I am studying for a degree in Irish Culture and Heritage Studies having gone back to education late in life. My major writing influences are Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, and Tom Rob Smith. When I went back to education I began to write and was encouraged by one of my lecturers to keep going. My first novel The Gun sprung from there and from my frustrations at the political situation in Ireland at the time i.e. the recession and how it affected me and my country.