There is an abundance of new Irish writers in the marketplace, each writing in a different genre and all achieving their respective positions among many a TBR and in the bestseller lists. Some have achieved instant notoriety, while other are still looking to be found.
I am going to concentrate on five of the most recent that I have read. Each one is an excellent read and comes with a very positive recommendation.
I hope you enjoy!!
The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir by Lesley Allen
Almost too terrified to grip the phone, Biddy Weir calls a daytime television show.
The subject is bullying, and Biddy has a story to tell.
Abandoned by her mother as a baby, Biddy lives in her own little world, happy to pass her time watching the birds – until Alison Fleming joins her school.
Popular and beautiful, but with a dangerous, malevolent streak, Alison quickly secures the admiration of her fellow students. All except one. And Alison doesn’t take kindly to people who don’t fit her mould . . .
A story of abuse and survival, of falling down and of starting again, and of one woman’s battle to learn to love herself for who she is.
The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir is currently available as an ebook and will be released in paperback later in the year. A book everyone should read. A book that should be mandatory in all our education systems.
Please check out my review and see for yourself.
The Lonely Life of Biddy Weir by Lesley Allen – A Review
Little Bones by Sam Blake
Little Bones introduces Cathy Connolly, a bright young heroine set to take the world of crime fiction by storm.
Twenty-four-year-old Garda Cathy Connolly might be a fearless kick-boxing champion but when she discovers a baby’s bones concealed in the hem of a wedding dress, the case becomes personal.
For artist Zoe Grant, the bones are another mysterious twist in her mother’s disappearance. Then her grandmother, head of the Grant Valentine department store empire is found dead, and a trail of secrets is uncovered that threatens to shake a dynasty.
In a story that moves from London’s East End to the Las Vegas mafia, one thing is certain – for Cat, life will never be the same again.
This is the debut novel from Sam Blake a.k.a. Vanessa Fox O’ Loughlin. It is the first book in a trilogy about an Irish policewoman Cat Connolly. A new voice in crime.
Please click here for my review
The Last Days of Summer by Vanessa Ronan
She can forgive. They can’t forget.
After ten years in the Huntsville State Penitentiary, Jasper Curtis returns home to live with his sister and her two daughters. Lizzie does not know who she’s letting into her home: the brother she grew up loving or the monster he became.
Teenage Katie distrusts this strange man in their home but eleven-year-old Joanne is just intrigued by her new uncle.
Jasper says he’s all done with trouble, but in a forgotten prairie town that knows no forgiveness, it does not take long for trouble to arrive at their door.
Vanessa Ronan’s debut is the only one of the five that is not set in an Irish environment. It is set against the backdrop of the sweeping Texan prairie and is a powerful, absorbing, dark story about a rather dysfunctional family.
Please check out my review here
Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard
Did she leave or was she taken?
The day Adam Dunne’s girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads ‘I’m sorry – S’ sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.
Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate – and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before.
To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground…
Catherine Ryan Howard’s debut novel has firmly positioned her as a new voice in psychological thrillers. Released earlier this month, it is receiving great acclaim and not just in Ireland!!
See for yourself in my review attached.
The Difference by Justine Delaney Wilson
We’re all different.
When Ismae Rogers was born, her dfference was just easier to see.
When thirty nine year old Beth discovers she’s pregnant, it isn’t the news she was expecting. Increasingly stifled by the middle-class suburbia of their life on Vesey Hill, she had come to terms with the fact that her small family consisted of eleven year old Alex and New Zealand husband Steve, and had begun to look forward to the possibilities of the future: returning to work and maybe leaving Ireland and the confines of Vesey Hill for a new life.
As news of her pregnancy sinks in, Beth tries to tell herself that her feelings will change when the baby arrives but then Ismae is born and Beth begins to realise that her dream is now further away than ever. In the months after Ismae’s birth, Beth and Steve’s marriage is put to the test as a new reality they had never envisaged forces them to evaluate their lives, their marriage and each other.
Justine Delaney Wilson has been a presence on the Irish writing scene for quite awhile in many different roles. This is her debut novel and what I hope the first of many. A truly beautiful read.
Please see attached my review.
Having read and fully enjoyed all these novels I am really excited about my next two reads. Liz Nugent’s Lying in Wait and Bernice Barrington’s Sisters and Lies.
I will keep you updated on these when I have finished reading them.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Please feel free to ‘put it out’ there and share. We need these writers to keep us entertained for years to come!!
