PI Harry Kenmare heads for the town of Kenmare in County Kerry!

Copyright:  Above photo from County of Kerry Library website.

PI Harry Kenmare - possibly one of the hardest living private eyes you'll come across in the realms of hard-boiled crime fiction.  And he's my main man - a flawed hero who loves women, booze, and tobacco.  He loves justice and hates political correctness.  And he's no fan of the Establishment.  I'm liking him already!

If you've been at any of my public talks as an author, then you may have heard the question asked as to how Harry's name came about - it's been asked a few times.
I chose "Harry" for a good strong first name, and I think it suits this type of detective character well.
As for his surname, "Kenmare", we have to look to Ireland and my own heritage.  I have a number of Irish lines in my ancestry.  Five generations ago, Mr Patterson came from Belfast to the then colony of New South Wales.  But generationally my closest Irish link, and my Irish citizenship source, was a great-grandma who hailed from Kenmare in County Kerry (see the map).
So it occurred to me in a flash one day late last year that Kenmare probably had a town library and how fitting would it be for the Harry Kenmare novels to be right there in the town for the Kenmare residents to enjoy (depending on reading tastes, of course!)
I made contact with the County Kerry Library Service and indeed the good folk at Kenmare Library (pictured at left) were keen for Harry to join their collection.
So today a parcel left Sydney headed for Kenmare with my donated copies to entertain any crime fiction fans in Kenmare.
​And since a trip around the Emerald Isle is high on my priority list, at some stage soon I'll hopefully be able to give an author talk to the town of Kenmare.
Cheers,
ABP