Out-of-work actress Derry O’Donnell is young, talented, a teeny bit psychic … and broke. Spurred on by an ultimatum from her awesomely high-achieving mother, and with a little help from her theatrical friends, Derry embarks on a part-time career as Madame Tulip, fortune-teller to the rich and famous. But at her first fortune-telling gig – a celebrity charity weekend in a castle – a famous rap artist will die.

As Derry is drawn deeper into a seedy world of celebrities, supermodels and millionaires, she finds herself playing the most dangerous role of her acting life. Trapped in a maze of intrigue, money and drugs, Derry’s attempts at amateur detective could soon destroy her friends, her ex-lover, her father and herself.

Madame Tulip is the first in a series of Tulip adventures in which Derry O’Donnell, celebrity fortune-teller and reluctant detective, plays the most exciting and perilous roles of her acting life, drinks borage tea, and fails to understand her parents.

Mix together a fashion model, a navy seal, an artist, a very British love interest, a few Colombian drug dealers and the most delightful heroine you can imagine — a fortune telling, slightly overweight, less-than-successful actress. Then drop everyone into the verdant Irish countryside for a highly unrealistic but humorous romp.

Madam Tulip isn’t a mystery per se: there are no clues for the reader to knit together; we know who the bad guys are right from the beginning; we know the gaggle of good guys are going to get themselves into a hopelessly sticky situation and will definitely need a deus ex machina.

Madam Tulip is very much like an amusing action film (no surprise: the author, David Ahern, did work in television.) But the sparkling repartee does keep pages turning, and Ahern’s many clever apothegms would be lost on film (‘giving thanks was, after all, the way humans tried to grab a piece of luck and persuade it to stay’)

David Ahern grew up in a theatrical family in Ireland but ran away to Scotland to become a research psychologist and sensible person. He earned his doctorate and taught in major Universities but could never explain to his granny why he didn’t own a stethoscope.

Finding the challenge of pretending to know things exhausting, David Ahern shaved off his beard and absconded once more, this time to work in television. He became a writer, director and producer, creating international documentary series. He won numerous awards but found nobody was much impressed.

For want of a better plan, David Ahern took to writing fiction. Madame Tulip isn’t his first novel, but writing it was the most fun he’s ever had with a computer. He is now writing the third in the series and enjoys pretending that this activity is actual work.

David Ahern lives in the beautiful West of Ireland with his wife, two cats and a vegetable garden of which he is inordinately proud.

www.davidahern.info
@daveahernwriter
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