“I also like to play out the story to see the consequences for my protagonist’s victims and how damage can be inherited from one generation to the next”

In early 2014 Liz’s first novel, Unravelling Oliver, was published by Penguin Ireland, to critical acclaim. It went straight to the top of the bestsellers list and also won the Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.

Her second novel, Lying in Wait, was published in July 2016 and also went straight to number 1. It won the Radio Listener’s Choice prize at the Irish Book Awards and was shortlisted for Crime Novel of the Year.

On its UK release in January 2017, Lying in Wait went straight into the UK bestseller list and was chosen for the hugely popular Richard & Judy Bookclub Spring 2017 list and won the Reader’s Choice award for that season.

In Oct 2017, Liz won the Irish Woman of the Year Award for Literature.

Liz’s third novel, Skin Deep, was published in April 2018, hit the number 1 spot and spent five months in the top ten bestsellers list. It won two awards at the Irish Book Awards that year.

Liz’s fourth novel, Our Little Cruelties (released as the pandemic hit in March 2020) went to the top of the bestsellers list in Ireland and remained there for six weeks while most bookshops were closed.

Published as Little Cruelties, by Gallery/Scout Press in the US and by Simon & Schuster in Canada the book was included in the New York Times recommended best books of 2020. Our Little Cruelties‎ was longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel 2021.

Liz’s latest novel the heartbreaking and funny, brilliantly observed and impossible to put down Strange Sally Diamond was released by Penguin Sandycove in the UK and Ireland on the 2nd March 2023 to rave reviews the book went straight to Number 1 on the Irish Bestsellers list where it stayed for nine weeks and was top 5 for five months. Also published in the US and Canada with Simon & Schuster the book and has been sold in thirtyfive territories so far.

Strange Sally Diamond was also selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers 2023, was a Publishers Weekly Best Mystery and Thriller of 2023, an Amazon Top 20 Mystery Thriller and Suspense Book of 2023, a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller 2024 and is the Barnes & Noble Mystery/Thriller pick for August 2024.

It was also Winner of the Irish Independent “Crime Fiction Book of the Year 2023 and Liz was named Writer Of The Year at the Goss.ie Women of the Year Awards 2023. The book was Shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel 2024 and Longlisted for the Goldsboro Books' Glass Bell Award 2024

Liz has also been in receipt of several bursaries: she was Writer in Residence at the Princess Grace Library in Monaco in 2016, thanks to the Ireland Funds, Liz won the inaugural Jack Harte bursary (2015) in association with the Irish Writer’s Centre and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Liz was also awarded a bursary by the Centre Culturel Irlandais and spent a month there in April 2019.

Liz’s books have been sold tincluding translation in 36 territories and counting.

Praise for Strange Sally Diamond

“Liz Nugent’s story opens with the death of Sally’s father — and a shocking revelation about her past…As Sally digs into the truth, the novel becomes surprising, moving, and shockingly “both heartbreaking and making you laugh”

Harlen Coban praises Strange Sally Diamond on The Today Show NBC

“Jaw-droppingly clever. I’m completely in awe of Liz Nugent’s writing, and this is my favourite yet. One of the best books I’ve read in a long, long time. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Apartment

“The best book of 2023. An incredible reading experience, it shook me to the core. I loved every damn second of it!”
Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Family Remains

"Shocking, disturbing and utterly original, Strange Sally Diamond will grip you from first page to last."
Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

“It creeped me out (in a good way). Think Room and The Collector but add a dazzling/unique main character and encroaching dread. Terrific”

Ian Rankin

“Twisted and twisty, dark and gripping, no one is going to forget Sally Diamond in a hurry!"
Graham Norton, New York Times bestselling author of Holding

“It’s compassionate and challenging, letting us imagine the lives that are forgotten when the news cycle moves on … a very special book”

Val McDermid

“A brilliant book! Liz Nugent has outdone herself with this one.”
Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

“A terrific read.”
Anthony Horowitz, New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders

"There’s the usual trademark Liz Nugent disturbing content, but with a heart-felt dose of humanity to balance things out."
Crime Reads Most Anticipated Crime Fiction of Summer 2023

“Nugent fashions an unforgettable protagonist in Sally, and never loses sight of her characters’ fundamental humanity, even as she piles on twists and steers the narrative into exceptional darkness. Inventive, addictive, and bold, this deserves a wide audience.”

Publishers Weekly

“Nugent writes relatable, imperfect characters… This well-written, engaging novel isn’t for the light of heart, but it will find a home with readers who thrive on intricate plotlines and character development.”
Booklist

"Sally is an appealing character—strange, yes, but also engagingly literal. Nugent hits exactly the right tone of empathy and optimism."
Kirkus

“Nugent’s fifth novel is her best yet: evil perpetuates evil in a heartbreaking but humane tale of people damaged beyond repair”

The Guardian

"Tense and suspenseful and often creepy, Liz Nugent has delivered a haunting and poignant tale, one that won’t be easy to forget any time soon."
Mystery & Suspense

“Sally is a terrific, protean creation, imbued with immense life force and a kind of naive charm. It is never less than enthralling to spend time in her company, and the novel’s soaring coda is a tribute to her spirit. No one is writing remotely like Liz Nugent now. She is, as Duke Ellington said of Ella Fitzgerald, beyond category”

Declan Hughes, The Irish Times

'In Sally Diamond, Nugent has given us an astounding creation with a singular voice . . . an absorbing, twisty, compulsive psychological thriller with surprising humour and pathos'

Sunday Independent

“Her most elusive, most mysterious novel yet, one that poses a myriad of tantalising questions”

Irish Examiner

“Hypnotic and terrifying, her story seeps into the imagination and leaves behind a haunting memory”

The Daily Mail

“striking and immersive..delivered brilliantly in Nugent’s distinctive voice”

The Irish Independent

“Irresistibly compelling, this dark story is shocking yet endearing. A brilliant read that will suck you in”

Crime Monthly

“Unpredictable, unforgettable unique and fascinating..an astounding creation with a singular voice..an absorbing, twisty, compulsive psychological thriller with surprising humour and pathos… Liz Nugent is the master of macabre meditations on the human condition”

Sophie White, The Sunday Independent

“Dark and disturbing”

Heat Magazine

“Brilliantly witty and extremely moving, the character of Sally will capture your heart”

Best Magazine, Book of the Month

“Incredible”

Sara Cox

“I'm lost in admiration for Liz and her writing. I've loved her four previous books, particularly Our Little Cruelties, but Sally Diamond has moved her to another level. It transcends genre and deserves to win literary prizes. It's vivid, pacy, taut but so very moving. It's written with enormous compassion and I LOVED the character of Sally, my heart absolutely broke for her. This novel feels *different*, it seems to me that it defies categorisation. It's dark certainly and the ending is chilling yet it's written with incredible heart”

Marian Keyes

“Just finished Strange Sally Diamond ..There’s something v special about all of Liz’s novels. Character-driven stories that are real & wild at the same time. This one blew me away. Unflinching, unpredictable & unputdownable. A dark masterpiece”

Will Dean

“Dark, compelling, and deeply moving”

Ruth Ware

“No one gets into damaged people’s heads like Liz Nugen – I’d have known this was her writing even if her name had been deleted from the cover. Moving, thrilling, enraging and impossible to put down”

Erin Kelly

“Liz Nugent is a genius of an author and Strange Sally Diamond is one of the best crime novels I've read in years. Sally is a character who will initially shock you, perplex you and then win your heart. Dark, intriguing, heartbreaking and surprising, if I wasn't biting my nails I was smiling to myself. It's absolutely brilliant. If this book doesn't win every prize in 2023 I will be very surprised. Move over Eleanor Oliphant - Sally Diamond is going to rule the world”

Cl Taylor

“Liz is so brilliant at getting under the skin of characters who don't fit the mould, showing how we're all created of light and shade and often it's just chance that sends us in one direction rather than another. ..StrangeSallyDiamond peels your heart with a paring knife in one continuous paper-thin coil. Dark, disturbing, utterly compelling. Liz Nugent’s books defy genre – just powerful stories, exquisitely told”

Tammy Cohen

“A brilliant, brilliant book. I don’t have the skill to give this novel the kind of praise it deserves. It’s devastating. It’s beautiful. It’s mesmerising. Clever. Surprising. Completely immersive. In total awe”

Imran Mahmood

“An extraordinary book. Compulsive reading, with one of the most complex, intriguing and moving characters I’ve ever encountered in fiction”

Clare Mackintosh

“One of the most original, and spine-tingling books I’ve read in ages, Liz Nugent’s Strange Sally Diamond draws you in to the close, claustrophobic world of rural Ireland and the life of an emotionally withdrawn woman whose dark, hidden past is coming back to haunt her. Crackling with tension, this book with have you turning the pages late into the night. An absolute triumph”

Abir Mukherjee

“Blown away by Strange Sally Diamond … Utterly chilling and impossible to put down. Her best yet!”

Andrea Carter

“Absolutely loved Strange Sally Diamond. It reminded me in parts of John Fowles’ The Collector. Highly recommend!”

Laure Van Rensburg

“Dark, heart-breaking, funny, brilliant – Strange Sally Diamond will stay with for well beyond the final page”

Paul Cleave

Praise for “Our Little Cruelties”

“Brilliantly observed family life and a plot that is part rollercoaster, part maze. Loved it!”

Graham Norton

“Dark, beautiful, devastating - pure genius”

Lucy Foley

“What a terrific storyteller Liz Nugent is! Brilliantly structured, fluently told, rich in unsettling incident and pulsing with dark, tumultuous energy ... her best book yet”

Irish Times

“Creepy, compelling and totally addictive”

Erin Kelly

“Liz Nugent is a force to be reckoned with”

Lisa Jewell

“Liz Nugent has a gift for filling us with a terrible fascination for truly horrible people”

Val McDermid

“Evocative, vivid, brilliant storytelling from a novelist of powerful gifts”

Joseph O’Connor

"Smart, artful and totally gripping…LOVED IT”

Will Dean

“Shot through with black humour, toxic truths and pathos”

Sarah Hilary

“Wonderfully tense and gripping….a total page turner.. loved every word of it”

Dame Fiona Kidman

“Stunning… dark in a subtle way and it really got under my skin like no other book”

Patricia Gibney

“A dark jewel of a novel, fire flickering in its depths and light lining its edges. …no other crime novelist of the past decade has rivalled Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, or Gillian Flynn. [Little Cruelties is] a tragedy of evil power, crisply written and quickly paced; above all, [it”s] a thriller, swift and exciting and built like a carnival house, all false walls and trapdoors.”

A.J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

Publishers Weekly

"[A] chilling tale of the sociopathic mind... Readers who love sinister psychological thrillers will tear through these pages."

Library Journal (starred review)

“..The cruelties the three Drumm brothers inflict on one another include lying, bullying, stealing, seducing one another’s girlfriends and, finally, murder…..a fascinating reminder that no story is complete unless you hear it from everyone involved. “Little Cruelties” shows how thoroughly families can mess one another up, and how sometimes the greatest mysteries are found within the psyche

New York Times

“The much-decorated writer again displays a flair for plot and an uncanny ability to get under the skin of characters in the dysfunctional family drama … Nugent builds her narrative skilfully, with the ellipses in each brother’s account gradually filled in by the ensuing tales. All their psychologies are incisively laid out, consistent and layered across all sections … nobody is a mere cliché in Nugent’s clear, propulsive writing, and the author masterfully unveils the damage and hurt behind every motivation, and the petty resentments, delusions and carelessness that lie behind every nick and cut the family members inflict upon one another over the four decades of her tale … Nugent has won four Irish Book Awards for her previous three novels; it would be a cruelty to deny her further honours for her fourth.”

Crimereads.com novels of the month, November 2020

Praise for Skin Deep

"Liz Nugent’s heroine is impossible to like. Delia Russell is selfish, manipulative, self-indulgent, an inveterate liar, uncaring even of her child. Yet somehow Nugent’s absorbing, beautifully written tale turns Delia into an interesting, almost sympathetic character. Her childhood is spent on a tiny Irish island, her father is besotted by her. She realises early that she’s very beautiful. Most of her family die in a fire and there follows, among many other reversals, an unwanted pregnancy, loss of money and drug addiction. She ends up living a pretend life in Nice. There’s a death. Nugent has won several awards in her native Ireland. Skin Deep deserves to be her breakthrough in Britain”

The Times UK

“Liz Nugent’s Skin Deep (Penguin) is the perfect holiday read for those who like their escapism on the darker side. If Patricia Highsmith were Irish she might well have come up with this tale of a scarred woman who taints all she touches while remaining as charismatic as she is enigmatic.”

Ian Rankin

“Just finished SKIN DEEP by @lizzienugent. Superb thriller. Chilling, beautifully-written, shocking, twisty, intelligent, GRIPPING. Hints of Muriel Spark, Gillian Flynn, Patricia Highsmith. Absolutely LOVED IT.”

Will Dean

“Skin Deep is utterly compelling...Nugent displays to the full her storytelling gifts”

RTE Guide

“Skin Deep is a guilty rush of a novel…it’s a blast. The author of Unravelling Oliver and Lying in Wait has done it again. Priority reading.”

Nadine O’Regan, Sunday Business Post

“Liz Nugent’s extraordinary, incendiary new novel….What a magnificent dark monster of a book Skin Deep is.”

Irish Times

“Monumentally good. Liz Nugent is a beautiful writer and among the very best storytellers in the world.”

Donal Ryan

“I loved, loved, loved Skin Deep - the compassion of it, the beauty of the language, how glamour and horror intersect, how the tension twists tighter and tighter and is brilliantly done”

Marian Keyes

“The finest psychological thriller writer currently at work - no one gets under the skin of monstrous characters like she does”

Tammy Cohen

“Bloody brilliant!

Dense Mina

“A triumph, from first page to last!”

Sarah Hilary

“Dazzling…chilling, mesmerising and, ultimately, devastating. Pure storytelling genius.”

Mark Edwards

“Wow! I am lost in admiration - Liz Nugent’s storytelling is a wonderful feat of imagination, totally gripping, with a fascinating character at its heart”

Sabine Durrant

“Her darkest book yet - a compelling one-sitting read”

Sinéad Crowley

“Dark, brutal and brilliant”

Colette McBeth

“Utterly gripping, fast paced, and featuring my favourite sociopathic female character since Lady Macbeth

Louise O’Neill

Praise for Lying In Wait

"An extraordinary novel. Lying in Wait crackles and snaps like a bonfire on a winter’s night; you shudder even as you draw closer to it. Spellbinding.”

A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

“This is a whydunit, not a whodunit, and the real meat lies in Nugent’s exploration of motherhood, mental illness, and what could drive a person to murder… A page-turner chock full of lies and betrayals and a very creepy mother-son relationship.”

Kirkus Reviews

"It spoils nothing to tell you now that Lydia and Andrew Fitzsimons have murdered a young prostitute. Read this dark, captivating psychological thriller to find out why."

People

"Nugent tells a brilliant tale—taut, horrifying, chilling. Characters are vividly drawn... complex and fascinating. It is a dark tale, but there is enough dark humor to keep the reader from sinking in too deeply. The difficult part is tearing yourself away from it. If you like psychological thrillers, “Lying in Wait” is perfect."

Fredericksburg Free Lance Star

“A devastating psychological thriller... Lydia is the most intriguing puzzle; equal parts victim and villain, she simultaneously inspires pity, outrage, and horror. The result is an exquisitely uncomfortable, utterly captivating reading experience."

Starred Review Publishers Weekly

"I absolutely loved this astute, psychologically complex crime novel."

Crime By The Book

"Though we know Lydia and Andrew Fitzsimmons” big secret by the end of the first sentence of Nugent’s book, it’s why they did it that initially remains a mystery. The secret may be out, but the intrigue remains."

Brit + Co

“Nugent’s chilling tale of the sociopathic mind… Readers who love sinister psychological thrillers will tear through these pages to discover how far Lydia will go to keep her son at home, and what accidents will befall those who cross her.”

Starred Review Library Journal

“Taut, crisp, clear, a storm-warning of a book. It has the eeriness of The Turn of the Screw; but as these screws turn, a mighty tension takes hold. Masterly.”

Sebastian Barry, Laureate of Irish Fiction.

“Gone Girl fans will love Liz Nugent’s Lying in Wait ... it twists, it turns, its characters are utterly despicable and it is a compulsive triumph”

Stylist

“A stunningly talented writer”

Sophie Hannah

“The intricate plotting and jolting suspense hold you in a vice till the last page”

Sunday Times

“Clear your diary if you pick up this seductively sinister story. The twists come together in a superbly scary denouncement which delivers a final sting in the tail. Brilliantly macabre”

Sunday Mirror

“Brilliant plotting ratchets up the tension in this chilling tale of obsessive love, madness and motherhood”

Woman & Home

“The wit is sharp and the plot full of punishing twists”

The Times Crime Club

“An unputdownable psychological thriller with an ending that lingers long after turning the final page”

Irish Times

“An excellent example of "Domestic Noir" ... excitement and curiosity mount until you realise you can’t put the book down. Highly recommended.”

Literary Review

“A tense, taut, almost gothic thriller where the tension tightens to near unbearable proportions ... impossible to stop reading. A brilliantly written, stand-out novel”

Marian Keyes

“Deliciously twisted, shot through with dark and acid humour and the denouement is truly chilling”

Sarah Hilary

“Liz Nugent’s characters are as unforgettably monstrous as they are believable. A superbly crafted novel and an absorbing portrait of the purest kind of evil”

Jane Casey

“I thought it impossible to match the brilliant Unravelling Oliver, but this Liz has done. Not only is her style beautiful, but she keeps the reader on the edge of their seat from page one until the completely unexpected ending. I read Lying in Wait in one sitting. I just couldn’t bear the suspense. I absolutely loved it.”

Amanda Redman

“She writes compellingly, creates posh sociopaths like no-one else and doesn’t flinch when the end demands what it demands. Lying In Wait is a story you genuinely should not miss”

Rick O’Shea, RTÉ

“The characters are complex, the writing is dark and disturbing, and the story is just flat out creepy. This is the first novel I have read by Liz Nugent, but she is a mystery/thriller author that should be added to everyone’s shelves."

Dwell In Possibility

“Lying In Wait is one of those novels that keeps readers in a permanent state of imbalance. Just when you think you have things figured out, Nugent throws everything off-kilter again. Readers who first encountered Nugent’s work only recently will be thrilled with this new-to-us thriller --- and will be thronging for even more of her excellent work to make its way across the pond"

Bookreporter.com

Praise for Unravelling Oliver

“A page-turning, one-sitting read from a brand new master of psychological suspense”

Sunday Independent

“Compelling, clever and dark ... you’ll gobble it up”

Heat Magazine

“Persistently satisfying”

Sunday Times

“Formidable”

Irish Times

“I stayed awake until 3am to finish it”

Irish Independent

“Startlingly good”

Irish Examiner

“A superbly paced and shocking story"

Sunday Mirror

“The compulsion to continue reading never wanes ... a persistently satisfying read”

Sunday Times

Sophie Hannah

Sunday Independent

“Searing, searching, finally scorching. Think Making a Murderer via Patricia Highsmith: an elegant kaleidoscope novel that refines and combines multiple perspectives until its subject is brought into indelible, tragic focus”

A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Cabin 10

Marian Keyes, New York Times bestselling author

Rights Sold:

Unravelling Oliver: Penguin Ireland (UK Ireland, Commonwealth), Simon & Schuster (US),Simon & Schuster (Canada), Uab Baltu Lanku (China), Dobrovsky S.R. (Czech Republic), Rahva Raamat Ltd (Estonia),Editions Denoel (France), Bastei Lubbe, Gmbh & Co Kg (Germany), Psichogios Publication (Greece), Lettero Kiado (Hungary), Portfolio Publishing(Iceland), Neri Pozza(Italy), Eunhaengnamu Publishing Co(Korea),Uab Baltu Lanku (Lithuania), Storyside Ab, (Sweden) (Poland -Audio), Wielka Litera Sp. Z O.O. (Poland -Print), Marcador Editora (Portugal),Suma International (Spain)

Lying In Wait: Penguin Ireland (UK Ireland, Commonwealth), Simon & Schuster (US),Simon & Schuster (Canada), Ednorog Publishing (Bulgaria),Dobrovsky S.R.(Czech Republic),Editions Denoel(France),Steidl Gmbh & Co. Ohg (Germany),Lettero Kiado (Hungary),Storyside Ab, (Sweden)(Poland -Audio),Wielka Litera Sp. Z O.O. (Poland -Print),Modernista Group Ab (Sweden)

Skin Deep: Penguin Ireland (UK Ireland, Commonwealth), Steidl Gmbh & Co. Ohg (Germany), Storyside Ab, (Sweden) (Poland -Audio), Wielka Litera Sp. Z O.O., (Poland -Print), Modernista Group Ab (Sweden)

Our Little Cruelties: Penguin Ireland (UK Ireland, Commonwealth), Simon & Schuster (US), Ednorog Publishing (Bulgaria),Simon & Schuster (Canada), Steidl Gmbh & Co. Ohg (Germany)

Strange Sally Diamond: UK & Ire (Sandycove, Penguin). US (Simon & Schuster), Canada (Simon & Schuster) Arabic Logha Publishing and Distributing, Brazil (Editora Record Ltda), Bulgaria (Ednorog Publishers), China Simplified- (China United Sky (Beijing) New Media Co), Croatia (Stilus Knjiga d.o.o), Czech Republic (George Publishing s.r.), Estonia (Rahva Raamat AS), Finland (Sitruuna), France (Michel Lafon), Germany (Steidl GMBH & CO. OHG), Holland (A.W. Bruna Uitgevers), Hungary (Libri Konyvkiado Kft.), Italy (Vallardi Editore surl) Japan (K.K. HarperCollins), Latvia (Zvaigzne ABC Publishers Ltd, Lithuania (Alma Littera Ltd), Norway (Cappelen Damm AS), Poland (Znak Publishing House), Portugal (Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial), Romania (S.C. Crime Scene Press), Russia (Eksmo), Serbia (Maja Trifović PR Only Smiley), Slovak (Vydavateľstvo Motýľ, s.r.o), Slovenia (HKZ, hiša knjig in zgodb d.o.o), Spain (Duomo Ediciones), Sweden (Bokförlaget Forum), Turkey (Olimpos Yayinlari), Ukraine (Book Club “Family Leisure Club”)

Western European enquiries to Vicki Satlow Literary Agency

‘An Irishman Abroad’ podcast

Liz Nugent

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