The Perfect Place: Amanda Cassidy in Conversation with Gillian Perdue

Amanda Cassidy's first thriller Breaking was a hit novel and was nominated for the CWA John Creasey Dagger Awards. Her most recent novel The Perfect Place has been a big hit. Join Amanda Cassidy as she talks to author Gillian Perdue about her books and career.

Amanda Cassidy is a freelance journalist, commissioning editor and former Sky News reporter. She has been shortlisted for the Irish Journalist of the Year Awards, and more recently the Headline Media writing awards. Her debut novel Breaking was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Dagger Awards and has been optioned for television. Her second book, The Returned, also optioned, was described by crime queen Lisa Jewell as ‘hauntingly beautiful’ and was named crime novel of the month by Crime Lovers UK. Amanda is a frequent contributor to national radio, print and television and holds a BA in European Studies from Trinity College Dublin. When she’s not on a plane, you’ll find her in her cottage in Dublin where she lives with her family. Amanda’s third novel, The Perfect Place was published in August

Gill Perdue is the author of bestselling crime novel If I Tell (previously published as The Interview) and nominated for Crime Novel of the Year in the An Post Book Awards 2022. If I Tell is the first in the Shaw and Darmody series of crime thrillers published by Penguin, set in the fictional Dublin suburb of Clonchapel.

In June 2023 When They See Me was published and received excellent reviews – described as ‘a thrilling read,’ (The Independent) and ‘an impressive follow up.’ (Belfast Telegraph.)

She also writes for children. Her first children’s novel, Adam’s Starling, won a Bisto Award (the Eilís Dillon Memorial) for that year. A primary school teacher by training, Gill worked for many years in Tallaght and other schools in south Dublin, and this experience informed and inspired her earliest writings, as did her work on a children’s helpline.

She is drawn to the exploration of the domestic, reflecting the real experiences of living in a world where the best and worst of what it means to be human exist side by side.

The next Shaw and Darmody is to be published by Penguin in 2025, and a standalone thriller in 2026.

Gill lives in Rathfarnham with Kevin and Angus (one of these is a dog). They have two adult daughters. A pair of disapproving feline siblings complete the picture.