David M. Kiely

David M. Kiely (b. 10 July 1949, Dublin) is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Having worked in advertising in several countries, he returned to Ireland in 1991, to take up writing full time. His first book was published in 1994. He currently lives in Newry, Northern Ireland, with his wife and co-author Christina McKenna.

Publications

"The Epic of Mesopotamia" is David's most recent publication. It's a historical novel, written 100 years following the disastrous British Army campaign in what would become Iraq. Central to the story is Robert Lampeter, a young cineaste commissioned to record the advance up the river Tigris. The push failed at Kut-al-Amara, where the British forces were besieged by the Ottomans. Lampeter was imprisoned in Turkey, where he secretly filmed the Ottoman genocide of Armenians and Assyrians, as well as the horrors experienced by British POWs, all forced into slave-labor on the Berlin-Baghdad railroad.

"John Millington Synge: A Biography" was intended for the non-academic reader, and takes a look at the more personal life of the dramatist. It was published in 1994 by Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, and St. Martin's Press, New York.

"A Night in the Catacombs: Fictional Portraits of Irish Literati" (1995 Lilliput Press, Dublin) is a book of short stories in each of which a celebrated writer takes centre stage, ranging from Jonathan Swift to Brendan Behan. It was exceptionally well received by critic and public alike ("An ingenious, inventive, and innovative fictional voyage." - The Irish Times). A Kindle edition was published in 2012.

"Modern Irish Lives" (1996 Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, and St. Martin's, New York) is an encyclopedia of men and women who influenced Irish life in the twentieth century. David contributed more than five hundred articles to the book.

"The Angel Tapes" (1997 St. Martin's, New York, and Blackstaff Press, Belfast) is a crime thriller set in Dublin. It features the hunt for an unknown bomber who is targeting the forthcoming visit to the country of the President of the United States.

"Eyeless in Cooley" (2015) is book two in the Blade Macken crime series. The Dublin detective and his assistant must solve an unusual murder case set close to Irish border. As the plot thickens, recent European history discloses grim truths, including dark deeds the Catholic Church is determined to keep buried.

"Usher's Island (2010)" is a Gothic novel that marries history with the paranormal to create a thought-provoking tale. The book opens in the winter of 1846, as the Famine rages in Ireland. Daniel Keating attends the birth of a child to his sister, Brigid. The baby girl, Deirdre, is born. Brigid dies during the delivery, a victim of the cruel eviction that took place a day or two earlier. Daniel has to flee to Canada, Deirdre with him.

"Bloody Women: Ireland's Female Killers" (1998 Gill & Macmillan, Dublin) contains 17 cases of Irishwomen who were found guilty of murder or manslaughter. The cases range from that of Victorian murderer Kate Webster to that of Susan Christie, who fatally stabbed her love rival in 1993.

"Deadlier than the Male: Ireland's Female Killers" (2005 Gill & Macmillan, Dublin) is a sequel to "Bloody Women" and spans roughly the same period, i.e. from Victorian times to the present day.

"The Dark Sacrament: Exorcism in Modern Ireland" (2006 Gill & Macmillan, Dublin,) co-authored with Christina McKenna, contains nine contemporary cases of exorcism. A special American edition was published in October 2007 by HarperOne, San Francisco. It contains additional material. A paperback edition was issued in 2008.

"More Bloody Women: Ireland's Most Dangerous Females" (2009 Poolbeg Press, Co. Dublin) is the third in this series of true crime books. Unlike its predecessors, this book concentrates on more recent killings, from the case of Majella Boland, who hired a hitman to murder her husband in 1989, to the tragedy of Mary Prendergast of Cork, who was convinced her daughter was the Devil and stabbed her to death in 2006. Readers will recognize high-profile women such as Catherine Nevin, Sharon Collins, and the Mulhall Sisters. But there are also lesser-known cases that will both appall and fascinate.

"The Faustian Gambit: A Tale of the Praeternatural" (2015 Parsifal Press, Newry) moves between the Netherlands and Germany in medieval times, and modern-day Ireland and Scotland. It follows a young Belfast poet and her fiancé, who goes missing in strange, dark circumstances.