Stylish Historical Thrillers
About Derville Murphy
I came to writing accidently. A journey that begin when I embarked on an abrupt career change when I left my job as an architect and entered the world of academia. I have always painted, I loved art and my job as an architect involved looking after an art collection. So I chose to study the History of Art and Architecture. Once I started, I got the academic bug and continued to do a PhD, also on the subject of art and architecture. I initially started to write creatively to help enrich my research into historic events. But I discovered that I just love writing and telling stories. I particularly love writing twisty, suspenseful stories with unexpected plots. I do hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I have enjoyed writing them.
Derville Murphy
Derville Murphy's Website
Published Author
Latest Novel
A Perfect Copy
April 15th, 2022
A Perfect Copy, the latest title from Derville Murphy Author is available at all good bookshops and online.
Two portraits of the same woman. Is one a forgery? Set between Ukraine, Vienna, and Dublin, Ben Tarrant and Daisy Frome trace the lives of their ancestors to uncover a tale of, love, lies, deceit and revenge, in their journey to find the true story of the perfect copies.
Patricia O’Reilly Author of The Interview.
'This is a book about two portraits where Murphy’s artistic background comes to the fore. it’s full of twists and turns with a great sense of location, impeccable research and a thoroughly satisfying ending.'
Elaine Banfield, Reviewer @ThreeRockPanorama
Secrets, lies and broken hearts are portrayed in this Jewish family saga that Murphy conveys with a rich vibrancy, whilst her narrative weaves us through a celebrated landscape of life and literature. Sense of place is illustrated through textures, fragrances and beautiful imagery. There is no doubt Murphy’s art historian background is an accolade that compliments this powerful, tender reclamation of a beleaguered society.
Previous novels
January 27, 2021
Love, art and espionage, in a compelling, stylish drama set in the Victorian artworlds of Dublin and Manchester.
Published by Poolbeg Press.
Available on amazon.uk as an ebook and paperback.
Julia Benson, spirited Irish artist and photographer from a Unionist family, is having an affair with Fenian Donal O’Keefe. To stop her squandering the family’s dwindling fortunes and end her
relationship with Donal, her father’s will makes her dependent on her sister Harriet's controlling husband, Edward.
Julia is persuaded that that to contest the will is futile. And Harriet and Edward move to Manchester to start a new life without her. Shortly afterwards, Julia receives a disturbing visitor in the photography studio who tells her that Donal, who had travelled to America to raise funds for the Nationalist cause, is now missing in England and his life is in danger.
To find Donal, Julia moves to Manchester where she tries to establish herself in the art world by raising awareness of Ireland’s plight through her painting. But to her dismay she becomes increasingly entangled in a web of Fenian espionage and deceit. A plot so terrifying that it could destroy any hopes of Home Rule for Ireland and the nationalist cause.
If Only She Knew
The Art Collector's Daughter
July 2020
A stylish historical thriller
Published by Poolbeg Press.
Available on amazon.uk as an ebook and paperback
As the Germans advance on Paris in 1940, a young Jewish girl, Sylvie Vasseur, is evacuated to rural Ireland to the dysfunctional Courtney family by her father. He also sends his valuable art collection – including a portrait of Sylvie by Mateus, The Girl on the Swing.
Seduced by narcissistic, elder-son Nicholas Courtney when she is eighteen, he abandons her when he discovers she is pregnant. To avoid the inevitable social stigma, Sylvie marries his brother, Peter. In Dublin, Sylvie becomes involved with the art scene, achieving critical acclaim as an artist. But trapped in a loveless marriage, she continues to be obsessed with Nicholas. Until, unexpectedly, secrets from her father’s past emerge leading her to question everything she once believed. Shortly after, she is found drowned, on a Wexford beach.
Many years later Claire Howard, struggling art-historian, is hired by the Courtney family to record Sylvie’s lifeworks. Fascinated by the artist and working with her charismatic son Sam – travelling between Dublin and Paris – Claire unravels a labyrinth of deceit and lies – until, finally she does not know who to trust anymore.
I am delighted to announce that my latest novel Isabel, about the life of Isabel de Clare, wife of the 'Greatest Knight' William Marshal and daughter of Aoife and Strongbow is due to be published on Feb 1st 2027 by 451 Editions.
This is the untold story of Isabel de Clare, feisty daughter of Irish princess Aoife and Welsh nobleman Strongbow. Representing clashing Gaelic and Norman traditions, it is set against the turbulent court of the Plantagenet kings in England and the early years of Norman settlement in Southeast Ireland. Isabel, a wealthy heiress, granddaughter of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, held by the wily King Henry in the Tower of London is forced by the king to marry the charismatic William Marshal England’s greatest knight, a man old enough to be her father.
Isabel dreams of returning to Ireland and reclaiming Leinster but is frustrated when Marshal becomes embroiled in the wars of succession between Henry’s sons Richard and John, which lead to the eventual loss of the English stronghold in France. As Marshal’s star declines, Isabel’s rises. She outwits her scheming mother Aoife and escapes her husband’s control, to defeat the barons uprising in Kilkenny. Ultimately, she becomes one of the most powerful noblewomen of the medieval period.
COMING FEB 2027
"A book is a dream that you hold in your hand."