Synopsis:
When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland's west coast, he brings only his handsome face, a photograph of his too-young, long-lost mother, and a determination to do battle with the village's lies. Mahony also somehow wakes the dead from their graves, those folk who once lived here, with their foggy memories and hidden stories, floating greyly amongst the unseeing living. No one though - living or dead - will tell what happened to the teenage mother who abandoned him as a baby. Despite Mahony's certainty that more than one of them knows. Between Mulderrig's sly priest, an implacable nurse and a caustic elderly actress throwing herself into her final village play, this beautiful and blackly comic debut novel creates in crystal-clear, musical language an unforgettable world of strange kindnesses, bloody violence and buried secrets.
Review:
"Diabolical deeds, ferociously kept secrets, black humour and magical realism abound in Jess Kidd's richly textured, thronging debut . . . Kidd has imagination to die for and a real command of plot and character" (Guardian)
"Very funny, very profound, very moving . . . One of the finest books of the year" (SIMON MAYO)
"Kidd's brilliantly bold debut mixes up murder and mayhem with the eerily supernatural. It's a tender, violent and funny story told in prose that is lyrical, lush and hugely imaginative. Utterly unputdownable" (Sunday Express Magazine)
"I love this book. It's a magic realist murder mystery set in rural Ireland, in which the dead play as important a part as the living. It's one of those books that has you smiling as you read, and that you plan to read again very soon." (LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin)
"This striking literary debut is a darkly comic tale of murder, intrigue, haunting and illegitimacy . . . wickedly funny" (Daily Express)
"Wonderfully entertaining . . . the ghosts are not the main attraction in this delightful first novel; it is also a detective story, in which Mahony and Mrs C make an unlikely Holmes and Watson" (The Times)
"An intriguing story of family secrets and haunting" (ANDREW MICHAEL HURLEY, author of The Loney)
"In lyrical prose that is by turns touchingly tender and violent, Kidd's brilliantly bold debut mixes murder and mayhem with the eerily supernatural, and throws in a dash of laugh-out-loud humour for good measure" (Psychologies)
"Himself is a sort of Under Milk Wood meets The Third Policeman meets Agatha Christie. It's a highly unusual tale set in a highly unusual Irish village full of dark secrets and engaging characters (not all of them still alive). Lushly imagined, delightfully original and very, very funny, it hurtles along from the very first page. A hugely enjoyable read. I can't wait for more from Jess Kidd" (ML STEDMAN, author of The Light Between Oceans)
"A rollicking tale of a hero's return . . . breaking down the barriers between mystery story and comedy of manners, mixing magical realism and crime fiction" (Guardian)
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