Cork-based author is back with a sequel

LIKE many crime fiction aficionados, I love a good series. Of all genres, I think crime perhaps best lends itself to recurring characters whom the reader gets to know intimately while enjoying their mystery-solving exploits.

Familiarity with a character, and knowledge of their past and motivations, enriches the story.

So it is great to see an Irish writer developing a main character with huge potential for a long life in fiction, and it’s made even better when that character’s exploits take place on the familiar stomping ground of Cork city.

We were first introduced to Finn Fitzpatrick in Catherine Kirwan’s debut novel Darkest Truth, published in 2019. The author is a Waterford native, who grew up on a farm in the parish of Fews. Catherine studied law at University College Cork and now lives in Cork city where she works as a solicitor - a career she also chose for her protagonist.

Darkest Truth was a hugely successful debut, with readers and reviewers alike taking to Finn and her determination to reveal the truth behind the death of a young woman after she is approached by the woman’s father.

The novel proved so popular that it was the chosen work for the 2019 ‘One City, One Book’ initiative in Cork city. It also received the seal of approval from the bench locally, with Judge Olann Kelleher, the senior judge of Cork District Court, describing it as excellent.

Now Finn is back in Catherine’s second novel, Cruel Deeds.

A successful lawyer is found murdered in a derelict house in Glasheen. Finn barely knows Mandy Breslin from the law firm where they both work. Mandy moves in the privileged world of the senior partners, while Finn keeps to herself.

But Mandy has secrets and, as Finn gets drawn deeper and deeper into her dead colleague’s life, she finds out that Mandy isn’t such a stranger after all.

Cruel Deeds is one of those thrillers which, once begun, will keep you reading until all is revealed. 

From the opening pages it is clear that whatever circumstances led to Mandy’s death may come much closer to Finn’s own life than she would like.

In the aftermath of the murder, it also appears that Mandy is not the only one at the firm with something to hide. Finn’s personal and professional lives are both at risk as she delves into Mandy’s murder.

The refusal to be intimidated into ignoring potential injustice, which made her such an interesting character in Darkest Truth, is once again to the fore. She is placed in arguably an even more difficult situation this time around, when she realises that revealing the truth may have terrible consequences for someone very close to her heart.

As in all the best series, Cruel Deeds doesn’t just reintroduce the reader to the main character. Finn is surrounded by family, friends, colleagues and a love interest and her own personal story unfolds alongside the tightly-plotted main story. From garda detective and close friend Sadie to former client Davy, we also learn more about the secondary characters in Cruel Deeds and Davy’s story in particular is ripe for future development.

Readers who haven’t read Darkest Truth can enjoy Cruel Deeds as a stand-alone but it is worth taking the time to read both and fully enjoy Finn’s story so far.

I suspect we will be reading much more about the mystery-solving solicitor and her circle in the future.

Cruel Deeds by Catherine Kirwan, published by Hachette Ireland, available now. Catherine will be signing copies of her new book on Saturday, February 12, at Waterstones Cork from 3-5pm.