Sisters in Crime is delighted that Susan Hurley , the Davitt (Best Debut Crime Book) was available to speak to national co-convenor, Karina Kilmore, for this week’s Murder Mondays interview.
(Click on the image below to go to the YouTube recording.)
Susan doesn’t have a traditional background for a novelist. She studied pharmacy, then trained as an epidemiologist, health economist and statistician. She has written a lot over the past 30 years but it’s been mainly for scientific and medical publications including journals like the Lancet.
More recently her essays, stories and travel journalism have appeared in literary journals and newspapers. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the 2017 Peter Carey Short Story Award. Luckily for us, you turned to crime.
Her debut novel, Eight Lives (Affirm Press, 2019) originates from a real-life drug trial that ended tragically.
The Davitt judges described Eight Lives “as a ground-breaking medical thriller which was also shortlisted for best novel, a tremendous achievement by a highly skilled debut writer. This thoroughly researched and stunning debut, blends fact and fiction. The novel documents a drug test gone horribly wrong and its effects on the lives of eight very different people. Eight Lives contains enough plot twists to mislead the most avid crime reader, with an unexpected kick-arse ending.”
Murders Mondays are available on Sisters in Crime YouTube channel at 6pm on Mondays. Previous guests include Emma Viskic, Meg Mundell, J. P. Powell, Kerry Greenwood, Lili Wilkinson, Petronella McGovern, Heather Rose, Malla Nunn, Sara Paretsky, Judith Rossell, Sulari Gentill, Sarah Epstein, Mirandi Riwoe, Kerry McGinnis, Kathy Reichs, Ellie Marney, Katherine Kovacic, Candice Fox, Anne Buist, Dervla McTiernan and Val McDermid.