Fiona Gartland

Dublin-born creator of detective sergeant Maeve Kerrigan has learned to overcome shyness for her public-facing role as a bestselling author - but she is always happiest immersed in the world of her fiction

Former state pathologist acknowledges that to do the stressful job: ‘You have to have a certain personality, a very odd personality’

The author may joke about the ‘literary’ label attached to her work, but her high-concept crime thrillers are deadly serious

Are sub-genres helpful labels or just marketing tools for publishers? We asked writers for their views

Fiona Gartland on a flower that has inspired theft, murder and her third novel

Radek Zemlikca in Balbriggan, Ruth Gunning in Dublin and the Crows in Connemara

Tadhg Peelo works by hand with cherry, hazel, apple, sycamore, ash, beech and birch

In House: Rugs from Wexford, textile art from Dublin and glass from Kilkenny

Around the country people who might have been stifled are producing remarkable work

A hospital ward can provide welcome distraction and patients may end up helping each other in some small way

The crime writer and Irish Times journalist is helped to focus by an unlikely source

Donaghmede Literary Festival grew out of a campaign to save the local library

Court of Appeal found jury verdict was ‘perverse’

Without knowing it, writes Fiona Gartland, as far as the market was concerned, I’d already timed out

Legislation will encourage others to do likewise, says Simon Coveney