Author interview: Fighting past the pain barrier to deliver a riveting mystery
I was keen to talk to Michelle McDonagh about her third novel — and not just because it's a great read.
I've been thinking about her recently, because her first crime drama, published in 2020, centred on a murder suicide taking place on a farm — and the deaths occurred in the farm's slurry tank.
With the tragic case of Mike Gaine currently in the news, Michelle is getting goosebumps.
'I wrote that after I'd heard of the tragic case of the Spence family in the North,' she tells me over Zoom.
'That was in 2012, where a father and two sons went into the tank after a dog, and the sister was the only one who survived.
'I remember being so horrified by it that it always stuck in my head.'
Her first two novels were set in Galway, the county Michelle comes from, but she's switched to Co Cork for this third novel, and centres the story in Blarney — where she's lived for the past 18 years.
But there's a Boston link too — and that city was Michelle's starting point.
I've always wanted Boston to come into a book because I went there on a leave of absence.
'I worked for The Irish Voice which had just opened an office there,' she says, 'but came back after a few months because I'd fallen in love with a crazy Galway man.'
She's speaking of her husband, Greg: 'I had to go halfway round the world to meet him, but it was a brilliant summer.'
The book starts when an American tourist is found dead in Blarney. She's identified as Jessie De Marco, who travelled from Boston looking for the father she's never known.
She's been searching via social media, and is found on the grounds of Blarney Castle.
'Rock close, where its set — and the Wishing Steps are so atmospheric,' says Michelle. 'The rocks go back to Druid times — and are 2,000 or 3,000 years old.
'It even smells ancient, and there's a rock shaped like a witch's profile. It's an incredible place.
'I was standing at the steps one day, and I thought, the American tourist could be found at the bottom of the steps.'
A crime technician told me that a fall is the hardest murder to prove.
'I didn't know what had happened at the outset, or until I had my plot.'
Hearing of the death, Jessie's estranged mum Dani arrives to identify her daughter's body. She recognises a respected local, Tadgh, claiming he's the father Jessie came to find.
Convinced someone killed Jessie, she starts a media-fuelled frenzy of an investigation, which sees everyone taking sides.
As the plot weaves and twists, it appears that there are many people who might conceivably have caused the girl's death — certainly they have something to hide.
The plot covers many issues: Grooming; childhood trauma; good and bad mothers; how far would you go to protect your child? Which was the most important to Michelle?
'It's in the title, Some of This is True,' says Michelle. 'It's about who is telling the truth here and what is the truth?
'Your memory can change your perception of what actually did happen; did that person mean what they said? Dani and Tadgh have different versions of events, but they both start to question their versions. Could Tadgh have done something that Dani misconstrues?'
Switching from journalism to being an author
A former journalist with the Connacht Tribune, then The Irish Times, Michelle started writing her debut during a Faber course she took in lockdown.
How did she find the switch from journalism to author?
'Writing a novel is totally different,' she says. 'Before I sent my first book out, I got a UK editor to look at it, and she said:
'When you're writing, leave your journalist outside the room, and when you're editing, let the journalist come back.'
'When you're writing a news piece, you want to get as much information and facts into it as you can, and I was going down all these rabbit holes, and dumping all the information in.
'She said:'No! People don't want to read all that stuff. They want to know what happens next.''
Although Michelle plots quite thoroughly and has photos of her setting pinned around her office walls as she types — she doesn't stick rigidly to it.
'The plot changes along the way, and changes further when I get my editorial notes,' she says.
'Pacing is always an issue. I'm too slow at the beginning and put everything into the end.
'It's a matter of moving things around and bringing some things up to the front.
'I usually cry for a week when I get the notes, and think, I can never do this! But when you start, it is never as bad.'
For the record, Some of This is True is perfectly paced. I, literally, could not put the book down.
I loved the complete picture of a contemporary small town that Michelle presents; we see the hero-worship afforded to GAA coaches and stars; we're shown right-wing protestors and social media trolling. It's a heady mix.
Michelle says she's nervous about this book, and not just because it's the first she's set outside Galway.
She's suffered from chronic pain for the past six years, and recently it's been particularly severe.
I was in so much pain writing this book, that I missed my deadline and had to ask for an extension.
'That's the last thing you want, as a journalist,' she says. 'I've seen nearly 20 consultants across a range of specialities.
'I've had numerous surgeries and bits removed, and nobody has been able to find a cause for the pain. It's constant. Painkillers don't work. I can't sleep.
'I'm so drained that I can't stand, and sitting is agony. My GP said all he could suggest was CBT [cognitive behavioural therapy], and that I learn to live with it.'
Recently, Michelle met a brilliant physiotherapist, who, diagnosing 'The Hidden Prankster' — a problem with a deep-seated muscle — believes he can help her regain equilibrium.
He has started working with her, and she feels a great sense of hope. As well as this, Michelle suffers from anxiety — a condition she passes on to a character in each of her books. How does she gain a semblance of calm?
'It's simple things,' she says. 'It's reading. It's being around my family [Michelle has three children, Lucy, Jake, and Kiana].
'It's being around my dog, Brody, and my daughters have a pony stabled on a nearby farm. Sitting there, surrounded by nature is sustaining. Female friends are massive, and my sister is my best friend.
'I do a podcast, Natter, with Kate Durant. She energises me. She's the glass half full, and I never got the glass in the first place.'
Michelle McDonagh hosts the 'Natter' podcast with Kate Durrant: 'She energises me. She's the glass half full, and I never got the glass in the first place.'
Three books in, is being a published author all Michelle believed it would be?
'When you dream about something for so long, you think, when you've got it, you will be a different person,' she says.
'You'll never have anxiety or low mood, but you're the same person. My dream was to go into a bookshop and see my book on the shelf.
'I can do that now. My name is there, but its surreal. It doesn't even feel like it's me.'
The best part, she says, is meeting other authors: 'And particularly crime writers. We have a WhatsApp group, and from the beginning, they've been so welcoming.
'And it's not just crime writers. I've grown up reading people like Patricia Scanlan and Sheila O'Flanagan, and amazing writers like that have reached out the hand, and said: 'Come on in. Join our group.''
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