Solicitor/author brought to book by judge’s rave review

A crime novelist got an impromptu rave review yesterday — at Cork District Court.

Solicitor Catherine Kirwan — author of the hit new crime novel, Darkest Truth — was appearing in court as a routine part of her day job when the review came down from the judge’s bench at Cork District Court.

Ms Kirwan was in court applying for an adjournment of a case for one of her clients. Once this application was granted, Judge Olann Kelleher turned his attention to literary matters.

“Congratulations Ms Kirwan,” Judge Kelleher said. “I’ve just read your crime novel and it is excellent.”

Ms Kirwan thanked the judge for the unexpected review.

Judge Kelleher went on to comment that he recognised a lot of solicitors who surfaced from the pages of the crime novel.

Ms Kirwan, who was surrounded by numerous solicitor colleagues at the time, was quick to clarify that no real-life solicitors were identified by name in the course of the book. Solicitor Frank Buttimer quipped:

“We’d better have the libel lawyers take a look at it.”

Before Ms Kirwan left Courtroom 1 with her latest rave review for her debut in crime fiction, she said it wasn’t only solicitors who appeared: “Some lovely judges are mentioned too.”

Darkest Truth tells the story of a solicitor who is approached by a man to investigate the death of his daughter, as he does not accept the verdict of suicide. The lawyer’s investigation leads her to the door of the most famous film director in Ireland, who may have questions to answer about the fate of this woman and possibly others. It certainly got a thumbs up from Judge Kelleher, who has a particular vantage point on crime stories emanating from Cork.