Author Dervla McTiernan’s writing space in Perth, Australia, features a neatly arranged wall of colorful Post-it notes behind her. If proof was ever needed that McTiernan is a planner rather than a pantser, there it is: her storyboard, her outline, the blueprint for her next novel.

McTiernan’s newest release, THE UNQUIET GRAVE—the fourth book in her Cormac Reilly series—published in April, with Aoife McMahon returning as the narrator. She recalled the process of selecting a narrator for THE RUIN, the first book in the series and her debut novel. Initially presented with four or five options, most of whom were male, she felt none were quite right. Determined to find the perfect voice, she listened to every Irish-narrated audiobook she could find, eventually discovering Aoife McMahon. Nervous but hopeful, she asked her editor if they could secure McMahon for the narration. Now, four audiobooks later, Aoife McMahon has become the definitive voice of the series.

For her recent stand-alones, WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA? and THE MURDER RULE, McTiernan opted for multiple narrators. However, she admitted she generally prefers a single narrator as it allows listeners to fully immerse themselves in the story. “If you’ve got a really strong narrator that you can trust, you can just relax and go with the story,” she explained. “Narration is a very specific skill, and not every performer can do it well. Telling a story is different from performing—it requires a balance of both, which is difficult to achieve.” With WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?, in which characters are close in age, she deliberately chose multiple narrators to help listeners distinguish between perspectives.

McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly series is set in Ireland, her birthplace, while her stand-alone novels are based in the U.S. Interestingly, she has only one work, THE FIREGROUND—an Audible Original—set in Australia, where she now resides. However, she revealed that her next novel will take place in Melbourne.

She described how her writing is driven by where the story takes her and spoke about the challenges of capturing authentic dialogue—not just for individual characters, but also for the setting and its linguistic nuances. “There’s a rhythm to Irish conversation, the way we structure sentences, that’s very specific,” she noted. “For example, in Irish, if you wanted to say, ‘I’m hungry,’ you’d say the equivalent of ‘the hunger is on me.’ That structure has carried into how we speak English. When I write a book set in Ireland, it feels natural, like home.” For her U.S.-based novels, she stretches herself further and relies on her editors to catch any missteps with the language.

McTiernan also emphasized the importance of spending time in the locations she writes about. She typically conducts initial research online but makes a point of visiting in person after completing at least a first draft, using the trip to verify and enrich her descriptions. WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?, she spent time in Vermont, where the story is set, and was fortunate to meet a guide and learn what it’s like to live there. That kind of information poured into her characters.

While McTiernan doesn’t listen to her own audiobooks, she is an avid audiobook fan. She enjoys Harlan Coben’s novels, particularly those featuring the character Hester Crimstein, who has a distinctive New York accent. She’s also a fan of Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders series and regularly listens to audiobooks with her teenage children.

Having practiced law for many years, McTiernan pivoted to fulfill a need to write. She plowed away at it, writing 500 words a night and then deciding the next day that they were rubbish. It was a slow start. When her first novel was finally finished, she sent it off, hoping at least for a personalized rejection letter from an agent. Instead, several publishers expressed interest. Thus, she was thrown into a whirlwind of activity and a steep learning curve about the business of publishing. And this all happened as McTiernan was dealing with some very serious health issues. Now, to her parents’ shock and pride, she is a full-time successful professional writer.

What’s next for Dervla McTiernan? She finds endless inspiration in Stephen King, particularly when she opens one of his books and sees his extensive bibliography. She admires how, even in his late 70s, he continues to write simply because he loves it. That, she says, is what she hopes for herself—and we certainly hope the same for her.

—

Photo by Nathalie Marquez Courtney