A Galway crime writer, Ken Bruen, has been shortlisted for best novel in this year's Edgar Awards in the US.
Described as the "mystery and crime equivalent" of the Oscars, the Edgar Awards are named after Edgar Allan Poe and aim to honour the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television and film.
The winners are due to be announced at a gala banquet, hosted by the Mystery Writers of America, in New York on April 29th.
Mr Bruen's novel, The Guards, was one of four nominees shortlisted for this year's best novel award.
Also shortlisted were Out by Natsuo Kirino; Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin; and Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear.
Mr Bruen told The Irish Times yesterday that he was thrilled with the nomination, the first for an Irish crime writer.
"It is a very prestigious award, so just be in that shortlist is a great honour," Mr Bruen said.
He has just returned from New York, where his publisher, St Martin's Minotaur, had issued a hardback of his novel, The Killing of the Tinkers.
Ken Bruen, who lives with his wife, Phil, and daughter, Grace, in Galway city, has sold film and television rights to several of his 12 novels, is already writing his 13th and 14th and has been translated into Albanian.
His fourth Jack Taylor novel, the sixth in his "English" series and a book about paranoia, entitled Despatching Baudelaire, are due to be published in the next year.
Born in Galway in 1951, Bruen studied English and taught it as a foreign language for almost 25 years in Africa, Japan and Asia.