Dervla McTiernan on her chart-topping TV win – and why it ‘sucks for me' that she can't stand up to the tech giants' AI piracy

News.com.au02-05-2025

If you haven't yet heard of Dervla McTiernan, you soon will.
She wrote Australia's top-selling crime fiction book last year – and was the fourth most-read adult fiction writer behind fellow Aussie literary powerhouses Liane Moriarty and Trent Dalton.
Now McTiernan is poised to follow Moriarty and Dalton into screen domination, with her gripping mystery What Happened to Nina? being adapted for TV by the BAFTA-nominated makers of After the Party and The Secrets She Keeps.
The story was influenced by recent high-profile murders of women by men with whom they were in relationships. It is more of a 'whydunit' than a whodunit; and Irish-born, Perth-based McTiernan is thrilled that both the story and its discussion of an important, confronting issue has reached so many readers.
'It doesn't often happen that you get to sit five weeks at number one,' she says.
As it unfolds, What Happened to Nina? offers insights into the perspectives of the mothers of both the killer and the victim. McTiernan reveals she was driven to write it after swapping parenting stories with a friend.
'We didn't grow up with camera phones everywhere, with all this constant commentary online,' she says.
'She was like: 'What if my son screws up? What if he does something online, or makes an unwelcome move, or sticks up for a friend who makes an off-colour joke and it suddenly escalates?' And I was really taken aback by the conversation because I never really thought about that, because my son is 13 and my daughter's 15. We're not at that stage yet.'
It's not the only element of the online world that has become concerning for McTiernan.
Like many authors around the world, McTiernan is appalled to have discovered that her books are being replicated in the pirated online library LibGen, where they are used by tech giant Meta to train AI models.
'I am relatively small fry in comparison to some authors who have had 20 or 30 years' worth of work (taken), and then very small fry in comparison to the total, which is around 7.5 million books,' she sighs. 'There's nothing I can do as an individual writer about this. I don't have the resources to sue anybody.
'There are authors in the US who've put together resources (to take action against Meta).
'I hope they are successful. The reality is those cases will take years. They may not be won, because Meta and everybody else who falls into this category has almost endless resources to put against litigation.'
A former lawyer, McTiernan believes the only solution is government regulation.
'If you were to say to me, 'Look, the work of these seven million books has been put to this tool, but it's going to only create amazing new drugs and solutions for people, and we all get to share the outcome of that and the financial reward,' to some degree I'd say: 'Okay, well, it sucks for me, but great for everybody.'
'But that's not what's going to happen. A handful of people, contextually speaking, are going to control these tools, the flow of wealth and the gap between rich and poor will widen exponentially over the next 10 to 20 years if nothing is done about this. People are going to lose their jobs.'
And writing is a job that McTiernan holds dear. Especially as it has given her a lifeline in the darkest of times.
After moving to Perth in 2011 for a fresh start after the Global Financial Crisis left her burnt out and strapped for cash, McTiernan's husband, Kenny, urged her to take another leap of faith into writing.
So, while working part-time and juggling two small children, McTiernan began penning The Ruin; a mystery following Irish detective Cormac Reilly.
It was also during this time, in a blur of sleep-deprivation and stress, that McTiernan was diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain tumour. She was given the shocking news less than an hour before a literary agent called expressing interest in The Ruin.
After undergoing surgery and a gruelling recovery process, McTiernan distracted herself from the ordeal by focusing on getting her first story out into the world.
' The Ruin made it into Top 10, and then The Scholar made it into Top Five, and then The Good Turn went to Number One. And they've all been number one since then, and the readership just keeps growing.
'And I just feel incredibly lucky as this Irish woman in Western Australia that you guys let into the country and let me keep writing books.'
That's why it feels especially meaningful for McTiernan to return to writing about the detective who launched her career and saw her through brain cancer – and who has become a firm fan favourite.
Her new book, The Unquiet Grave, comes five years after the last in the Reilly series and after she felt she'd said goodbye to the dogged policeman.
She hopes that being reunited with Cormac will be as rewarding for readers as it has been for her.
'Because that's what I feel when I pick up a book by one of my favourite writers that I've been waiting to read, and it's set in a place that I know with characters I love,' she says.
'I'm on the couch, the blanket over my legs, a cup of tea beside me, and it's just so comforting to get three or four hours in a place I want to be with characters I love.'

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Iconic Australian migrant story returns to the stage

The Advertiser

13 hours ago

The Advertiser

Iconic Australian migrant story returns to the stage

Stephen Nicolazzo felt like throwing away his culture as a kid but is now using it to bring an Aussie classic to the national stage. Born of Melina Marchetta's iconic 1992 book and award-winning film starring Pia Miranda, Looking for Alibrandi the stage show has embarked on a first national tour. The story follows feisty protagonist Josie Alibrandi as she navigates her final year at a prestigious Catholic girls' school in Sydney. Along the way she finds her father, falls in love and grapples with her identity as a third-generation Italian growing up in Australia. It's an experience Nicolazzo shared as the grandson of Italian migrants. In primary school, the now 38-year-old was embarrassed to pronounce Italian words his classmates struggled with. "You want to throw away your culture and your ethnicity when you're younger because of all of the pressures of being discriminated against," he told AAP. "That's a really strange feeling because you lock away a part of yourself as a result of the pressures of expectation." The lived experience of young Australians from Italian cultures has improved over the past 30 years. "But there are many other migrants who have come to this country since the book was written," Nicolazzo said. "They're experiencing the same discrimination and tensions that Josie faced." The production highlights important issues of acceptance and tolerance, and is relatable to a wide audience. Nicolazzo points to the story's universal recognition of concepts like having to deal with over-bearing family members or being spoken to in a certain way. "The people that watch it are sobbing and laughing because there's a familiarity to it that goes beyond nostalgia," he said. The show first graced Sydney and Melbourne stages in 2022 and has since undergone script changes to enrich one of Jose's love interests, John Barton. "The audience is getting the best version of the show, which is five years in the making," Nicolazzo said. Three new cast members have also joined the fold, including 23-year-old graduate Riley Warner, who plays Josie's knockabout boyfriend Jacob Cootes. The rising star is debuting in his first stage show, having met Nicolazzo as a student. "There's something about him that feels like a national audience needs to see him right away," Nicolazzo said. The show next appears in Sydney on June 11 before heading across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Nicolazzo hopes audience members take one key message from his production. "It's about finding freedom from the shackles of a culture that doesn't want you to be a part of It," he said. "That's a hard thing to do but we can only do it by making art and talking to people." Stephen Nicolazzo felt like throwing away his culture as a kid but is now using it to bring an Aussie classic to the national stage. Born of Melina Marchetta's iconic 1992 book and award-winning film starring Pia Miranda, Looking for Alibrandi the stage show has embarked on a first national tour. The story follows feisty protagonist Josie Alibrandi as she navigates her final year at a prestigious Catholic girls' school in Sydney. Along the way she finds her father, falls in love and grapples with her identity as a third-generation Italian growing up in Australia. It's an experience Nicolazzo shared as the grandson of Italian migrants. In primary school, the now 38-year-old was embarrassed to pronounce Italian words his classmates struggled with. "You want to throw away your culture and your ethnicity when you're younger because of all of the pressures of being discriminated against," he told AAP. "That's a really strange feeling because you lock away a part of yourself as a result of the pressures of expectation." The lived experience of young Australians from Italian cultures has improved over the past 30 years. "But there are many other migrants who have come to this country since the book was written," Nicolazzo said. "They're experiencing the same discrimination and tensions that Josie faced." The production highlights important issues of acceptance and tolerance, and is relatable to a wide audience. Nicolazzo points to the story's universal recognition of concepts like having to deal with over-bearing family members or being spoken to in a certain way. "The people that watch it are sobbing and laughing because there's a familiarity to it that goes beyond nostalgia," he said. The show first graced Sydney and Melbourne stages in 2022 and has since undergone script changes to enrich one of Jose's love interests, John Barton. "The audience is getting the best version of the show, which is five years in the making," Nicolazzo said. Three new cast members have also joined the fold, including 23-year-old graduate Riley Warner, who plays Josie's knockabout boyfriend Jacob Cootes. The rising star is debuting in his first stage show, having met Nicolazzo as a student. "There's something about him that feels like a national audience needs to see him right away," Nicolazzo said. The show next appears in Sydney on June 11 before heading across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Nicolazzo hopes audience members take one key message from his production. "It's about finding freedom from the shackles of a culture that doesn't want you to be a part of It," he said. "That's a hard thing to do but we can only do it by making art and talking to people." Stephen Nicolazzo felt like throwing away his culture as a kid but is now using it to bring an Aussie classic to the national stage. Born of Melina Marchetta's iconic 1992 book and award-winning film starring Pia Miranda, Looking for Alibrandi the stage show has embarked on a first national tour. The story follows feisty protagonist Josie Alibrandi as she navigates her final year at a prestigious Catholic girls' school in Sydney. Along the way she finds her father, falls in love and grapples with her identity as a third-generation Italian growing up in Australia. It's an experience Nicolazzo shared as the grandson of Italian migrants. In primary school, the now 38-year-old was embarrassed to pronounce Italian words his classmates struggled with. "You want to throw away your culture and your ethnicity when you're younger because of all of the pressures of being discriminated against," he told AAP. "That's a really strange feeling because you lock away a part of yourself as a result of the pressures of expectation." The lived experience of young Australians from Italian cultures has improved over the past 30 years. "But there are many other migrants who have come to this country since the book was written," Nicolazzo said. "They're experiencing the same discrimination and tensions that Josie faced." The production highlights important issues of acceptance and tolerance, and is relatable to a wide audience. Nicolazzo points to the story's universal recognition of concepts like having to deal with over-bearing family members or being spoken to in a certain way. "The people that watch it are sobbing and laughing because there's a familiarity to it that goes beyond nostalgia," he said. The show first graced Sydney and Melbourne stages in 2022 and has since undergone script changes to enrich one of Jose's love interests, John Barton. "The audience is getting the best version of the show, which is five years in the making," Nicolazzo said. Three new cast members have also joined the fold, including 23-year-old graduate Riley Warner, who plays Josie's knockabout boyfriend Jacob Cootes. The rising star is debuting in his first stage show, having met Nicolazzo as a student. "There's something about him that feels like a national audience needs to see him right away," Nicolazzo said. The show next appears in Sydney on June 11 before heading across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Nicolazzo hopes audience members take one key message from his production. "It's about finding freedom from the shackles of a culture that doesn't want you to be a part of It," he said. "That's a hard thing to do but we can only do it by making art and talking to people." Stephen Nicolazzo felt like throwing away his culture as a kid but is now using it to bring an Aussie classic to the national stage. Born of Melina Marchetta's iconic 1992 book and award-winning film starring Pia Miranda, Looking for Alibrandi the stage show has embarked on a first national tour. The story follows feisty protagonist Josie Alibrandi as she navigates her final year at a prestigious Catholic girls' school in Sydney. Along the way she finds her father, falls in love and grapples with her identity as a third-generation Italian growing up in Australia. It's an experience Nicolazzo shared as the grandson of Italian migrants. In primary school, the now 38-year-old was embarrassed to pronounce Italian words his classmates struggled with. "You want to throw away your culture and your ethnicity when you're younger because of all of the pressures of being discriminated against," he told AAP. "That's a really strange feeling because you lock away a part of yourself as a result of the pressures of expectation." The lived experience of young Australians from Italian cultures has improved over the past 30 years. "But there are many other migrants who have come to this country since the book was written," Nicolazzo said. "They're experiencing the same discrimination and tensions that Josie faced." The production highlights important issues of acceptance and tolerance, and is relatable to a wide audience. Nicolazzo points to the story's universal recognition of concepts like having to deal with over-bearing family members or being spoken to in a certain way. "The people that watch it are sobbing and laughing because there's a familiarity to it that goes beyond nostalgia," he said. The show first graced Sydney and Melbourne stages in 2022 and has since undergone script changes to enrich one of Jose's love interests, John Barton. "The audience is getting the best version of the show, which is five years in the making," Nicolazzo said. Three new cast members have also joined the fold, including 23-year-old graduate Riley Warner, who plays Josie's knockabout boyfriend Jacob Cootes. The rising star is debuting in his first stage show, having met Nicolazzo as a student. "There's something about him that feels like a national audience needs to see him right away," Nicolazzo said. The show next appears in Sydney on June 11 before heading across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Nicolazzo hopes audience members take one key message from his production. "It's about finding freedom from the shackles of a culture that doesn't want you to be a part of It," he said. "That's a hard thing to do but we can only do it by making art and talking to people."