Crossing,’ opens with a bloody scene in a rented room in Lifford:  Somebody’s been murdered!

“The book is set at the start of lockdown in March 2020 and deals with the discovery of the fresh blood of a murder victim at the site of her killer’s own murder, 20 years after the girl died,” Brian explained this week. “How can a dead woman avenge herself on her killer 20 years after her death?”

Brian’s eleventh book in total and the sixth in the Inspector Devlin series, the author admits he was glad to welcome the fictional Ben back into the fold.

“(It’s) the sixth Devlin after a nine year gap, unbelievably – for me at least,” Brian enthused. “The Devlin novels have always been a bit more personal for me and this one is no exception. It was a book I enjoyed writing and I loved having Devlin’s voice in my head once more.

“And Lucy fans will spot some familiar faces, too.”

The Strabane teracher’s last book, ‘The Last Crossing,’ released by The Dome Press was described by the  gazillion-selling author of, ‘The Chain’, Adrian McKinty  as an, “extraordinary novel from one of Ireland’s crime fiction masters.”

This time around, acclaimed crime writer, Ann Cleeves (the creator behind ITV’s Vera and BBC One’s Shetland), says ‘Blood Ties’ is, “Though provoking, compassionate and beautifully written.”

Brian added, “But it’s also a book about identity and family, and time, and the ties that matter most, the ones that bind tightest.”

– ‘Blood Ties’ is available to purchase online from today and at all good book shops.