Location, Location, Location

[image error]It's kind of important, isn't it — where exactly a novel is set? A story based in Los Angeles would undoubtedly feel quite different to a reader if it was based in New York City or even San Francisco. Each place has its own sights, sounds and smells — its own seasoning atmosphere which seeps into the tale as the words pile up.

I had a home in Mayo for ten years. It was an old lodge that sat on a high spur of the Partry Mountains and looked down on the great Lough Mask below. I knew before long that I wanted to write about the area, to tell of its beauty and history and weave a story into its fabric, a story that would be complementary to the grandeur of the landscape about.

I have always loved wild places; places where you can really be alone or, when with another, really be with them. A dramatic landscape, be it the thundering ocean or a range of towering mountains definitely adds a very suitable background to an all-action thriller. So I decided to write a thriller, Call down the Hawk, and base it in my beloved Mayo. The basic idea for the story came to me on an eventful April weekend back in 1995 and it is there, amidst the beauty of South County Mayo that the action is set.