Gerard Brennan's Book Shelf

What books are currently on your nightstand? 

The Blood Dimmed Tide by Anthony Quinn, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon (again) and I've got The Killing Season by Mason Cross lined up for the next read. 

Who is your all-time favorite novelist? 

Argh, I always find this question really hard to answer. I'm kind of promiscuous in my reading... But the first writer who comes to mind when I'm asked is the mighty Ken Bruen. 

What book might we be surprised to find on your shelves? 

Oooh, good question. My tastes are pretty conventional for a crime writer... maybe one of the more high brow ones, like my copy of The Rattle Bag, a poetry anthology edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, or something less intellectual, like Go The Fuck To Sleep by Adam Mansbach. 

Who is your favorite fictional character? 

Again, so many choices... But I'll go with Sean Duffy from Adrian McKinty's latest series of books (the most recent being Gun Street Girl). 

What book do you return to? 

It's a non-fiction choice this time (two in fact, if you'll allow me)... Patricia Highsmith's Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction and Steven Pressfield's War of Art. Usually when I'm suffering a bit of writing fatigue. I get something new from each one every time. 

Gerard Brennan's latest novel is Undercover, a Belfast cop thriller. His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies; including three volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime and Belfast Noir. He co-edited Requiems for the Departed, a collection of crime fiction based on Irish myths which won the 2011 Spinetingler Award for best anthology. His novella, The Point, was published by Pulp Press in October 2011 and won the 2012 Spinetingler Award for best novella. His novels, Wee Rockets and Fireproof, were published as ebooks by Blasted Heath in 2012. He graduated from the MA in creative writing at Queen's University Belfast in 2012 and is currently working on a PhD.