Blood Ties - Brian McGilloway

 

New book in Ben Devlin series by Brian McGilloway

Brian McGilloway won huge acclaim last year with the brilliant novel THE LAST CROSSING, before that he wrote a series of books featuring Ben Devlin a maverick of sorts in the police force near the borderlands of Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland with all the political ramifications that go with the character's proximity.

The Last Crossing was a standalone novel and a mediation on the coping of grief when one event can haunt you but also set you on a path in your life with no looking back.

On more familiar ground with a returning lead protagonist, Devlin is investigating a case that also looks back at the past and how it can have such a grip on people. 

'How can a dead woman avenge herself on her killer twenty years after her murder?'

That is the question posed to Devlin as he investigates a murdered body in a bedsit, a chill washes over him when the identity of the victim is Brooklyn Harris. Devlin knew of the case when Harris was convicted of murdering one Hannah Row on a night out which included sexual assault of the young victim on that occasion. As a minor, Harris was granted a new name when released from prison and yet his passing throws light on the question of how to grief for any victim, irrespective of the nefarious nature of the person involved.

As Devlin attempts to investigate he finds obstacles by people and colleagues who feel that particular victim - Harris - should be buried as quickly as possible in essence good riddance to bad criminals. 

McGilloway crafts a novel full of intrigue and compulsion, touching on religion, the pressure on the youth from peers, vigilant justice against sexual assaulters in the social media age and Devlin having to cope with the impending Covid-19 pandemic upon his loved ones especially his ailing father who he removes from a care home and takes in to be near him.

The swiftness with which McGilloway can go from one narrative thread to another so neatly and succinctly is a skill that familiar readers will be aware of but new readers will greatly appreciate.

A writer of real intelligence has again created a work of fiction that is both real and emotive basing it within a very familiar world as the fear of a pandemic takes over, but a gripping and entertaining crime read of real nous and skill

Blood Ties is available now on all formats.

My thanks to DHH Literary Agency for the review opportunity.

Brian McGilloway Q&A

Last week I reviewed the new release from Brian McGilloway, the New York Times Bestselling author, with his new thriller The Last Crossing. A stand alone novel that looks at how actions can have ever lasting consequences.

After excitedly reading the book, the author granted me the pleasure of an interview which I can share with you now.

What was the genesis of The Last Crossing following your series of books, why a standalone novel now?

With each book, I simply write the story I want to tell. Usually, that fits in to one of the two series, but with this book it didn’t. I liked the idea of looking at 3 ordinary people who do something terrible for what they all believe to be justified reasons and who have to face that again 30 years later. I was interested in how each would have changed, how what they had done would have changed them, and the manner in which each had attempted or failed to reconcile themselves with what they had done. From the beginning, I knew this wasn’t going to be a police procedural, nor did I want it to be.

How easy was it to juggle the two timelines was it like writing two stories at same time or separately then edited?

No, I wrote one straight into the next using concatenation where the final phrase of one chapter opens the next. It was to create continuity between past and present and also to link the two more closely. It’s a technique used in a medieval poem called The Pearl which I’ve tried to use a few times before – most obviously in Little Girl Lost where I had two narratives connected in this way in the first draft. After hitting a block about three quarters of the way through, I realised it wasn’t working for that book and removed both it and the entire second narrative. I’ve been wanting to use it since and thankfully, in this book, the technique suited the structure and theme more obviously and finally worked for me. I found using it helped create impetus in the actual writing of the novel.

You are from Londonderry, the Troubles was more a way of life than a snapshot, was it easy to write about from memory having been born there?

I love Derry and am very proud to have grown up there. It suffered a lot through the years of violence to the extent that its personality and sense of identity have been changed by it in some ways. That reflects the way in which all of us who grew up through it were similarly changed by it in ways – some more obviously than others. The book, I hope, reflects the various gradations of impact the violence had on the various characters.

The story is about looking back at life's regrets do you have any?

I suppose we all have moments of wondering ‘what if?’ – the Road Not Taken moments. With the story between Tony and Karen, I’d say the influence of Tom Waits’ Martha is there – someone looking back on how their life’s course has gone in a completely different course from the one they’d expected and how we react when faced with that realisation as we meet someone we once loved. Larkin’s Dockery and Son deals with a similar moment of terrible clarity. My own regrets tend to focus on friendships lost more than choices not made – we all make our choices and live with them after all. I’m very lucky and blessed in so many ways, it would be churlish to regret.

What are your hopes for the book? 

It’s a book of which I’m quite protective. I just hope it finds any kind of readership and finds kindred souls to whom it speaks. It’s a challenge to get people reading Northern Irish fiction, so finding someone who’d not ordinarily have read fiction from here would be a bonus!

Did the speed and economy of the book come from editing or down to the jumping back and forth of timelines to induce this whip crack nature of looking back and forward ?

I suspect it’s a reflection of how I write. The book was written very quickly once I got started – and benefitted from the support of a number of friends and crime writing peers who read it and encouraged me along the way. I tend to write in short bursts – maybe an hour or so per day – and aim to keep things moving. I get bored with slow narratives myself, if I’m honest.

Do you miss teaching full time?

No – I still teach full time. I took a sabbatical for two years when my kids were younger to help look after them but have been back teaching for 5 years now. I still love it – though it does make writing a book a year almost impossible for me at least, thus the longer break between books. The characterisation of the younger character in the novel who drives the other three around was informed by great advice from a group of my former students who’ve all kept in contact with each other and me. It’s a privilege to introduce young minds to great literature for the first time and to spend your days talking about books you love.

What advice would you give to any would be authors?

Trust your instincts. Read widely, but don’t try to guess the market or write for the market – instead produce a work of which you are proud and can stand over and it’ll find a readership eventually. Writing is about connecting with a reader – the size of the readership will vary from book to book, but the essential connection stays the same and that’s the important bit.

How have you coped with self-isolation?

We’ve four kids so with six of us in the house altogether it’s been pretty busy. Plus I’m still teaching remotely, so the days pass quickly enough. I’ve great plans to get another book written and to read loads: I’m chipping away slowly at both…

My thanks to Dome Press for the review opportunity.

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.

Sleeping Dogs

Mark O'Sullivan returns with the second of his Inspector Leo Woods mysteries, Sleeping Dogs, as we re-acquaint ourselves with the middle-aged Dublin police officer who is also a former UN peacekeeper who has a drug habit and suffers with the disfigurement of Bell's Palsy.

Woods' new case revolves around the shooting of gangland leader, Harry Larkin, who has been shot three times and is dying in a Dublin hospital.  Whilst ranting in his final moments of lucidity, he speaks to nurse Eveleen, 'find my daughter, Whitney'.

So begins the caper as Whitney a gangster's daughter has gone missing, a hit and run accident is linked to the shooting of Harry, and whilst Leo along with his partner Helen Troy, start digging they find more and more secrets about the Larkin's family history as acts of abuse and murder rear its ugly head.

O'Sullivan brings a calm to his writing, never rushing scenes with dialogue when not necessary, establishing scenes and landscape with great purpose.  However, at times the plotting can get a bit confusing in terms of recalling the timeline of past events with the present day; and the inclusion of a deaf lead protagonist is whilst novel a bit endangering to any screen adaptation.  Also the possible love interest for Leo never materialises and is somewhat dismissed quickly without a real explanation.

That being said, Leo Woods is a great leading character; feisty, tough, bold and funny whilst still being world weary. The world of police politics is prevalent and acutely obtained in the depiction of Woods' superintendent who has ambitions of a pundit on Irish television's own Crimewatch; and the cast of characters allows for more stories to be told. This reader for one would like to see more of Woods and Troy together, as they spend a lot of this narrative apart due to procedures.

Do not let sleeping dogs lie, in fact you will struggle to put the book down.

Sleeping Dogs is out now in Hardback from Random House and Transworld Publishers