Bestselling author talks about her new book at special event in Portlaoise

A LITERARY event took place in Portlaoise Library recently where bestselling crime fiction author Andrea Carter spoke about her latest book There Came A-Tapping.

The Ballyfin native is well known internationally for the six books in her Inishowen Mysteries series featuring solicitor-cum-sleuth Ben O’Keeffe and Sergeant Tom Molloy. The full series has been optioned for television and filming is due to start later this year.

Welcoming everyone to the event, Portlaoise Library manager Aoife Moore said the library was proud to host such a renowned author just six days after her latest book was released. Aoife introduced Ms Carter and local radio presenter Claire Dunne, who interviewed the author on the night. Together they brought the audience on a journey of Andrea’s life, from her time as a solicitor in Inishowen, Co Donegal and practising as a barrister in Dublin to her when her writing career began.

Andrea said that Ben O’Keefe has been ‘parked’ for a while and that she was delighted when her agent asked if she would like to write some standalone books

There Came A-Tapping is the talented writer’s seventh book, but her first standalone tome. During the interview, Andrea said that location is very important to her and that she has always wanted to write a book set in her home county of Laois.

This thrilling psychological crime novel is set in the Slieve Bloom Mountains in the fictitious village of Rath. It features a secluded old 'reputedly haunted' house from the 1800s called Raven Cottage, which is outside the tiny village. The protagonist, Allie, finds herself with little choice but to move into the old cottage after her boyfriend Rory, a documentary maker, fails to return home to their Dublin apartment following a filming expedition in the West of Ireland. Allie reports him missing, a garda search begins and a couple turn up claiming to be the new tenants of Rory’s apartment.

Back in the 1890s, Raven Cottage was lived in by a ‘spiritualist’ woman called Eliza and the story has an eerie and ghostly theme. The reader is drawn into the story and will want to keep reading until the brilliant and unexpected end, as both women’s stories run together in an odd way in Raven Cottage and scary echoes from the past feature strongly in the present day.

Andrea said that in her ‘golden age’ Agatha Christie-style Inishowen Mysteries there is always a body at the beginning, a limited cast of suspects, an amateur sleuth and a solution at the end that ties up nicely for the reader, but she said that There Came A-Tapping moves into darker territory.

During the question and answer session with the audience, Andrea was asked for writing tips, there were questions about her characters, what she likes to read herself and even about the publishing process.

After the Q&A session, Andrea signed copies of her book, which were available at the event. One of the books was signed for Mabel Peavoy, her primary school teacher from Clonenagh NS in Mountrath, Mabel Peavoy who was a teacher and principal of the school from 1969 to 1997.

There Came A-Tapping is available through all online bookshops and is on the shelves of all good bookshops throughout Ireland and in the UK.