Turbulent Priests - Softcover

Bateman, Colin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006498019 ISBN 13: 9780006498018

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

Synopsis

Dan Starkey investigates the birth of a new Messiah on a small island off the coast of Ireland.

Back together with his wife Patricia and the baby – Little Stevie – that resulted from her affair, Dan accepts a curious commission from Cardinal Daley to investigate the tiny island of Wrathlin, where the inhabitants appear to believe that the new Messiah has been born. The child in question turns out to be a girl called Christine, and the local population has become as defensive and generally crazy as the cast of The Crucible. At first it’s just funny for Dan and Trish, but fairly soon the mood turns very much darker.

Packed with Bateman’s trademarket mixture of jokes, shocks and tenderness, Turbulent Priests is his best novel yet.

About this title

Review:

Divorcing Jack:
‘A joy from start to finish... Witty, fast-paced and throbbing with menace, Divorcing Jack reads like The Thirty-Nine Steps rewritten for the
‘90s by Roddy Doyle’
Time Out

Cycle of Violence:
‘Bateman’s is the ultimate word on the insanity of the Troubles: no one has done it better’
Scotland on Sunday

Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men:
‘Fast, furious, riotously funny and at the end, never a dry eye in the house’
Mail on Sunday

Empire State:
‘A hugely enjoyable novel... blessed with a beautiful sense of irony... It’s like Carl Hiaasen, Tom Wolfe, and Roddy Doyle at their best’
The Herald

From the Back Cover:

Dan Starkey and his wife Patrician have decided to make a go of their marriage, which means that Dan must assume responsibility for a baby – Little Stevie – that is not his.. The three of them look like having plenty of time together when Dan Dan accepts an unusual commission – to investigate the situation on tiny Wrathlin Island, off the Irish coast. Dan is supposed to report on the villager's claim that the Messiah has been born on Wrathlin, in the shape of a little girl called Christine.

At first, the rural idyll is little more than a comic interlude, but it seems that wherever Dan goes, murder and mayhem – not to mention religious fundamentalism, adultery and alcoholism – cannot be far behind.

'Turbulent Priests' is Colin Bateman writing at the height of his powers.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0006498019
• ISBN 13: 9780006498018
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288