AUTHOR J. WOOLLCOTT WEAVES LOCAL FOODS INTO HER NORTHERN IRELAND MYSTERIES

St. George's Market in Belfast

J. Woollcott is a Canadian author born in Belfast, N. Ireland. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and BCAD, University of Ulster. Her first book, A Nice Place to Die won the RWA Daphne du Maurier Award, was short-listed in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in 2021 and a Silver Falchion Award finalist at Killer Nashville 2023. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

When my Canadian husband and I were first married, we would take holidays to N. Ireland. For me it was a way to stay close to a country I had left behind, to see friends and family I’d missed. For hubby, it was a nice cheap holiday with lots of fun, laughs and pubs. Fantastic scenery too of course and rain. What we didn’t expect was fine dining. And we weren’t disappointed.

 

Food at home years ago was not fine. It was good, filling and basic and––dare I say it, a bit bland. Luckily, back then we weren’t looking for fancy. We stayed with friends and family mostly, except for times we went off on trips and stayed in B&Bs. This brings me to my first traditional N. Irish dish. The Ulster Fry. Usually made for breakfast, it can be adapted for all day dining. I describe it in my new book, Blood Relations. Ryan and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Bridget are having an Ulster Fry for dinner…

 

“…is it okay to have wine with an Ulster Fry?” Bridget got busy in the kitchen.

 

Ryan set the table, and they tucked into plates of bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes, fried bread, and mushrooms. Thankfully, no black pudding, which he wouldn’t allow in the house. Bridget was appalled, but let it go. They had a bottle of red wine with the meal. “This has to be breaking a few cosmic rules,” he said as they finished.

 

Fried bread, or a ‘dipped piece’ as we called it, was thick white bread, placed in the pan used to cook the bacon, then fried to a nice crisp brown colour on both sides in the bacon fat. So bad for you, yet so delicious.

 

Black pudding. Well, let’s not go there. People back home love it. I hate it, hence my hero DS Ryan McBride hates it too. Pig’s blood, that’s all I’m saying.

 

Nowadays, there has been a resurgence of sorts and N. Ireland’s restaurants, bars and hotels enjoy a fantastic reputation for fine dining. Lots of food shops, too, and markets to service the restaurants. St. George’s, in the middle of Belfast, is a fine example of that, and a great place to visit. Lots of farm-fresh vegetables and meats plus baked goods and cakes. Fresh cheeses and fish. All used by local bars and restaurants and everyday shoppers getting away from supermarket produce.

 

I didn’t want my policeman hero to have a major interest in cooking. He loves to eat but doesn’t have much time. He’s too busy solving murders. I decided his sister Erin would be the one to provide a little bit of culinary interest to the book.

 

I have Erin as a food blogger, a wonderful cook, and in Blood Relations she’s about to open a specialty food store. A few years ago that wouldn’t have done so well, now Belfast is bursting with them. Here are some photos of a terrific shop in the middle of Belfast, the kind of place I see Erin starting.

 

As an author and reader I’m always a tiny bit disappointed when I read a book and there’s no mention of food or eating, especially if it’s set abroad. What do you think, do you like reading about meals and visits to restaurants and pubs?

 

Blood Relations

A DS Ryan McBride Novel, Book 2

 

Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the Police Service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present? And who hated the man enough to kill him twice? Is it one of Patrick Mullan’s own family, all of them hiding a history of abuse and lies? Or a vengeful crime boss and his psychopathic new employee? Or could it be a recently released prisoner desperate to protect his family and flee the country? Ryan and Billy once again face a complex investigation with wit and intelligence, all set in Belfast and the richly atmospheric countryside around it.

 

Buy Links

paperback

ebook

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY - AUTHOR LYNNE HANDY ON DRUIDS, CELTS, TREES, AND OLD IRELAND AS INSPIRATION

Lynne Handy is a librarian, genealogist, poet, and author of the Maria Pell mystery novels. In Old Sins, she once again creates characters, who carry out acts of "wild justice."  Handy combines a love of history and nature to provide dramatic settings. Her style is lyrical, but to the point. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Writing Old Sins, a Tale of Wild Justice in the Emerald Isle

According to the Book of Invasions (thought to be written by Christian monks), Ireland was originally settled by the descendants of Noah, who arrived some three hundred years after the Flood. Generations later, plague infested the land, killing most of the inhabitants. Those who survived migrated north to other lands, where they learned about divination, druidism, and philosophy. Returning to Ireland, they called themselves the Tuatha Dé Danann, or people of Danu, the great earth goddess, and lived in peace until the warlike Celts came. To prevent bloodshed, the Tuatha took up residence in grassy mounds and ancient hills, beneath thorn trees and circles. Their love for Ireland was so strong, they could not leave. (Old Ways, Old Secrets, Jo Kerrigan). 

 

What a great setting for a mystery novel! In Old Sins, poet Maria Pell visits Ireland to research ancient Celts as source material for a book of poems. Since little exists in the form of written material, she relies on faerie trees, mysterious mounds, sacred stones, and artifacts for inspiration, and attempts to get inside the minds and hearts of ancient people, who walked the earth as extensions of the natural world, taking shelter where they could—under trees or in caves. Faith, perhaps, became synonymous with shelter. Trees gave cover, and in some cases, as with oaks and their acorns, also provided food. 

 

Worship of trees, particularly the oak, was a natural outcome. The oak, and other trees were considered sacred with magical properties. Esteemed for longevity, the oak represented wisdom, stability, and sovereignty. Kings were consecrated under the oak. St. Bridgid built her cell under an oak. A deity directed St. Brendan to use oak boards to build the boat that may have transported him to North America over a thousand years before Columbus. 

 

Could trees have a secret world? And could the ancients, with their affinity to nature, have known about it? In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben claims trees are social beings that communicate through root systems, sending nutrients to each other when in need—particularly to old venerable stumps they wish to keep alive. Stumps may be parent trees, necessary to survival in ways not yet understood. Other studies have shown that trees communicate with each other through smell, and perhaps even sound. Have you ever heard the crackling of roots?

 

I wish I had read Wohlleben’s book before writing mine. It would have allowed me to provide a richer understanding of pagan thought and practice. 

 

Old Sins

A Maria Pell Mystery, Book 3

 

Battered by her archeologist lover's betrayal, poet Maria Pell flees to an Irish village to study prehistoric people and write her next volume of poetry, but her sanctuary is invaded first by her moody cousin and then by her Togolese lover, who unexpectedly shows up on her doorstep. When the discovery of a girl's body on a nearby beach reawakens a devastating childhood memory, Maria's days become haunted. As teenage girls disappear, villagers are terrified that sex-traffickers are targeting their community. With crimes to be solved, both past and present, Maria risks her life to bring the perpetrators to justice.

 

Buy Link