The Lawyer, The Monk,
The Traveller, The Author,
The Many Sides of
Andrew Nugent

I never wrote a book until I was sixty. Then I wrote three; two murder mysteries, and a spiritual meditation.

I spent seven years in West Africa. I loved the people but the climate, food, armed robbers, fever, work, ants, snakes, a few tragedies: it was seriously getting to me. So I began writing to escape.

The Four Courts Murder (paperback August 2006) is my first novel. I used to be a barrister. It was fun to write about some of the fascinating characters and causes célèbres. Also, I have spent many years close to the doubts and dilemmas of young people. That was another ingredient, complex, moving, sometimes funny and, for me anyhow, engaging and worthwhile. The world of pictures and art sales provides another ‘plateful of red herrings’ as one reviewer has neatly phrased it. I was never bored writing this book. You won’t be bored reading it either.

Second Burial (hardback March 2007) is a very different novel. Set in Dublin’s inner city, with the same police characters, it is about a racist killing – or is it? It could be one of those frightening African things, a Muti murder, the work of Ogboni or another secret society.

My third murder mystery is in a big castle with lots of secret passages. That is all I can tell you now. It is a mystery.