Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Ireland

  • A Very Irish Mystery

    A Very Irish Mystery

    Once again, the intrepid trio of Lady Eleanor Swift, her handsome husband Huge Seldon and Clifford, her major-domo extraordinaire, along with Gladstone have found a simple trip to Ireland to follow a lead to the disappearance of her parents many years ago, has turned into something vastly different and very troubling.

    A Very Irish Murder sees them plunged into a world they had no idea existed, one that is filled with danger and mystery at a time when the Suffragette movement was commencing in Ireland. Ellie finds she inadvertently gets swept up in a march on their way back to their Hotel, after having spent a fruitless time waiting to meet a man who apparently knew her parents and what happened to them; one Samuel O’Sullivan.

     On and innocent tour of the local Brewery, Colcannon’s, the body of the owner is discovered stuffed in a barrel; obviously struck dead by a vicious blow to the back of the head. As the Byron Detective Agency, they, due to Ellie’s sense of outrage, see them become involved in helping solve what appears to be a senseless murder.

    But is it, as a second murder occurs and the information they have uncovered  is beginning to seem like someone believes killing will hide shady business dealings in which they are deeply involved. So many suspects with so few clues is not making bringing a killer to justice easy!

    As they continue to try and discover the whereabouts of O’Sullivan, they find so many of the incidents occurring lead them to the Mondo, a part of town known for its poverty and kip-houses. It soon becomes apparent that the two events, the missing O’Sullivan and the murders, are somehow related; but how is the real question.

    With a killer on the loose, a missing woman who may hold vital information and a massive storm brewing they must make a decision that could end in tragedy.

    Book 25 in the Lady Eleanor Swift series, A Very Irish Murder has a slightly different nuance to previous books which is interesting and to be expected. There is also a hint that Ellie’s search for her parents may be drawing to a close in the most unexpected of ways. We will undoubtedly see what does indeed come next in Book 26, whatever that may be…..

  • Where the Heart Should Be

    Where the Heart Should Be

    Where The Heart Should Be is the book that you read and suddenly find that you are holding your breath. The language is so beautiful, so simple and yet so powerful. The style of free verse adds enormously to the unspoken emotion.

    The story is predictable, as we know what the potato famine in Ireland meant but here is strand upon strand of story from each character showing the futility, the injustice, the courage and love during this horrendous time.

    This story begins in July, 1846. Young Nell arrives at the Big House and taps on the door. She has been asked to work in the kitchen. Maggie opens the door and slaps Nell hard across the face.

    She complains that Nell is wet and dirty. This is because Nell has been running through the rain and mud to get there. Thus the relationship between the people at the Big house and the tenants is established.

    The potato famine has taken a hold of the crops and the smell of the black, slimy, rotten vegetable permeates the whole area. There is love, though.

    Nell’s parents have created a loving home, and the Lord of the Manor has a nephew come to stay. Johnny is not like other members of the family and befriends Nell. He also feeds a beggar who came to the door begging for food. The man was being beaten by the servant, but much to the shock of all, Johnny carries the beggar into the kitchen and gives him a bowl of broth.

    As Nell watches the dogs gobbling meat from the floor the contrasts couldn’t be sharper. Meat that would feed her family! Each aspect of the story, the political uprising, the love story and the challenges faced is addressed and stated.

    “It is hard to tell a love story

    and also the story of a people

    being torn apart.”

  • The Lost Letters of Ireland

    The Lost Letters of Ireland

    Suzanne O’Leary has crafted a warm-fussy story based around the complex mother daughter relationship in The Lost Letters of Ireland that will warm the heart and is perfect for a weekend read when a little time out is required. It is a stand-alone read but is also a continuation in the Sandy Cove series.

    Edwina is facing burnout; she has finally pushed everything one step two far and is reaping the cost of making a monumental mess in her position as fashion icon and buyer for the prestigious store Brown Thomas. She decides to leave before she is sacked!

    At the end of a massive hangover, she realises it is time to perhaps make a fresh start doing something very different, but has no idea what!  A long-time friend talks her into purchasing a row of cottages in need of renovation in the small village of Sandy Cove, tucked away on the Irish Coast.

    Taking up the challenge of renovating the Cottages she realises that will need more money than she has in her trust fund and approaches her Mother to help out, which begins a process of healing and understanding between the two women which neither ever though would be possible.

    The area holds along associate with Edwina and her family, but for Edwina the association comes with anything but good memories. Her brother and his family live there and she, in so many ways, longs to be closer to him and the children, but feels she went too far over the sale of the family house some years before. There are bad memories there.

    As the days pass and she is eventually on her way to her new life, Edwina’s doubts increase at what she has begun and truly wonders if perhaps this time she has finally gone one step too far. On another level she is determined to make a success of the project and prove she is more than a social butterfly.

    Sandy Cove is a place filled with the magic of Ireland, a place where perhaps miracles can and often do happen. As the pages turn it is so very easy to fall in love with the residents of Sandy Cove as they go about their daily life in a very small seaside village. Secrets are almost impossible to keep and gossip, no matter how outlandish, is the currency of the day.

    A lovely light page turner, The Lost Letters of Ireland will charm its way to your heart as Edwina, and her family find a heart-warming way forward, new love arrives and tragedies of the past are finally put to rest.

  • The Wild Laughter

    The Wild Laughter

    The Wild Laughter  was released  earlier this year to wide acclaim; the storyline painting  a confronting and  raw look at the human price of recession and the choices made over a lifetime, now placed firmly in the spotlight of a dysfunctional family, but at the same time, always family.

    The Chief, as he is called by his sons is the head of the family; a big man, full of life, firm decision making and often warped judgements. The mother, delicate and frail, referred to as Norah, a former Nun, still held in thrall to her former life, Cormac the golden boy, the one most expected to succeed and he did, Hart the son who remained, the one considered lesser a person, but the one who struggled to hold the family farm together during severe recession, coping with some of the bad choices The Chief had made over this lifetime of governance.

    This darkly poetic tale commences with “The night the chief died I lost my father and the country lost a battle it wouldn’t confess to be fighting.’, words that present from the beginning a story that is going to be deeply scored with emotion; deeply embedded in the wash-up of Ireland after the reign of the Celtic Tiger and the subsequent devastation of the 2008 recession.

    As with all things Irish there is a particular way or mannerism within their culture, a culture permeated with patterns of affluence and devastation, a history that tends to showcase the myriad of both human resilience and destruction that is particularly Irish. This has been captured with this poignant, and yet in so many ways, flamboyant look at a family in despair, a family facing the reality of destruction, a family coming to the realisation that there is truly nothing left,  and when there is nothing left of what has always been considered as the ‘family’, what next.

    Contemporary, harsh, at times cynical and yet in its reality offering the balance of laughter, The Wild Laughter will, as do many contemporary works, challenge, confront and at times repel, as it places well into or under the spotlight the stories we all tell to create,  to forge and hold the bonds that are ‘family’.