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| ★★ |
It only takes one person to break the silence. When solicitor Finn Fitzpatrick is approached by a man to investigate the death of his daughter, her first instinct is to refuse. The father is grieving, and unable to accept that his daughter committed suicide. And yet something about the man’s story chimes with Finn.
Why did a bright, confident, beautiful young girl suddenly drop out of school? Could the answer lie in her relationship with Ireland's most famous film director? The deeper Finn goes into the case, the more dark, twisted and dangerous the picture becomes. Because these are powerful people she is trying to expose. And they're willing to do anything to keep the truth hidden.
***
Review: I discovered this book due to its Waterstones window promotion (on Patrick's Street, Cork) and got excited by the idea of reading a book based in Cork city. I make no secret of the fact that I am Irish, love reading books by Irish authors and that my love of this is purely a sense of pride in my country and its writers. (We have some amazing writers across all genres). But as I made my home in Cork city some 13 years ago, this was a must have for me, and I immediately bought a Kindle copy for myself. The first pages referenced my own bus route, which excited me, although I did notice that there was a very obvious directional error also within the first couple of pages, and I thought, if you insist on needless name-dropping, at least get your directions right.
This needless street namedropping (much like mine in the first sentence) continued and issues left me without much good to say about this book except it was easy enough to finish. The plot was convoluted and very unbelieveable, besides being laid out almost in bullet points (first I did this, next I did this) and told by a dull (at times outright unlikeable, with the way she treats Davy) narrator. The characters are dull and all speak in an approximation of an Irish stereotype. In addition to the street names, the constant namedropping of Irish products makes it reads like someone who knows all they know about Cork from reading a travel guide, as opposed to actually living here.
I love reading books by Anna McPartlin, Catherine Ryan Howard, Belinda McKeon etc because they capture that sense of authentic Irishness in likeable characters without all the stereotypes and namedropping - the exact opposite of this book. I've read worse books than it, which is the only reason it gets 2 stars instead of 1. Very disappointing offering from a new author who I won't be bothering with again.
Rating: 2/5
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