Liz Nugent, present Ireland Fund of Monaco Writer-in-Residence, was guest speaker Wednesday night and at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco. The winner of Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2014 for “Unravelling Oliver” spoke about her recently published, second best-selling novel, “Lying in Wait”.
After reading excerpts and talking about her writing, she generously engaged in a prolonged question-and-answer session. With her exciting talent, and her humble and heart-warming manner, the new rising star of Irish writing regaled an enthusiastic Monaco audience.
“She is a wonderful writer with a unique voice and a deliciously dark sensibility,” says Patricia Deevy, the editorial director of Penguin Ireland, Liz Nugent’s publisher. “She has taken the crime writing world by storm and she is going from strength to strength.”
While being hailed as a writer of crime novels, Liz’s writing peels away the layers of the underlying psychology of her wide range of characters, from a judge to a drug addict, from an agoraphobic mother to a top model. Her books are page-turners from the opening line, like in “Unravelling Oliver”: “I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.”
With two run-away best sellers (“Unravelling Oliver” has been translated into eight languages already) it’s no surprise, except perhaps to the modest Liz herself, that she has been signed up by the prestigious New York publisher, Simon & Schuster for a six-figure sum, to bring these two novels to the American market. (Source: Francis O’Hara)