The disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding was the first American woman to complete a move called the triple-axle in competition. This feat was the unlikely inspiration for Liz Nugent's latest book, Our Little Cruelties.
"I tried to make this book like a triple-axle story. So it's not just a whydunit or a whodunit. It's a whydunit, a whodunit and a who-is-it, because we don't know who's dead, we don't know who the murderer is and we don't know why they did it."
If the reaction to the book is to be believed, it seems Liz may have become the first Irish woman to pull off a triple-axle story. The hugely successful crime writer was in studio with Ryan on Wednesday to talk about her fourth novel, which was published last month. It may seem like a far from ideal time to be bringing a new story into the world, but – hey – we could all use some quality distraction from the 2020 remake of Outbreak we're currently living in.
The novel tells the story of three brothers, who grow up in an Ireland we all remember: the Pope's visit (the first one), Bob Dylan at Slane and the time you murdered your brother. (One of those three events may only appear in Our Little Cruelties.) When the story begins, one brother is in a coffin, but we don't know which brother it is.
"I was very determined to write a book about men and from the point of view of men… So the book is narrated by the three boys, the three brothers, and it's set over the course of 40, 50 years, which is my lifespan really."
The boys' mother, an actress and showband singer whose star is fading, sees her first-born as the apple of her eye, detests her last-born and almost seems not to notice the middle son at all. Liz told Ryan that the mother's treatment of her sons was the key to how the story unfolds:
"I wanted a reason for them all to see life differently and the root really was the mother and how the mother treated them as children."
It's definitely an intriguing set-up and surely, as with most crime – or, indeed, any sort of stories – it's probably best to know as little as possible before you start reading. But Liz does reveal that the inspiration for the mother came from a Nina Simone performance at the 1976 Montreux Jazz festival she watched on YouTube. The singer is clearly under the influence and she shouts at the audience, she forgets the words, but she's still Nina Simone:
"It is just unbelievably compelling. And the camera is at all times trained on her face and you can see her confusion, and yet her absolute confidence in her own ability to perform and it's probably the most compelling thing I've ever seen on a YouTube clip."
You can hear Ryan's full chat with Liz – including how a neurologist "not unknown" to Ryan rescued her from the ED when she had an accident last year, how accomplished her husband is at cutting hair and how self-isolation doesn't necessarily lead to a boost for creativity – by clicking here.
Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent is published by Penguin Ireland.
Niall Ó Sioradáin