Five minutes with Dervla McTiernan
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International bestseller Dervla McTiernan doesn’t just write crime fiction – she excavates humanity’s darkest impulses across centuries.
Since exploding onto the literary scene with The Ruin in 2018, she has carved out a reputation for atmospheric mysteries that have garnered multiple prestigious awards and topped bestseller lists worldwide.
Her latest thriller, The Unquiet Grave, fuses archaeology with modern murder when Detective Cormac Reilly investigates a body discovered in an Irish bog – not a thousand-year-old sacrifice, but a missing school principal bearing ritualistic mutilations that echo prehistoric practices.
Ahead of her appearance with fellow crime novelist Chris Hammer on Wednesday 30 April at the Australian National University, we sat down with Dervla to discuss her new novel where ancient horrors leave modern fingerprints.
The Unquiet Grave marks your return to the Cormac Reilly series after exploring other characters and storylines. What drew you back to this character?
I had to wait for the right story. You always have to wait for the right story, and I didn’t have one up until eighteen months or so ago, when I started writing the book. You need to wait for that gut-punch emotional reaction that tells you that you are genuinely excited about something, and that this story might really have legs, before you commit to writing a book, because that personal response from you is what gives a book a point of view, and I don’t think you can fake it.
For Cormac, I just didn’t have that story for a while. I think I needed to let some time go by, to let time move forward in his world, as well as in mine, before I was ready to revisit him. And then, under no pressure, the right idea arrived.
What initially sparked the idea for The Unquiet Grave?
I’d been reading about bog bodies, bodies that are thousands of years old that have been discovered, uncannily preserved, in the bogs of Northern Europe, and a number of them had been tortured in a ritualistic way — bound with willow withies and with a very specific pattern of injuries. And then I thought … what if a body is found in the bog with that exact pattern, but the body isn’t historic, it’s new?
Once I started thinking about that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Who would do that? Why would they do that? I really needed to know. And then there were certain characters who just felt so rich to me. Cecelia MacNair, this beautiful young artist, and Carl Rigney, an utter, utter shit. They were such fun to write.
How immersive was your research process for this book? Was there a fascinating tangent you discovered while researching that completely changed your original plot direction?
Reasonably immersive, I think. I read a lot about bog bodies, and I went back to Ireland twice to spend time in the various locations and check details. I love that part of the process. You do sometimes find something that changes your trajectory, but that didn’t really happen this time. I had a pretty good idea of the story I wanted to write, and it mostly cooperated. It doesn’t, always! Sometimes a story seems to have a mind of its own.
Your new novel blends archaeological discoveries with contemporary crime. What inspired this particular intersection?
Just my own curiosity, I think! Elizabeth George has written some excellent books on writing, and I remember in the first book she said something about feeling the gut punch of a good idea. I think the point she was making is deciding what is or isn’t a good idea is an emotional, instinctive thing, a lot of the time, not merely rational.
For me, in the early stages of writing a book, I’m just reading and thinking a lot, letting ideas come and go, waiting for the spark of deeper interest inside me. So, with Grave, when I imagined a contemporary body with these ritual, historic injuries, I had no idea who would do such a thing. And I knew I wanted to know the answer to that question. Writing the book was the fun way of figuring it out.
Crime fiction often explores societal issues through the lens of individual cases. Are there particular social concerns you hope readers will reflect on after reading The Unquiet Grave?
I never approach a book with the intention of exploring a particular social concern. That’s just not how I think about stories. For me, I have to find a character that I care about, and then a set of circumstances that interest me greatly, and then I know I have the seed of something. Of course, in the writing of the book, my own concerns and interests inevitably creep into the book and sometimes they end up becoming very central to the book.
With Unquiet Grave I think I was thinking mostly about the effect of greed. About the drive that some people seem to have inside them where nothing is ever enough, and they need more and then more and still more. About the damage that causes to the people around them, and then to broader society. But the only thing I really want people to get from my books is a few hours of escapism and pleasure. I never set out to teach a lesson. I just want people to have a good time.
What do you think makes a good crime fiction book?
This is so tricky to answer because good crime fiction books come in so many different styles and shapes! I think if I’m honest, I know very quickly if a book has the potential to really hook me … usually within just a few pages. I think that comes down to the confidence of the writer, and the strength of their point of view. Which comes back to what I was saying earlier about the gut punch of finding a good idea. If the writer really cares about what they’re writing, is genuinely deeply interested in it themselves, you can feel that on the page. It elevates the writing. So, I’m looking for that confidence, and for characters I truly care about. After that it’s about having mystery on every page. Baked in, genuine mystery, where you just have to keep turning the pages to find out more. Sometimes a writer will try to manufacture that feeling by unnecessarily holding back information, but that never really works.
Without revealing too much, what can readers expect next from you? Will you continue with the Cormac Reilly series or explore new characters?
I’m just finishing up an edit of my next book right now! It’s a stand-alone novel, and it will be set in Melbourne. I can’t wait to talk about that one when the time comes. After that, I’m thinking of starting a new series, but I haven’t made any final decisions.
