5 January 2015

Author profile: Jim Lusby

"Forget Ballykissangel - this is the real Ireland, where pleasure and pain are inextricably linked." - Manchester Evening News 

Jim Lusby is probably best known for his series of five crime novels featuring DI Carl McCadden and set around his native Waterford.

The first two books, Making the Cut (1995) and Flashback (1996), were loosely adapted by RTÉ for a television series that was broadcast in 1998.

Sean McGinley played DI McCadden in the TV version. The first feature-length episode was written by John Brown, while Eric Deacon wrote the remaining four. The second season was rebranded under the title DDU (1999).

Lusby also wrote the standalone thriller Serial (2002), which imagined how a serial killer would tell their own story and "control the narrative".

As James Kennedy, he has written two thrillers, Armed and Dangerous (1996), which explores the legacy of the dirty war between the MI5 and IRA, and Silent City (1999), featuring  DI Charlotte Rainey.

Lusby is a Hennessy Award winner for his short stories, and has written for the stage and radio. He teaches English at the Institute of Education on Leeson Street in Dublin, and is a media analyst on educational issues.