Brian McGilloway--Bad Blood

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  Nothing gives me more pleasure than to discover a new series--and as you can probably guess, a new (to me, at least!) British series tops the list. Brian McGilloway's Lucy Black books are fabulous and have now shot to the top of my to-read pile!

Here's what Lee Childs has to say about the books: “Brian McGilloway blends timeless values with ripped-from-the-headlines issues to produce some of the very best crime fiction being written today.” —Lee Child, #1New York Times bestselling author

You can't beat a recommendation from Lee Childs, and I can certainly second it. Also, I'm fascinated by writing that gives us a window into the complex political and emotional landscape of Northern Ireland (something that as an American I find really challenging) and Brian McGilloway's BAD BLOOD ticks all the boxes. 

Here's Brian to tell us more.

BRIAN MCGILLOWAY:  Bad Blood is the fourth Lucy Black novel I’ve written and my ninth in total since Borderlands appeared ten years ago, in April 2007. With each book, I’ve tried to reflect something of the real world events that surround the crimes and cases, which first Devlin and now Lucy Black investigate. In the writing of Bad Blood, one event loomed large – the Brexit vote over Britain’s membership of the European Union – and the way in which the debate around it, at times, seemed to normalise extremist views.  Many of the tabloid papers here focused on Immigration and published viewpoints and language that was, without doubt, inflammatory. It was against that backdrop that the book developed: a book about hatred and the ways in which people attempt to legitimise it and become complicit in the violence it encourages.

The seeds of the book were planted in July 2014, when a slogan, which read ‘Romans Out’, was spray painted on a wall in a housing estate in Belfast. It was aimed at Roma families and marked the second such targeting of refugees in the city, after a concerted campaign in 2009 saw almost 100 Romanians having to leave their homes and flee the country.

What made the slogan, and associated events, most interesting to me was how the old sectarian divisions between Protestants and Catholics, Unionists and Nationalists, seemed to have mutated, how a new enemy had been identified. These attacks were primarily carried out in housing estates and were blamed on right-wing groups tied to paramilitaries. They were, put simply, exercises in the ethnic cleansing of a community.

It was clear that some in the communities in question felt that outsiders moving into the area were diluting their sense of identity. Already feeling left behind by the Peace Process and the failure to see manifested the promised prosperity peace would bring, and betrayed by their politicians who were in Government with old enemies, such individuals were easy targets for extremists to exploit their discontent. And it wasn’t just happening in Northern Ireland.

Though the causes of such discontent varied from one country to another, it was a pattern being replicated across the UK with the rise of UKIP and the dawn of Brexit. Whether Brexit was symptom or cause, there could be no denying that the debate around it does seem to have lead to a rise in hate crime: indeed in the two weeks following the vote, recorded hate crimes in the UK rose by 46%, with over 3,000 incidents reported to the police.

The targeting of the discontented, and the use of inflammatory rhetoric to engage them was further evidenced in the rise in support for, among others, the National Front in France and, arguably, in the 2016 US election. There was a reason why people felt left behind, disempowered, unheard. That was what I wanted to explore in this book.

Of course, it goes without saying that Northern Ireland has an added history of those who would use religion as a way to further enflame discontent. Various events over the past few years here have lead to a widening of the gulf between those who, for example, support gay marriage, and those who see such a thing as antithetical to their religious beliefs. All it takes is someone with a bit of authority to stir that up, to pour petrol on already smouldering embers rather than pouring oil on troubled waters. Northern Irish history is not short on people hiding hatred behind a white collar or a national flag.

All of these things collide in Bad Blood. 

DEBS: Here's more about BAD BLOOD: A young man is found in a riverside park, his head bashed in with a rock. The only clue to his identity is an admission stamp for the local gay club.

DS Lucy Black is called in to investigate. As Lucy delves into the community, tensions begin to rise as the man's death draws the attention of the local Gay Rights group to a hate-speech Pastor who, days earlier, had advocated the stoning of gay people and who refuses to retract his statement.

Things become further complicated with the emergence of a far right group targeting immigrants in a local working class estate. As their attacks escalate, Lucy and her boss, Tom Fleming, must also deal with the building power struggle between an old paramilitary commander and his deputy that threatens to further enflame an already volatile situation.

Hatred and complicity abound in the days leading up to the Brexit vote in McGilloway's new Lucy Black thriller. Compelling and current, Bad Blood is an expertly crafted and acutely observed page-turner, delivering the punch that readers of LITTLE GIRL LOST have grown to expect.

Brian McGilloway was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. After studying English at Queen’s University, Belfast, he took up a teaching position in St Columb’s College in Derry, where he was Head of English. He is the author of the New York Timesbestselling Lucy Black series, all to be published by Witness. Brian lives near the Irish borderlands with his wife and their four children.

 DEBS: Brian will be checking in today to chat with us from Northern Ireland! So stop in and say "hi", and tell us, REDs and readers,  how do you feel about current events being mirrored in crime fiction?