‘Murder on Lough Derg’: a mystery whodunnit set on local shores
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Cormac Quinn draws on childhood summer memories of Lough Derg for gripping new crime novel
A lifelong love of detective fiction and childhood summers spent on Lough Derg have inspired Kildare born author Cormac Quinn's debut novel, Murder on Lough Derg.
The mystery follows journalist Jack Myers, who arrives at St Peter's Manor on the shores of Lough Derg seeking a peaceful holiday during Ireland's longest-ever heatwave. However, when a drowning occurs during the annual Midsummer Ball, Myers becomes convinced it is no accident and is drawn into a web of secrets, motives and murder.
Speaking to the Tipperary Star, Mr Quinn said his fascination with crime fiction began at an early age.
Before turning to fiction, Mr Quinn’s career took him across a number of different fields and countries. He studied Arts at University College Dublin, majoring in classical history with psychology as a minor. After college, he moved to Beijing, where he initially worked with a start-up.
While there, he began meeting journalists and developed an interest in foreign correspondence, eventually starting to write freelance articles. He later became Foreign Editor with Global Times, one of China’s English-language newspapers, a role he held for over a year.
He also spent time working in Myanmar before reassessing his career path and returning to Ireland. “I came to a realisation there that I actually did not enjoy this career all that much,” he said.
“At that point I was in my late 20s so I moved back to Dublin and got into the corporate world.” He went on to complete postgraduate studies in business management after returning from Asia. He now works as Regional Manager for Deliveroo Ireland, based in Dublin.
Although originally from Athy, Co Kildare, Mr Quinn spent much of his childhood summers around Lough Derg. "My dad had a boat down there so we would have spent a lot of summer months down by the Shannon each year," he said.
In the summer of 2018, he revisited his childhood summer stomping ground, Lough Derg, and saw the place in renewed light. Struck by the natural beauty, he felt it would provide an ideal setting for a murder mystery.
“It is a very idyllic setting and also socially layered,” he said. “You have a lot of people coming in and staying for a few weeks, so it is quite a closed circle. You also have people who live there all year round, and then you have a yacht club, which is a particularly interesting social setting.”
While the book is a traditional whodunnit, he said it is intended as an easy summer read: “It is meant to be a fun murder mystery and light read but it also gives you a good idea of what Irish summers look like.”
Mr Quinn is already working on the next instalment in the Jack Myers series, which will shift the action from the shores of Lough Derg to an international security summit. He is currently halfway through the draft and hopes to continue developing the series. Mr Quinn said he is currently focused on finishing the next book and seeing how the series progresses.