Ardal O'Hanlon

It reads like you would expect Ardal O'Hanlon to sound if he was telling you the story in person. Full of colloquial Irishisms and idioms it took me a little while to get into the rhythm of it and then I was off. It's a story of a man, Philip Sharkey who comes home from travelling abroad to go to his friend's funeral, finds that his friend has some clues about their mutual friends mysterious disappearance and the investigation brings up a lot of old wounds and, as it's a border town, messy political stuff that a few people would like to keep hidden.
I know that a lot of old wounds and political issues are still alive and well about the troubles (heck there are still old wounds about the civil war in Ireland) and you could see how the various events are pretty close to what could have happened in a small village near the border.
I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more by Ardal.… (mais)

Many years ago Sandra Mohan went missing and her small town rallied round. However a local journalist wrote an expose of life in the area and made conclusions about Sandra's disappearance. Now one of the possible suspects is dead, his friend has returned from exile for the funeral and is left a strange graphic novel in which the disappearance is explained. As the friend, the journalist and a local retired police officer combine to solve the mystery, they uncover hidden secrets in the border town of Tullyanna
This is a complex novel and it requires perseverance to get into the style of writing and the plot. however once hooked then the story is great. A small town with secrets, linked to The Troubles and still influencing local politics today. It's exciting and dark and very rewarding.… (mais)

Had I not read Angela’s Ashes then this would have been unique and would have totally captivated me. But seeing as this was published just three years after Ashes, I found it was just more of the same.

It was also a bit too much more of the same. It’s almost as if O’Hanlon wasn’t writing for the Irish but for those not familiar with them. The Irishness is lathered up into a frenzied caricature. It all seemed a bit contrived to me.

Patrick is a young aimless waster who goes wherever life takes him. He falls in with a young woman who is his polar opposite and it’s all very tragicomic, with the emphasis mostly on the tragic.

The characters aren’t really fleshed out enough for you to get too involved, and it’s not long enough for O’Hanlon to really make points of any permanence.

Easy to read… easy to forget.… (mais)