Anthony J. Quinn

Anthony J. Quinn (website) is an Irish writer and a journalist who has recently started writing the Inspector Celcius Daly crime mystery series.

Born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1971, he enrolled at the Queen’s University, Belfast, where he majored in English. After finishing college, he held various jobs, which included being a social worker, lecturer, an organic gardener, as well as a yoga teacher before he switched gears and started a career in journalism.

All this is quite surprising, since Anthony himself admits that he was a very shy child, almost a mute due to the fact that he hardly spoke. He needed a speech therapist to get him over his communication burdens.

He did love putting words on paper even as a child, having written several poems back in the day. It seems writing was always in his blood.

In 2012, his debut novel Disappeared cemented his role as a crime mystery writer, and the book became the first in the Celsius Daly series. It was shortlisted for a Strand Literary Award in the US and it received overwhelming positive critiques from Kirkus Reviews, Daily Mail and The Times magazine.

Before his work got published, Anthony J. Quinn suffered the fate of so many authors who got rejection after rejection of their work. He was rejected in fact 40 times before Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Press in the US took him on and published Disappeared.

Disappeared got published in the UK two years later after it debuted in the US, because initially the UK and Irish publishers didn’t believe the book would find the jolt it needs to become a commercial success.

Disappeared is set to spark the production of a new TV series featuring Ciaran Hinds in the main role.

The author has currently three books in his main series, two standalone novels, as well as several short stories published.

He is currently living in County Tyronne with his wife and children, where he is working on his next novel. He still has his day job as a journalist with the Tyrone Times, which pays the bills while he crafts his next novel in his spare time – which is not all that much considering a full time job and a family with 4 kids.

Here are the Anthony J. Quinn books in order for his Celsius Daly series and standalone novels.

Celsius Daly Series In Order

1. She’s Not There (Celsius Daly #1), 2012

2. Border Angels (Celsius Daly #2), 2013

3. Silence (Celsius Daly #3), 2015

Standalone Novels by Anthony J. Quinn

The Blood Dimmed Tide, 2014 (could become the first in a new series called W.B. Yeats

Blind Arrows, 2016