Irish Fiction Week Review: Peeler by Kevin McCarthy

Title: Peeler
Author: Kevin McCarthy
Publisher: The Mercier Press
Publication Date: 1st May 2010
Pages: 479
ISBN: 9781856356596
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

West Cork. November 1920. The Irish War of Independence rages. The body of a young woman is found brutally murdered on a windswept hillside; a scrapboard sign covering her mutilated body reads 'TRATOR'. Traitor.

Acting Sergeant Séan O'Keefe of the Royal Irish Constabulary, a wounded veteran of the Great War, is assigned to investigate the crime, aided by sinister detectives sent from Dublin Castle to ensure he finds the killer, just so long as the killer he finds best serves the purposes of the crown in Ireland. . . The IRA has instigated its own investigation into the young woman's death, assigning young Volunteer Liam Farrell - failed gunman and former law student- to the task of finding a killer it cannot allow to be one of its own.

Unknown to each other, the RIC Constable and the IRA Volunteer relentlessly pursue the truth behind the savage killing, their investigations taking them from the bullet-pocked lanes and thriving brothels of a war-torn Cork city to the rugged, deadly hills of West Cork, both seeking a killer, both seeking to stay alive in a time where murder's as common as rain and no one knows a thing about it, even when they do.

Irish Fiction Week Review: The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll

Title: The Granny (Agnes Browne, #3)
Author: The Granny
Publisher: O'Brien Press
Publication Date: 7th October 1996
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781847173249
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

The final book in the Agnes Browne trilogy.

At forty-seven years of age Agnes, now thirteen years happily widowed, enters the 1980s with a fruit stall in Moore Street, a French lover and six children, five of them in their twenties.

Becoming a grandmother is a terrible shock to her system, especially as Agnes suffers every one of her daughter-in-law's labour pains! And as the family expands so do the problems -one son's inevitable brush with the law, the heartbreak of emigration. But Agnes Browne is nothing if not a fighter, and she squares her shoulders, offers up a quick one to her departed pal, Marion, and sets about getting things back on an even keel - or as even as things ever get in the Brown household!

Irish Fiction Week Review: Last Kiss by Louise Phillips

Title: Last Kiss (Kate Pearson, #3)
Author: Louise Phillips
Publisher: Hachette Ireland
Publication Date: 7th August 2014
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9781444789379
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

In a quiet suburb, a woman desperately clings to her sanity as a shadowy presence moves objects around her home.

In a hotel room across the city, an art dealer with a dubious sexual past is found butchered, his body arranged to mimic the Hangman card from the Tarot deck.

When criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson is brought in to help investigate the murder, she finds herself plunged into a web of sexual power and evil which spreads from Dublin to Paris, and then to Rome.

Will Kate discover the identity of the killer before it's too late to protect the innocent? But what separates the innocent from the guilty when the sins of the past can never be forgotten?

Irish Fiction Week Review: The Chisellers by Brendan O'Carroll

Title: The Chisellers (Agnes Browne, #2)
Author: Brendan O'Carroll
Publisher: O'Brien Press
Publication Date: 4th August 2012 (1st: 1995)
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781847173232
Source: Purchased
Rating: /5
Purchase: Amazon

Continuing the hilarious saga of the ups and downs, minor scrapes and major run-ins of the seven children of Agnes Browne, The Mammy of the bestselling novel of the same name. Full of joy, humour, pathos and the raw vernacular of the Dublin streets.

Agnes Browne and her seven 'chisellers' take on the world … and win!

It's three years since Redser's death and Agnes Browne soldiers on, being mother, father and referee to her fighting family of seven. Helped out financially by her eldest, and hormonally by the amorous Pierre, Agnes copes with family tragedy, success and the move from the Jarro to the 'wilds of the country' -- suburban Finglas.

And when the family's dreams are threatened by an unscrupulous gangster he learns a costly lesson -- don't mess with the children of Agnes Browne!

Irish Fiction Week Review: The Doll's House by Louise Phillips

Title: The Doll's House (Dr. Kate Pearson, #2)
Author: Louise Phillips
Publisher: Hachette Ireland
Publication Date: 1st August 2013
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9781444743067
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Thirty-five years ago Adrian Hamilton drowned. At the time his death was reported as a tragic accident but the exact circumstances remained a mystery.

Now his daughter Clodagh, trying to come to terms with her past, visits a hypnotherapist who unleashes disturbing childhood memories of her father's death. And as Clodagh delves deeper into her subconscious, memories of another tragedy come to light - the death of her baby sister.

Meanwhile criminal psychologist Dr Kate Pearson is called in to help in the investigation of a murder after a body is found in a Dublin canal. When Kate digs beneath the surface of the killing, she discovers a sinister connection to the Hamilton family.

What terrible events took place in the Hamilton house all those years ago? And what connect them to the recent murder? Time is running out for Clodagh and Kate, and the killer has already chosen his next victim...

Irish Fiction Week Review: When Sorrows Come by Matt McGuire

Title: When Sorrows Come (DS, O'Neill, #2)
Author: Matt McGuire
Publisher: C & R Crime
Publication Date: 1st May 2014
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781780338323
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 3.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Belfast, 2am, Tomb Street. A young man lies dead in an alley. Cracked ribs, broken jaw, fractured skull. With the Celtic Tiger purring and the Troubles in their death throes, Detective Sergeant John O'Neill is called to investigate. Meanwhile O'Neill's partner, DI Jack Ward, a veteran troubles detective, is receiving death threats from an unknown source...

Irish Fiction Week Review: The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll

Title: The Mammy (Agnes Browne, #1)
Author: Brendan O'Carroll
Publisher: O'Brien Press
Publication Date: 18th November 2011 (1st: 1994)
Pages: 176
ISBN: 9781847173225
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Agnes Browne is a widow of only a few hours when she goes to the Social Welfare Office. Living in James Larkin Flats, with Redsers' legacy - seven little Brownes - to support on the income from her Moore Street stall, she can't afford to miss a day's pension. Life is like that for Agnes and her best pal Marion. But they still have time for a laugh and a jar, and Agnes even has a dream - that one day she will dance with Cliff Richard.

The Mammy describes the life and times, the joys and sorrows of Agnes, mother of the famous Mrs. Browne's Boys from the daily radio soap. A book of hilarious incidents, glorious characters, and a passion for life, it is written with a sure touch and great ear for dialogue.

Irish Fiction Week Review: Red Ribbons by Louise Phillips

Title: Red Ribbons
Author: Louise Phillips
Publisher: Hachette Ireland
Publication Date: 3rd September 2012
Pages: 413
ISBN: 9781444743029
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

A SERIAL KILLER: When the body of a missing schoolgirl is found buried in the Dublin Mountains, her hands clasped together in prayer, two red ribbons in her hair, the hunt for her killer reaches epic proportion with the discovery of a second girl's body 24 hours later.

THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Desperate to find the murderer, police call in criminal psychologist Kate Pearson, to get inside the mind of the serial killer before he strikes again. But the more Kate discovers about the killings, the more it all begins to feel terrifyingly familiar as her own past threatens to cloud her investigations.

AN ACCUSED WOMAN: Ellie Brady has been institutionalised for 15 years, for the killing of her twelve-year-old daughter, Amy. After all this time, does Ellie hold the key to finding the killer of the Dublin schoolgirls?

What would you do if you were accused of killing your own daughter? What if those closest to you turned their back on you? And when everyone stopped listening, what next, when even you believe you're guilty?