It’s a case of Murder, She Wrote — as Ireland’s best-known pathologist turns crime novelist.
Prof Marie Cassidy — state pathologist for two decades — has signed a two-book deal for a crime fiction series set in Dublin inspired by her career.
Prof Cassidy’s first book Body of Truth tells the tale of a forensic scientist determined to find out what happened in the curious case of a murdered podcaster.
READ MORE -RTE viewers full of praise for Dr Marie Cassidy after watching episode two of Dr Cassidy’s Casebook
The novel’s heroine is Dr Terry O’Brien, a talented young pathologist with a troubled past.
It’s set to catapult Cassidy into the book world as an Irish Patricia Cornwell, with the character of Dr O’Brien set to rival Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta.
Hachette Books Ireland will publish her debut in autumn, the same publishers she worked with on her bestselling memoir Beyond The Tape in 2020.
Cassidy (67) said: "As a lover of the thriller genre, it’s been a great experience to immerse myself in the world of fiction and combine my professional knowledge with my passion for storytelling.
"I’m pleased to have signed with Hachette for my Terry O’Brien novels."
Publisher Ciara Considine added: "We’re thrilled to publish Marie Cassidy’s debut fiction. Fans of Patricia Cornwell will delight in her creation, Dr Terry O’Brien.
"Body of Truth is full of suspense and the kind of in-depth forensic detail we would expect from a former state pathologist – riveting."
Just like Cassidy herself, the character of Terry O’Brien has arrived in Ireland from Scotland to take up a position of state pathologist.
Soon after, a body is found in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
Rachel Reece, host of the popular true crime podcast Ireland’s Missing Women, has been brutally murdered.
As Terry gathers evidence to help with the garda investigation, she becomes convinced that they are following the wrong line of inquiry and begins her own research.
She soon finds herself in the thick of cold cases of murdered Irish women, with questions mounting.
But a killer is closer than she knows. And their next victim is firmly within their sights.
Born in Glasgow — with Donegal roots — Prof Cassidy first came here in 1998 to work as deputy to the then-State pathologist, the late John Harbison.
By 2004, she had succeeded him in the role and stayed there until her retirement in 2018.
In the intervening years, she worked on some of the country’s biggest crime cases, such as the murder of teenager Robert Holohan in Cork in 2005; the murder of Manuela Riedo in 2007 and the triple killings of mother and daughters Sharon, Zara and Nadia Whelan in Kilkenny in 2008.
She also was a pathologist on the murders of Rachel O’Reilly in 2004 and Siobhan Kearney in 2006.
In over 30 years of practice in total, she has performed thousands of postmortems and dealt with hundreds of murders.
She is Ireland and the UK’s first-ever female state pathologist.
Cassidy is also something of a celebrity here, having appeared on numerous reality TV shows and fronted many documentaries.
In 2015, she showed her creative side when she appeared as a contestant in TV3’s The Restaurant.
Her three-part RTE series Dr Cassidy’s Casebook looked back on her career through the prism of some of her biggest cases.
Last year, she presided over Cold Case Collins, a two-part show that aimed to find out the truth about Michael Collins’ death on his centenary. At the start of this year, she turned up on Dancing With The Stars, where she performed as Cruella de Vil in a 101 Dalmatians-themed dance before she was voted off on the second week.
She was also a popular guest on Tommy Tiernan’s TV chat show.
She has previously explained her unusual job of pathologist as "telling the story of what happened. Giving the person the respect and dignity of finding out how they transitioned from life to death."
Body of Truth by Dr Marie Cassidy will be published on October 5 2023, £14.99 (€17.35) and is available to pre-order now from all bookshops.
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