When All Is Said by Anne Griffin

WHEN ALL IS SAID is a fabulous debut novel by award-winning Irish author Anne Griffin. Set in Ireland, this was the perfect read for Saint Patrick’s Day, but readers will be transported whenever they make the wise choice to spend time with the main character, 84 year-old Maurice Hannigan.  In a reflective mood, Maurice muses about “quiet men, contented in their simplicity, sitting on porches, rocking on chairs, listening to radios and crickets as evening turned to night. Hands as big as shovels, but nimble as stonemasons’.”

The story takes place over five toasts involving stout and whiskies on a summer night in 2014 as Maurice reminisces about his childhood and his time with brother Tony, his children Molly and Kevin, sister-in-law Noreen, and recently deceased wife, Sadie. Maurice primarily relates a story for his son Kevin, saying at one point, “Mad isn’t it? There you were, my living son right in front of me, waiting to be noticed, but my head lingered with a ghost. My heart, missing a small beat of its rhythm. Not so unlike my mother after all.” Throughout the many flashbacks, there are multiple references to the Dollards, the local landed gentry and their own fraught family history. 

The tone is a bit melancholy throughout with too many untimely deaths and a believable mix of regrets, guilt, grieving, and love: “Loneliness, that fecker again, wreaking his havoc on us mortals. It’s worse than any disease, gnawing away at our bones as we sleep, plaguing our minds when awake.”  WHEN ALL IS SAID received a starred review from Library Journal. I highly recommend it.

Debut mysteries: Himself by Kidd and Dead Letters by Dolan-Leach

I am in the midst of reading HIMSELF by Jess Kidd and decided to post a review now because the writing is just so exquisite. With just simple phrase, Kidd expertly evokes an image of the small, County Mayo village:

• “All the boats bobbed gently in the harbor, dreaming of the high seas, and the bicycles slept leaning along the fences.”  or
• “Today the shop doors are propped open, welcoming sea breeze and custom.”  or
• “In the quiet room the night air steals in through the open window to whisper the soap dry in the dish.”

There’s more than a hint of magic and some darkness in the air, too. Charming and handsome Mahony heads to Mulderrig to try to understand what happened to his mother, Orla Sweeney, when he was abandoned 26 years ago.  Due to the prologue and some interspersed flashbacks, readers know that that she bore a child out of wedlock and met a violent death in 1950.  But, like Mahony and Mrs. Cauley (a villager who likes to "stir the pot" and may just want to see justice, too), we are uncertain as to the killer or motive. In an attempt to unveil secrets, Mrs. Cauley casts a play with Mahoney in the lead and involves several village characters with the mystery becoming even more complex and evil at times.

Did I mention there’s a supernatural element and sense of Irish folk tales because Mahony can see dead people? Kidd explains, “the dead are drawn to the confused and the unwritten, the damaged and the fractured, to those with big cracks and gaps in their tales…” HIMSELF, a debut novel, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and deserves a place on your “to be read” list.

Another debut mystery which you may want to investigate is DEAD LETTERS by Caite Dolan-Leach.   This thriller features identical twins, Ava and Zelda Antipova. Zelda, the wilder twin, supposedly dies in a barn fire in upstate New York and Ava returns from her studies in Paris to deal with the family vineyard and her mother’s dementia and alcoholism. Soon, Ava is receiving messages from Zelda, who loved mind games and appears to be sending her sister on a scavenger hunt to confront their dysfunctional past. The sisters were estranged due to Wyatt, a high school love, and he reappears in the story along with their father, Marlon, as Zelda’s manipulative messages continue to surface.

With starred reviews from Library Journal (“riveting”) and Publishers Weekly (“a smart, dazzling mystery”), DEAD LETTERS is especially recommended for fans of Gone Girl.

 

The Carnival At Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

The Carnival At Bray – Jessie Ann Foley

Anyone who grew-up in the ‘90s and was a fan of, or even aware of, Nirvana would enjoy the music references throughout this realistic fiction novel.  Maggie is a sophomore in high school, and she and her sister were recently uprooted from Chicago to Ireland after her mother married an Irishman. This transition has not been so easy for Maggie, and music has been her constant and her connection to her beloved uncle Kevin back home.  Despite some family turmoil, Kevin is determined to get Maggie to a Nirvana concert and in Rome, no less. At the last minute, Maggie takes off on her own to experience this momentous occasion. Her “irresponsible” behavior is her promise to her uncle Kevin to simply live, and in the process she doesn’t realize how independent and self-sufficient she has become.  Maggie experiences painful loss and exciting possibilities in what is both a physical and emotional journey.  This chapter in her life starts and ends at a Ferris wheel – a place where one can look back, yet can also look forward beyond the horizon with a renewed sense of hope.