Based in Dublin, Cormac Quinn is a debut author with a passion for the murder mystery genre. Here he shares his writing process, literary inspirations, and creating worlds to disappear inside of.
At much too young an age, Cormac Quinn started reading detective novels and has yet to stop. In a previous life, he was a journalist and news editor in Asia. Here’s a synonpsis of his debut book, Murder on Lough Derg.
Foreign correspondent Jack Myers thought he was escaping to a peaceful family holiday on Ireland’s picturesque Lough Derg. The stately manor of St Peter’s, with its sweeping lawns and tranquil waters, seemed the perfect retreat from a world of conflict and danger. But when the yacht club’s imperious Commodore, Orla Richardson, drowns mysteriously during the annual Midsummer Ball, Jack’s journalist instincts won’t let him rest. As Ireland swelters through its worst drought in decades, old wounds begin to fester. With his sister’s family in danger and a killer growing desperate, Jack must use all his investigative skills to expose the truth. But in this genteel world of sailing clubs and summer houses, everyone has a motive — and something to hide.
Did you always want to be a writer?
I always loved stories and books, but I never seriously considered becoming a novelist. I first wrote professionally in my mid-20s while living in Beijing, where I drifted into journalism and began writing features and commentary for Asian Correspondent News. When I moved back to Ireland and into a different career, writing largely disappeared for a number of years. The novel came much later as a private creative project written around full-time work, and only after finishing the first draft did I decide to send it to publishers to see if there might be any interest in it.
What inspired you to start writing?
The initial spark for the book came during the summer of 2018, when Ireland was experiencing one of its hottest and driest summers on record. I spent some time back down on Lough Derg for the first time since I was a teenager, and seeing it again as an adult and during this heatwave, it struck me as the perfect setting for a cosy murder mystery. An isolated lakeside world during an oppressive summer, where everyone knows one another and everyone has a history going back decades. Despite the idea coming during that summer, it wouldn’t be until the summer of 2023 that I would sit down to start writing it.
Tell us about your new book. Where did the idea come from?
Murder on Lough Derg is a murder mystery set during the summer of 2018 around a yacht club on Lough Derg. The idea came from thinking about how perfect places like that are for the genre: beautiful settings filled with nostalgia, old hierarchies, long memories and buried resentments. I was interested in the idea of people returning to a familiar place after years away and realising both they and the place have changed in uncomfortable ways.
What do you hope this book instils in the reader?
Firstly, I hope it entertains people. A murder mystery should be fun and immersive, with enough intrigue and suspense to keep a reader wanting to uncover the truth. Beyond the mystery itself, I also hope readers are transported into that distinctive Irish summer atmosphere — the long evenings, small harbour towns and heatwave nostalgia.
What did you learn when writing this book?
Mostly that writing a novel requires persistence and a strong level of discipline. There are days you are inspired to write, but most of the time it was just forcing yourself to sit down to write for an hour when you would have preferred to relax. Over time, sticking to my scheduled work plan, even when I didn’t feel like it, grew into an actual manuscript.
Tell us about your writing process.
It probably sounds less romantic than you’d think. I tend to start by outlining the plan for the book, breaking down a full structure of the plot first, then the atmosphere and setting first, then finally the characters, and only afterwards fully structure the plot. Naturally, when I start writing these chapters of the plot, ideas come to me and the plot alters from the original outline, but having a structure there as something to start with really gives me direction and doesn’t overwhelm me. I set a target to have 750 words completed each day and work towards that.
What are your top three favourite books of all time, and why?
They’d all be very well known. It would probably have to be The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, because of the style of writing and the distinct atmospheric setting of the book. Every time I read it, I want to become a desert explorer! The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (a hangover from the Leaving Cert English curriculum!), for its depiction of the Jazz Age and compelling characters and for a murder mystery book, it would have to be Murder on the Orient Express. The cleverness of the plot is obviously brilliant, but the setting and the romance of travel during that period makes the book a favourite.
Who are some of your favourite authors, Irish or otherwise?
For murder mystery writers, it would have to be old authors like John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers and I like modern writers like Amor Towles, as well as John Banville and Joseph O’Connor.
What’s one book you would add to the school curriculum?
Can I say The English Patient again?
What’s your favourite bookshop in Ireland?
Has to be Hodges Figgis in Dublin.
What’s some advice you’ve got for other aspiring writers?
Schedule time each day to write and stick to it, even when you don’t feel particularly inspired. If I had to go off my own experience, it was more down to consistency rather than moments of inspiration that got the book completed.
Lastly, what do the acts of reading and writing mean to you?
Reading is a way to slow down each day and step into a new world. Writing is a creative outlet that allows me to explore ideas and themes that interest me, creating worlds that are fun to disappear into.
Murder on Lough Derg by Cormac Quinn (Mercier Press) is on sale now.
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