Best-selling author Dervla McTiernan will be in conversation with Chris Hammer with her much-anticipated new novel in the Cormac Reilly series, The Unquiet Grave.

For years the boglands of Northern Europe have given up bodies of the long-deceased. Bodies that are thousands of years old, uncannily preserved. Bodies with strange injuries that suggest ritual torture and human sacrifice.When a corpse is found in a bog in Galway, Cormac Reilly assumes the find is historical. But closer examination reveals a more recent story. The dead man is Thaddeus Grey, a local secondary school principal who disappeared two years prior.

There's nothing in Grey's past that would explain why he was murdered, or why his body was mutilated in a ritual manner. At first, progress on the case is frustratingly slow and Cormac struggles to keep his mind on the job. His ex-girlfriend, Emma Sweeney, is in trouble, and she's reached out to him for help - Emma's new husband has gone missing in Paris, and the French police are refusing to open an investigation into his disappearance.

Cormac is sure that he has found Grey's killer, and is within hours of an arrest, when another mutilated body is discovered on the other side of the country. Two days later, a third body is found. Press attention is intense. Is there a serial killer at work in Ireland? Has Cormac been on the wrong trail? And if so, can he find the murderer before they strike again?

Internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed writer, Dervla McTiernan is the author of The Ruin, The Scholar, The Good Turn (together the Cormac Reilly series), What Happened to Nina? And The Murder Rule, as well as her novellas, The Roommate, The Sisters, The Wrong One and The Fireground.

Dervla’s novels and novellas have been number one bestsellers in multiple territories — The Murder Rule was No. 1 for four weeks in Australia, The Sisters was No. 1 Audible for four weeks in the US, and most recently, The Fireground was No. 1 Audible Australia (Fiction).Dervla has won numerous awards, including two Barry Awards, a Davitt Award, a Ned Kelly Award and in International Thriller Writer Award.

Canberra based ANU alumni Chris Hammer is a leading Australian crime fiction novelist, author of the internationally bestselling Martin Scarsden series: Scrublands, Silver and Trust. Chris’s other award-winning series features homicide detectives Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic: Treasure & Dirt/ Opal Country; The Tilt/Dead Man’s Creek; The Seven/Cover The Bone and The Valley/The Broken River.Chris’s books are distinguished for their atmospheric Australian settings, a range of colourful characters, intricate plots, descriptive language and emotional depth.

The vote of thanks will be given by Canberra crime fiction reviewer Anna Creer

Books are available for signing from 5.30pm and again after the event.

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A podcast will be made available after the event.

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