'That is the only time when you get silence in a post-mortem room, when you're dealing with a case like that'- Dr Marie Cassidy on effects of career

"Terry O'Brien, the main character in Deadly Evidence, the new crime novel by Dr Marie Cassidy, is "probably my ­alter-ego", admits the former state pathologist for Ireland. But who is Dr Marie ­Cassidy? At the end of a lively and engaging conversation in Dún Laoghaire last week, I was none the wiser. She certainly wasn't the person I was expecting."

""I'm a conundrum," she says. "I'm not what people think. They think I'm somebody who is very confident and very self-assured. That's not me. There's a persona that I put on in the morning - high heels, lipstick and off I go.""

Dr Marie Cassidy served as Ireland's state pathologist and later transitioned into bestselling crime fiction and occasional reality television appearances. Her novel Deadly Evidence features protagonist Terry O'Brien, presented as an alter-ego that channels elements of Cassidy's experience. Cassidy describes herself as a conundrum who projects confidence through a morning persona—high heels and lipstick—while privately feeling less self-assured. She recounts an emotional boundary with forensic work, noting that she cried only once during a post-mortem. Public visibility now blends professional forensic authority with literary and media roles.

Read at Independent