The Detective Lottie Parker Series: Books 1-3


Patricia Gibney - 2019
     The first three thrillers from million copy bestseller Patricia Gibney, introducing you to maverick Detective Lottie Parker. The Missing Ones: The hole they dug was not deep. A white flour bag encased the little body. Three small faces watched from the window, eyes black with terror. The child in the middle spoke without turning his head. ‘I wonder which one of us will be next?’ When a woman’s body is discovered in a cathedral and hours later a young man is found hanging from a tree outside his home, Detective Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. The trail leads Lottie to St Angela’s, a former children’s home, with a dark connection to her own family history. Suddenly the case just got personal. As Lottie begins to link the current victims to unsolved murders decades old, two teenage boys go missing. She must close in on the killer before they strike again, but in doing so is she putting her own children in terrifying danger? Lottie is about to come face to face with a twisted soul who has a very warped idea of justice. The Stolen Girls: The young woman standing on Lottie’s step was a stranger. She was clutching the hand of a young boy. ‘Help me,’ she said to Lottie. ‘Please help me.’ One Monday morning, the body of a young pregnant woman is found. The same day, a mother and her son visit the house of Detective Lottie Parker, begging for help to find a lost friend. Could this be the same girl? When two more girls are found dead, Lottie is forced to put the demons of her own past aside to catch a very clever killer before they claim another victim … The Lost Child: ‘Let me out! Please…’ My tiny fists pound the door, but my voice reverberates off the stone walls and hangs in the air as if suspended by spider’s webs. No one comes... Years later, a woman is found face-down in a pool of blood. Detective Lottie Parker is called to the remote farmhouse in the bleak Irish countryside. A black rain jacket makes Lottie think she knows the killer’s identity, but then she finds a disturbing clue: is the murder linked to an old case at St Declan’s asylum? A case investigated by her own father, just before he took his life. When another victim is left for dead, and a young girl goes missing, Lottie knows she has to act fast. Can she uncover the truth before another life is taken? This gripping series will have you up in the small hours turning the pages. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Rachel Caine and Rachel Abbott will love the Detective Lottie Parker Series. Read what everyone is saying about the Detective Lottie Parker books: ‘OMG it is a cracking book!! … Patricia Gibney is my favourite author at the moment and my best find of the year – this book was fantastic, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ Donna's Book Blog, 5 stars ‘WOW.

Brits: The War Against The IRA


Peter Taylor - 2001
    Third part of trilogy documenting modern-day Northern Ireland, by the author of Provos and Loyalists

The Brothers' Lot


Kevin Holohan - 2011
    . . is grounded by a shadow play of macabre references to horrors that ghost around the edges of the narrative, many eerily similar to some of the more infamous real life reports that have emerged in recent years."-- The Irish Times Combining the spirit of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim with a bawdy evisceration of hypocrisy in old-school Catholic education, The Brothers' Lot is a comic satire that tells the story of the Brothers of Godly Coercion School for Young Boys of Meager Means, a dilapidated Dickensian institution run by an assemblage of eccentric, insane, and often nasty celibate Brothers. The school is in decline and the Brothers hunger for a miracle to move their founder, the Venerable Saorseach O'Rahilly, along the path to Sainthood.When a possible miracle presents itself, the Brothers fervently seize on it with the help of the ethically pliant Diocesan Investigator, himself hungry for a miracle to boost his career. The school simultaneously comes under threat from strange outside forces. The harder the Brothers try to defend the school, the worse things seem to get. It takes an outsider, Finbar Sullivan, a young student newly arrived at the school, to see that the source of the threat may in fact lie inside the school itself. As the miracle unravels, the Brothers' efforts to preserve it unleash a disastrous chain of events.Tackling a serious subject from the oblique viewpoint of satire, The Brothers' Lot explores the culture that allowed abuses within church-run institutions in Ireland to go unchecked for decades.

The Promise: the most emotional and uplifting book that will break your heart in 2021


Emma Heatherington - 2021
    

A Doctor's War


Aidan MacCarthy - 1979
    En route back to Japan in 1944, his ship was torpedoed but he was rescued by a whaling boat and re interned in Japan. His life was literally saved by the dropping of the Nagasaki atom bomb. He was then eyewitness to the horror and devastation it caused. This is an almost incredible account written with humour and dignity. Pete McCarthy This book is an epic. Sir Dennis Spotswood, Marshal of the RAF His description is terrifying but fascinating. Air Marshal Sir William Coles"

The Existential Worries of Mags Munroe


Jean Grainger - 2022
    My twelve-year-old daughter frequently moans that Ballycarrick is the most boring town in Ireland.Nothing ever happens here.She’s right.And as the local police sergeant, this is something I’m delighted about.I’ve enough to worry about - the polar ice-caps, the evil monster that’s shrinking my trousers, not to mention the hot flushes - without having to be like one of those gritty Netflix cops, chasing criminals down alleyways and busting drug deals.So, life is calm and fairly predictable.Until something unthinkable happens in our sleepy backwater.A crime, but not like anything I've ever seen before.It's a complete mystery.And it's up to me to solve it.

Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland


Anne Cadwallader - 2013
    Four families each lost three relatives; in other cases, children were left orphaned after both parents were murdered. For years there were claims that loyalists were helped and guided by members of the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment. But, until now, there was no proof. Drawing on 15 years of research, and using forensic and ballistic information never before published, this book includes official documents showing that the highest in the land knew of the collusion and names those whose fingers were on the trigger and who detonated the bombs. It draws on previously unpublished reports written by the PSNI's own Historical Enquiries Team. It also includes heartbreaking interviews with the bereaved families whose lives were shattered by this cold and calculated campaign.

The Promise of Light: A Novel


Paul Watkins - 1992
    Determined to learn the truth about his family's cloudy past, he sets sail for Ireland, and quickly becomes involved in a struggle between soldiers of the newly formed Irish Republican Army and the brutal British troops. Amidst the lush and rugged Irish countryside, and the horrible violence unfolding across it, Ben must search for the truth of his identity, and the ties of his family's blood.

Kilbrack


Jamie O'Neill - 2003
    For the past eleven years, which is as far back as he can remember, O'Leary has been sustained by two people: his girlfriend, Mary, traumatized by O'Leary's neuroses, and Nancy Valentine, author of "Ill Fares the Land." Her memoir of an idyllic childhood in Kilbrack ends as she returns to the village after inexplicable banishment and finds it abandoned.Now Mary has left him, and O'Leary finds himself homeless and laboring under an ill-starred fate. With his treasured copy of "Ill Fares the Land," he arrives in the dilapidated village of Kilbrack and finds it hasn't been abandoned at all: thin old Downey, the pharmacist, is still dispensing medicines and advice; Nellie Maguire is still languishing in her pub; and stout Mrs. Cuthbert, still frenzied, arranges for O'Leary to marry her daughter, who has vowed to become a nun.What has happened to Kilbrack? O'Leary's coming will change everything, but in a manner no one -- in his right mind -- could foretell.

Unsettled


Rosaleen McDonagh - 2021
    Unsettled explores racism, ableism, abuse and resistance as well as the bonds of community, family and friendship. As an Irish Traveller writing from a feminist perspective, McDonagh’s essays are rich and complex, raw and honest, and, above all else, uncompromising.Praise for UnsettledDon’t read this memoir in sorrow and outrage, read it because Rosaleen McDonagh is so proud, smart and ingenious, she will make you feel more properly alive. Beautifully written, this book beats back the darkness. It brings us all further on. — Anne EnrightMoving and eloquent, this collection is both the story of one woman’s life and a work of profound literary activism. — Emilie PineRosaleen’s story is her story. It’s a very important story and she has a right to tell it. Rosaleen demonstrates, contrary to some settled people’s opinion, that our community is matriarchal, our mothers are so resourceful, and we are not victims. The book is a testimony to the importance of identity and belonging. — Anne BurkeLike James Baldwin before her, this work is a ferociously honest exploration of the intricacies of racism, identity, sexuality, disability, grief, sensuality and marginalisation. It is also a beautiful piece of prose; honest and difficult and deeply moving. This book sees Rosaleen McDonagh masterfully taking all the parts of her life and fitting them together brilliantly for us. A must read. — Mark O’HalloranEmotive, honest and raw. Rosaleen McDonagh takes us on a journey of self acceptance, a journey that sees her face challenging obstacles and setbacks; as well as meeting friends and allies who help her to carve out a place in which she belongs. Unsettled is not only the recount of personal experiences but an authentic glimpse of Traveller life and culture as well as Rosaleen’s very sense of identity. — Michael Power

Grey Skies, Green Waves: A Surfer's Journey Around the UK and Ireland


Tom Anderson - 2010
    But a chance encounter leads him to a series of adventures on home surf. As he visits the popular haunts and secret gems of British surfing he meets the Christians who pray for waves (and get them), loses a competition to a non–existent surfer, is nearly drowned in the River Severn, and has a watery encounter with a pedigree sheep. All this rekindles his love affair with the freezing fun that is surfing the North Atlantic.

Near and Dear


Pamela Evans - 1997
    But their wonderful lifestyle comes to a dramatic end when Mick's business runs into trouble and he suddenly disappears. Faced with poverty and homelessness, Jane discovers she has unexpected strengths and is capable of being more than just a housewife...

The Bogman


Walter Macken - 1972
    Walter Macken paints a memorable portrait of the hard life of subsistence farming, of loveless arranged marriages, and of rebellion against suffocating social mores.

The Boston Irish: A Political History


Thomas H. O'Connor - 1995
    This book offers a history of Boston's Irish community.

PRINCESS DIANA: The True Story of the People’s Princess


Katy Holborn - 2017
     Lady Diana Spencer. One time wife of the heir to the throne and mother to two sons, one of whom will most probably one day be king. Challenger to the established protocols of the monarchy, a woman determined to do it her way. Trend setter, humanitarian, darling of the public. A person who appeared to have everything but whose life would end in tragedy at just thirty-six years of age. The People’s Princess…this is her story.