12 Autumn 2009 | COUNTRY EYE
From Carrickfergus to crime-writing
A
cclaimed thriller-writer Adrian
McKinty was "born and bred" in
Carrickfergus he tells Country
Eye. He's finding his family's big new life-
change to a home in Melbourne a massive
culture shock, but he's starting to be hap-
pier to be living `Down Under' and enjoy-
ing the bonuses of the Australian outdoor
way of life.
"We've been here for almost a year, so
I'm starting to get the hang of things. It's
stranger than you think it's going to be,
especially when you're in touch with peo-
ple at home and it's summer there and
we're in the middle of winter here. Having
said that, it's lashing here at the moment
and I believe you've had a summer of
heavy rain. My mum in Carrick was telling
me, so maybe it's not that different!"
"It took me a long time to get a handle
of everything here, but my wife is from
New York, so it's been worse for her in
some ways. Because I'm from the UK,
Australia is quite similar in a lot of ways,
like shops and brands and things, so it's
easier for me somehow. I'm kind of famil-
iar with the vibe. Of course, the kids,
(Adrian's daughters are seven and three)
like all kids, have adapted really quickly.
They love living in Australia."
As a child , Adrian went to Victoria
Primary and Carrick Grammar in
Carrickfergus, before going to Warwick
University. His degree was in law, which
goes someway to explaining the precision
of his crime-writing, but it wasn't some-
thing he saw a future in.
"Law was not my cup of tea at all, but
funnily enough, when I was doing it, I
liked the philosophy of law and the legal
theory. It was that stage, when you are
18,19,20, and you are hating everything
anyway, so I was really glad that philoso-
phy took my fancy. That was what then
took me to Oxford to study it."
After studying philosophy at Oxford,
Adrian emigrated to New York City,
where he lived in Harlem for six years
working in bars, bookstores, building sites
and finally the basement stacks of the
Columbia University Medical School
Library in Washington Heights.
He met Leah his wife in the Big Apple,
her home city.
In 2000 he moved to Denver, Colorado
where he taught high school English and
started writing fiction in earnest. Now he's
in Oz.
The Co Antrim man moved there - in
mid 2008 - to St. Kilda, Melbourne, with
his wife and children.
His first full length novel Dead I Well
May Be (the one that Universal has
optioned) was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian
Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was
picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best
crime novels of that year. Country Eye put
it to him that him that his writing lends
itself to the cinematic style and asks him
there's been any interest for the big
screen.
"Yeah, Universal own an option agree-
ment for Dead I Well May Be. It is excit-
ing, but there's been previous interest in it
and a lot of talk about screen adaptations
over the last year or two, but until the day
I'm sitting in the cinema watching the
opening credits rolling on it, I'm not going
to get too excited. You have to be relaxed
about anything, particularly to do with the
world of Hollywood stars."
The sequel to that book The Dead Yard
was selected by Publishers' Weekly as one
of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the
Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.
And his new novel for Holt & Serpents
Tail, Fifty Grand, is a taut nail-biter of a
thriller.
Named after a story by
Ernest Hemingway, it's
almost as far away from
McKinty's hometown of
Carrickfergus as it might
be possible to go. It her-
alds the birth of a new
crime heroine, a
tough Cuban cop called Mercado, with a
slick line in dialogue - and violence. She
has one week to settle a score on behalf of
a deadbeat dad. He was a `traitor' who
skipped Castro's control on the alluring,
but politically constricting island of Cuba
to set up a new life working illegally in a
chi-chi ski resort in Colorado, popular
with the LA set.
The novel opens with an excruciating
torture scene on a deep-frozen American
lake, and the location was inspired by
McKinty's own travels. He's obviously
talked about it before, unsurprisingly, as
it's one of the most intriguing openers I've
ever read.
"Ah, yes, the ice scene! It was when I was
in the States. I was driving myself around
in winter in the middle of Wyoming. I was
taking some photos, when I came across
this tiny little frozen lakeside, just right in
the middle of Nowheresville.
"There were no tyre prints, no foot-
prints. It was a class place.
And then I suppose my twisted brain and
imagination made that poky wee place
into a crime scene."
Fifty Grand continues with some illegals
getting smuggled into
the US onto `Wetback Mountain' and then
segues backwards and forwards between
the heat of Havana and the icy luxury of
the mountainside resort.
That 'twisted brain' of McKinty's makes
it a real page-turner and one of those texts
you want to inhabit. It's a political thriller
about a ferocious act of revenge, that is
utterly original and no trace or residue of
his Ulster roots seem to linger in
McKinty's new oeuvre. He tells me he has
a love-hate relationship with the
Caribbean island of Cuba, a favourite
place of mine, but one that can also
inspire more negative vibes, according to
Adrian.
"I've been to Cuba about four times and
have gone from loving it to hating it, to
loving it again."
McKinty also has a story of being
offered books for sale from Ernest
Hemingway's house on the island, but is it
just the weaving of a new myth by the
Ulster storyteller?
Hard to tell, but there is no mistaking
Adrian's love of this island and in particu-
lar, his home town of Carrickfergus.
"My mum and wee brothers and sisters
are all still there. I was just back home in
July. I was so happy to be there. I was lov-
in' it, to see all my family and friends. I
had the best time!"
So even if the rest of our chat is off-the-
record gossip about Hollywood stars and
potential involvement in his film, Adrian
still remains refreshingly down-to-earth, a
commonsense Co Antrim man, through
and through and proud of it.
C
rime writer Adrian McKinty
grew up and went to school in
Carrickfergus. Now he's living in
Australia. Rave reviews are abounding
for his latest slick novel Fifty Grand.
Universal Studios have bought up the
options on one of his earlier thrillers.
But even with a potential international
film career on his hands, Adrian still
loves Carrick.

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