Book review: Gripping tale of right v wrong

Irish Examiner

24-05-2025

All Katie wants is a quiet life with her little daughter Hope and her mother living nearby.
She likes her hometown of Derry and her job as a cleaner and barmaid in O'Reillys pub.
All changes for her when two detectives approach her, wanting her to report back to them what she hears at the pub, particularly conversations between brothers Mark and Terry, her employers.
Her first-person narrative draws the reader in: it's absorbing, compelling.
What makes her likeable and convincing as a character is that she's not perfect and is honest about it.
She sleeps with married colleague Benny after a wedding across the border in Donegal, and it's not for the first time.
That is when her life changes. It's when leaving his hotel room that she's approached by the two detectives, who never reveal their identities, so she decides to call them Black-Hair and English.
Growing up in Derry, Katie is aware of what has happened to informers in the past.
She is faced with an impossible choice — if she reports to the detectives, she risks being discovered and probably killed. If she refuses, they threaten not only her but also her little daughter.
To convince her of their power, they show her proof that they have been watching her for months and know a lot about her life.
They then send Benny's wife Amy just one photo of her kissing him, while showing Katie much more compromising images of the two of them together.
When Amy physically attacks her, Katie understands why and feels bad about it.
Katie knows that getting on the wrong side of the O'Reilly brothers could mean her death.
The only way she can survive is by convincing them that she is the one they least suspect.
She's helped by Mark revealing that he's attracted to her, and so inclined to believe whatever she says.
Before discovering how he feels towards her, she had been aware of his kindness towards her. Now she has to cleverly manage to keep delaying having to be intimate with him, using various excuses.
The narrative moves at such a brisk pace, building up tension, that it is almost unbearable.
You cannot help identifying with Katie, who is faced with impossible choices. She seems so alone, apart from her mother and little Hope.
Although she has lived in the same place all her life, she appears to have no close friends, just colleagues.
The detectives are investigating drug-dealing and the violence associated with it — one would consider that a good motive behind them approaching Katie for help but the methods used are deplorable.
When she discovers that one of them is motivated by revenge, it makes her even more determined to evade them.
This is a gripping, nail-biting thriller that explores the fine line between right and wrong, justice and revenge. How do you choose which side to support when both are wrong?
The author cleverly builds up Katie's feeling of being trapped and her desperate attempts to survive.
She is an unforgettable character and it's a novel which will be remembered long after you finish it — it's a triumph.
Brian McGilloway is the author of 11 crime novels, including the Ben Devlin and Lucy Black series. He lives in Strabane, where he teaches.
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