'I did my first book signing in a police custody suite'

ByPeter Coulter

BBC News NI

For former lawyer turned crime writer Steve Cavanagh, addressing a court room jury is not a world away from writing a compelling novel. Indeed the idea for his first book came to him while he was cross-examining a witness.

"I kind of conned them into revealing that they were lying and it hit me then that con artists and trial lawyers have all the same skills," he said.

The idea sparked something in Cavanagh, who has just released his tenth novel about the conman turned lawyer Eddie Flynn.

The Northern Irish author has now sold more than five million books globally and has appeared on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

Cavanagh's home, near Lisburn, is busy. His daughter pops in to say hello, Muffin the dog is looking for someone to throw a ball, he's not long back from a US tour promoting his last book and he's packing to leave the following day for a UK book tour.

It's something he never really thought would happen when he was working as a solicitor.

He grew up on Palestine Street in south Belfast, went to school in Ballynahinch, then onto Belfast tech before going to uni in Dublin.

He only started writing in his mid 30s, after his mum died.

Cavanagh said she was the only one who ever really encouraged him to write so he wrote his first book for her.

His surname is Mearns, but he used Cavanagh, his mother's maiden name as a tribute to her. It was also easier to separate the practising solicitor from the author.

Cavanagh sais that "every word is a weapon in a courtroom".

"I thought con artists and trial lawyers all have skills which are perfectly allowed: misdirection, distraction, persuasion, manipulation," he said.

"I thought that would be a good idea for a character, someone who had all those skills as a conman, who then becomes a lawyer and that's be an interesting character to write about."

That led to the birth of his character Eddie Flynn, a lawyer based in New York, aided by his associates Harry Ford, Melissa Bloch, Gabriel Lake and a dog named after Clarence Darrow, another inspiration of Cavanagh's.

It wasn't an easy start for Cavanagh, who was rejected by more than 50 agents before getting representation for the Eddie Flynn series and securing the first book deal.

He recalls publication day for his first book, The Defence. He was representing a client in a police station in County Down when one of the police officers said he'd heard he had released a book.

"I went in and did the interview and by the time I came out the old custody sergeant had been to Eason's and bought it, so I did my first signing in Bangor custody suite."

While the first book won awards, it didn't sell particularly well and it was only when Thirteen, the novel which Cavanagh describes as having changed his life, was released did things really take off.

He believes this was down to the books gripping tag line: "The serial killer isn't on trial, he's on the jury."

Readers took to it and in 2019 he was able to stop working as a solicitor to focus on writing.

He's written 10 Eddie Flynn books and a few stand-alone thrillers.

Author of The Housemaid, Freida McFadden, recently posted on Facebook about his thriller Kill for Me, Kill for You, saying it is "one of the best thrillers I've ever read".

"It's not often that I read a book where all the twists and turns are perfectly executed, but this is one of them. It's kind of a masterpiece, in my humble opinion," she said.

It's high praise from the hottest author around the moment and Cavanagh is quick to return the compliment and also talk about other local authors who he thinks people should be reading.

Cavanagh has touched on a number of themes in his books. In Two Kinds of Stranger, he looks at a TikToker who has shared so much of her life online that she's become an easy target for a criminal mastermind.

In his latest book, One Of Us is Guilty, we meet the billionaire Vanderpool family and are immersed in a gruesome murder.

Patrick Vanderpool, who is running for governor, and his wife Vanessa are both in the firing line for the murder but Patrick's father Julian controls half of New York so will anyone really have to pay?

Cavanagh said he wanted to look at extreme power and wealth in America the influence of multi billionaires.

"I write about law and a lawyer, and increasingly these days, laws don't matter to some people," he said.

He is critical of AI companies.

"That entire technology is almost based entirely on piracy. They have scraped millions of books and the government's doing nothing.

"It's almost the more powerful you are, the more you can get away with."

For Cavanagh, this is a world away from his working class upbringing in Belfast.

He plans to take a break from Eddie Flynn for now, he has a standalone book in mind and has been asked by the Conan Doyle estate to write a short Sherlock Holmes story for a collection in the Autumn.

But he wants to ensure fans not worry, Eddie Flynn will be back and hasn't been beaten yet.