With snow-filled wind whispering at Christmas' door, the corpse of 15 year old Angela Cashell is found on the Tyrone-Donegal border, between the North and South of Ireland, in an area known as the Borderlands. Having identified the victim as a local, Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin wins jurisdiction of the case, and with his partner, Detective Sergeant Caroline Williams, investigates the case. The investigation links to a 25-year old unsolved killing and provokes unfavorable tension with his superiors because some clues may implicate one of his own colleagues. Borderlands is an exciting new novel by Brian McGilloway. It was short-listed for a Crime Writer's Association Dagger award and has recently been released in the United States. Contributing editor Ace Hall asked Brian a few questions about his debut novel.
When you step back and look at Borderlands, what pleases you the most about the story?
When I set out to write the book, the character of Devlin and the character of the Borderlands themselves were the two things I really wanted to nail. Looking back, I hope that I've managed to convey both in the manner I wanted. Beyond that, I guess I'm just amazed it managed to hang together.
Many reviews have stamped you as a wonderful storyteller, when did you know that you could tell a good story and what was the catalyst behind you writing professionally?
There were probably two catalysts that started the writing of Borderlands. I was, and am, a big fan of, amongst others, Rankin, Burke, Connolly, Connelly and Dexter. It was as a fan of these series that, four or five years ago, I had a strong sense that many of them were nearing an end: Rebus was reaching retirement; Morse had died; Robicheaux thought he was taking a heart attack in Last Car to Elysian Fields. I decided that, in case these series should stop, I would need a new book to read, featuring that sense of place and central character which these series shared. And so I wrote Borderlands, the first novel to feature Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin who patrols the border region of Ireland between Donegal and Tyrone. In that book, Devlin struggles to balance his home and work life, while he investigates a series of murders that increasingly incriminate one of his colleagues. Devlin himself is not blameless either, at times crossing the border between right and wrong both personally and professionally. The book was written from the frankly selfish position that I wrote something I would want to read. I have been incredibly lucky that others have wanted to read it too, in the UK and Ireland, and now, hopefully, in the US.
My other catalyst for writing was a more familial one: Around the time I started writing the book, my wife and I were married a year or so and she was expecting our first child. I was struggling to balance work, married life and the impact of impending fatherhood. And I began to realize, especially after the birth of our son, the relative lack of control you have as a parent. Despite your best efforts, you can not protect your child from all of the potential horrible things that might befall them - and as a new parent, you see hitherto hidden dangers in almost everything. In some way, I believe that I started to write a crime novel as a reaction to that. In crime novels, horrible things happen, but ultimately good or some sense of morality will always prevail. And as an author, you have the opportunity to control that world. Crime clearance rates in novels far outreach the reality. In a way, I think crime fiction allows us to experience fear safely, a form of catharsis perhaps, knowing that the detective will solve the crime and reinstate order. The detective who does this for me in Borderlands takes my son's Christian name, Benedict.
Many writers maintain that their inspiration comes from musicians, painters and/or pop culture. Outside of the crime fiction literary world, who or what else has been a source of foundation for your works?
I love listening to music as I write. In fact, the first full length novel I wrote, when I was twenty - a story of two psychiatrists, one of whom may or may not realize that he is a patient in his own asylum - was inspired by Tom Waits' "Kentucky Avenue". I still listen to Waits a lot when writing. Duke Special, a Northern Irish singer, is another musical influence. Ed Harcourt's song, "Bleed a River Deep", gives the third Devlin novel its title.
I understand that you're currently Head of English at St. Columb's College in Derry and "The College" has a long standing history of distinction in soccer, Gaelic football and basketball. If you were the Coach of a Literary Dream Team, who would your starting five be?
Absolutely James Lee Burke would be captain. I guess Ian Rankin would have to be in there with his deceptively simple playing style. Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and David Simon would round out the side, with Colin Dexter and CJ Samson on the bench. Now, if it's GAA we're talking, that would be different: John Connolly, Ken Bruen, Arlene Hunt, Declan Burke and Declan Hughes would be on the starting eleven alongside Gene Kerrigan, Adrian McKinty, Tana French, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Colin Bateman and Andrew Pepper.
What are you working on now?
I'm reading the proofs for Devlin 3 - Bleed A River Deep - and trying to finish book 4, called The Rising, which brings Caroline Williams back to the centre of things. It's concerned with teenage use of drugs and the response of both the Guards and the paramilitaries to the cross border movement of recreational drugs. It's proving challenging to write - not least because our third child, David, was born a month ago and has monopolized things since.
Gallows Lane is the second Inspector Devlin book and Bleed A River Deep will be the third published by Macmillan New Writing.
Contributing editor Ace Antonio Hall is the former Creative Director for The Hollywood Actors Academy. He is the author of Distorted Minds and is working on his first novel, a futuristic thriller called DEAD WORLD LIVING.
There were probably two catalysts that started the writing of Borderlands. I was, and am, a big fan of, amongst others, Rankin, Burke, Connolly, Connelly and Dexter. It was as a fan of these series that, four or five years ago, I had a strong sense that many of them were nearing an end: Rebus was reaching retirement; Morse had died; Robicheaux thought he was taking a heart attack in Last Car to Elysian Fields. I decided that, in case these series should stop, I would need a new book to read, featuring that sense of place and central character which these series shared. And so I wrote Borderlands, the first novel to feature Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin who patrols the border region of Ireland between Donegal and Tyrone. In that book, Devlin struggles to balance his home and work life, while he investigates a series of murders that increasingly incriminate one of his colleagues. Devlin himself is not blameless either, at times crossing the border between right and wrong both personally and professionally. The book was written from the frankly selfish position that I wrote something I would want to read. I have been incredibly lucky that others have wanted to read it too, in the UK and Ireland, and now, hopefully, in the US.My other catalyst for writing was a more familial one: Around the time I started writing the book, my wife and I were married a year or so and she was expecting our first child. I was struggling to balance work, married life and the impact of impending fatherhood. And I began to realize, especially after the birth of our son, the relative lack of control you have as a parent. Despite your best efforts, you can not protect your child from all of the potential horrible things that might befall them - and as a new parent, you see hitherto hidden dangers in almost everything. In some way, I believe that I started to write a crime novel as a reaction to that. In crime novels, horrible things happen, but ultimately good or some sense of morality will always prevail. And as an author, you have the opportunity to control that world. Crime clearance rates in novels far outreach the reality. In a way, I think crime fiction allows us to experience fear safely, a form of catharsis perhaps, knowing that the detective will solve the crime and reinstate order. The detective who does this for me in Borderlands takes my son's Christian name, Benedict.
Many writers maintain that their inspiration comes from musicians, painters and/or pop culture. Outside of the crime fiction literary world, who or what else has been a source of foundation for your works?
I love listening to music as I write. In fact, the first full length novel I wrote, when I was twenty - a story of two psychiatrists, one of whom may or may not realize that he is a patient in his own asylum - was inspired by Tom Waits' "Kentucky Avenue". I still listen to Waits a lot when writing. Duke Special, a Northern Irish singer, is another musical influence. Ed Harcourt's song, "Bleed a River Deep", gives the third Devlin novel its title.
I understand that you're currently Head of English at St. Columb's College in Derry and "The College" has a long standing history of distinction in soccer, Gaelic football and basketball. If you were the Coach of a Literary Dream Team, who would your starting five be?
Absolutely James Lee Burke would be captain. I guess Ian Rankin would have to be in there with his deceptively simple playing style. Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and David Simon would round out the side, with Colin Dexter and CJ Samson on the bench. Now, if it's GAA we're talking, that would be different: John Connolly, Ken Bruen, Arlene Hunt, Declan Burke and Declan Hughes would be on the starting eleven alongside Gene Kerrigan, Adrian McKinty, Tana French, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Colin Bateman and Andrew Pepper.
What are you working on now?
I'm reading the proofs for Devlin 3 - Bleed A River Deep - and trying to finish book 4, called The Rising, which brings Caroline Williams back to the centre of things. It's concerned with teenage use of drugs and the response of both the Guards and the paramilitaries to the cross border movement of recreational drugs. It's proving challenging to write - not least because our third child, David, was born a month ago and has monopolized things since.
Gallows Lane is the second Inspector Devlin book and Bleed A River Deep will be the third published by Macmillan New Writing.
Contributing editor Ace Antonio Hall is the former Creative Director for The Hollywood Actors Academy. He is the author of Distorted Minds and is working on his first novel, a futuristic thriller called DEAD WORLD LIVING. 
