I was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. I studied law at Warwick University and politics and philosophy at Oxford University. In the early 90's I emigrated to New York City where I worked in bars, building sites and bookstores for seven years before moving to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher. In 2008 I moved again, this time to Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My first Sean Duffy novel, The Cold Cold Ground, won the 2013 Spinetingler Award and was picked as one of the best crime novels of the year by The Times (of London).The second Sean Duffy novel, I Hear The Sirens In The Street, won the 2014 Barry Award for best paperback original crime novel.In The Morning I'll Be Gone (Sean Duffy #3) won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for best novel and was picked as one of the top 10 crime novels of 2014 by the American Library Association, The Daily Mail & The Toronto Star. Gun Street Girl (Duffy #4) was shortlisted for the 2016 Edgar Award, the 2015 Ned Kelly Award, The 2016 Anthony Award and was picked as one of the best books of 2015 by The Boston Globe and by The Irish Times. Sean Duffy #5, Rain Dogs, was the Boston Globe's #1 Mystery novel of 2016 and was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2016, the 2016 Ned Kelly Award and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 2016.newspaper reviews for some of the Duffy books:If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland The Cold Cold Ground is the book he would have written.The TimesA locked room mystery within a manhunt killer [is] a clever and gripping set-up that helps makes Duffy's third outing easily his best so far. The Sunday TimesNot content with constructing a complex plot, McKinty further wraps his story around a deliciously old-fashioned locked room mystery, the solution to which holds the key to Duffy's entire investigation. Driven by McKinty's brand of lyrical, hard-boiled prose, leavened by a fatalistic strain of the blackest humour, In the Morning I'll Be Gone is a hugely satisfying historical thriller. The Irish Times[A] superb trilogy reaches its finality...The hunt for [Duffy's quarry] begins and ends spectacularly. McKinty is particularly convincing in painting the political and social backdrops to his plots. He deserves to be treated as one of Britain's top crime writers. The TimesAn action movie view of the Troubles...a fast and thrilling ride from the reliably excellent McKinty. The Mail On SundayThis is the third in the series and, for me, the best, for it contains a locked room mystery at the heart of a drama about a major terrorist escape from the Maze prison, Belfast in 1983. Written in spare, razor-sharp prose, and leading up to a denouement that creeps up on you and then explodes like a terrorist bomb, it places McKinty firmly in the front rank of modern crime writers.The Daily MailAn older, more sobered Duffy, still unconventional and willing to take chances, but more reflective, more Sherlock Holmes. His growing maturity results in fewer bedroom scenes but there is plenty of excitement and suspense elsewhere in this intelligent and gripping yarn. The Irish IndependentSardonic Belfast cop Sean Duffy [in] another terrific Troubles-set thriller 4.5/5 The Sun