Brendan Gerad O'Brien was born in Tralee, on the west coast of Ireland and now lives in Newport, South Wales with his wife Jennifer and daughters Shelly and Sarah.

As a child he spent his summer holidays in Listowel, Co Kerry, where his uncle Moss Scanlon had a Harness Maker's shop, now long gone.

The shop was a magnet for all sorts of colourful characters. It was there that his love of words was kindled by the stories of John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon, who often wandered into the shop for a chat and bit of jovial banter.

After serving nine years in the Royal Navy, Brendan progressed to retail management, working as a Department manager with the UK's second largest Supermarket.

Now retired, his hobby is writing short stories, twenty of which have already been published individually over the years, and also as a collection called Dreamin Dreams

Dark September is his first full novel, and Gallows Field is the first time we meet Eamon Foley in a murder mystery set in Ireland in 1941

A Pale Moon Was Rising is the next story to feature Eamon Foley, now with the Gardai investigating another murder in Tralee, Co Kerry.