Author profile: Andrea Carter

Dublin-based barrister Andrea Carter is about to join a growing list of Irish legal eagles who have turned to crime fiction. She kicks off her "Ben (Benedicta) O’Keeffe" crime series with Death at Whitewater Church, due to be published on 3 September 2015.

It is set in a small remote town in County Donegal on the Inishowen Peninsula - where Carter herself worked as a solicitor for several years.

When a skeleton wrapped in a blanket is found in the secret crypt of a deconsecrated church, local solicitor Ben O’Keeffe is hired to act for the church's owners. 

She finds herself drawn into the dark secrets of a rural community, as she negotiates between the official investigation by the attractive but surly Sergeant Tom Molloy and various obstructive locals to uncover the truth.

The book was the winner at the 2013 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair, and Carter received an Arts Council Literature Bursary Award. The same year Carter took leave of absence from the Bar to write, as well as to undertake an MFA in Creative Writing.

In her two-book deal with Constable, the Ben O’Keeffe sequel Treacherous Strand is due for release in 2016.

Author's official website: cartercrimewriter.wordpress.com

The author on Twitter: @andysaibhcarter