Fri 25 March
2.00-3:15pm EST /6.00pm-7:15pm GMT 

Socio-political events have informed crime fiction since the genre’s emergence in the 19^th century. They impact plots, character, and themes for writers, while also informing reception by readers and critics. Launching the American release of Who took Eden Mulligan?, Sharon Dempsey will join Baruch’s Elizabeth Mannion for a discussion on how she navigates the past and true crime in her writing. 

Sharon Dempsey is a Belfast-based crime writer. The first in her new crime series, Who Took Eden Mulligan? was published in the UK 2021, by Avon Harper Collins. The second book in the series, The Midnight Killing, was published in Ireland on 17th Feb 2022. She was a journalist and health writer before turning to writing crime fiction and has written for a variety of publications and newspapers, including the Irish Times. She has previously published four nonfiction health books, two women’s fiction novels, a previous serial killer crime novel, Little Bird, and is working on a standalone thriller. She also writes plays and short stories.

Elizabeth Mannion’s research focuses on theatre and an interdisciplinary range of Irish studies, from revivalist drama to contemporary crime fiction. She is the co-editor, with Brian Cliff, of the Edgar Award-nominated Guilt Rules All: Irish Mystery, Detective, and Crime Fiction (2020); editor of The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel (2016); and the author of The Urban Plays of the Early Abbey Theatre (2014). Her research has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Beth teaches at Baruch College, City University of New York.