The Last Crossing - Brian McGilloway

The new novel by New York Times Bestselling author, Brian McGilloway, THE LAST CROSSING is out in April 2020 from Dome Press.

It is always fascinating how writers totally miss your radar, perhaps it is the region you live in, maybe you only like crime and legal thrillers so if someone likes only Jojo Moyes or Mike Gayle they may never have picked up a John Grisham or Lee Child.

Being a book blog reviewer and living part-time on book-Twitter (does Twitter have a PO Box for my postage), you see threads and trends quicker than you would if you relied upon magazines or book clubs as you may have done 20 years previously.  The growth of book reading has increased by the advent of kindles and other reading devices being available. As a reader, I give myself a challenge of percentage now, minimum 10% a sitting, a winning book is one that makes me forget about those short-term goals and next thing you know a quarter of the book has been consumed.

By making contacts on book twitter you get links and emails a plenty, one such piece of luck was this title THE LAST CROSSING being extended to me by Dome Press. As a well read person, I have never heard of McGilloway and upon research the reason is that he is from Ireland. A fine country with a distinctive history of crime and thriller writing, but his name is not one familiar to English writers, despite him being the author of ten novels to date, this is his first standalone novel following the DS Lucy Black thrillers and Inspector Devlin mysteries.

Brian McGilloway - Author of The Last Crossing

Personally, though this is a great book. This reader consumed this book in approximately three sittings, the writer creating a simple story with the now familiar two parallel storylines taking place thirty years apart featuring the same set of characters as a big decision.

Set in Northern Ireland, but with the majority of action being focused to a forest in remote Scotland, McGilloway takes the story of four individuals drawn together by the troubles in Derry and how they can be resolved. Sometimes the truth cannot be buried for long; and it stays with you as McGilloway attests to in this episode of The Essay on BBC Radio 3.

Tony, Hugh and Karen thought they had seen the last of each other thirty years previously, yet the past comes back to haunt them again. So on another journey together to lay ghosts to rest, the three come to terms with their actions from before and learn a bit more about themselves and each other.

The internal journey Tony must travel is a well told one, yet McGilloway has crafted a tale built around the central theme of cliché - ghosts from the past, regret of actions, loss and the impact of memory - yet a tale that is unlike anything digested before.

The Last Crossing is quite simply a brilliant piece of fiction, which is both gripping and riveting in equal measure.  The story is so economical you forget how much detail he weaves into each page making the narrative zip along at a pace that is at times breakneck and necessary.

Cannot recommend this novel highly enough.

The Last Crossing is out from Dome Press on April 2nd 2020.

My thanks to Dome Press for the review opportunity.