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CRIME:Blood MoneyBy Arlene Hunt Hachette Books Ireland, 352pp. £12.99 and The CourierBy Ava McCarthy HarperCollins, 500pp. £6.99

NOW THAT THE fizz has gone out of chick lit and paperbacks with pink covers no longer dominate the bestseller lists, popular fiction has tilted in the direction of crime, with Irish women writers taking on the murder and mayhem that’s the stock in trade of the genre.