Darkness Falling
I’ve just published my latest novel, Darkness Falling on Amazon. It took me two years to write this and was really a labour of love. Both my parents are Irish, with Mum hailing from Cairns near Sligo, and Dad from Enniscorthy in Wexford. It’s about the Irish famine which was a very dark period in Irish history but also fascinating for the way it has moulded the Irish psyche even to this day.
The novel looks at the impact of the Irish famine on Ireland and the effect as well of policies adopted by the British at the time which sometimes tried to mitigate but often worsened that impact. I’ve concentrated particularly on the way in which government policy was overseen and implemented by the Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, Charles Trevelyan, who remains a deeply controversial figure even to this day.
The novel begins in County Mayo – I’ve based parts on real historical incidents but I’ve changed names both for the people involved and particular places or villages; I’ve done this because I wanted the freedom to add colour to the characters and motives of the people involved and also to create additional events or incidents which I hope have an emotional truth even if they never really took place. So for example, the anathema or excommunication near the start of the novel is a real incident but the circumstances have been altered; the real “Mary Hogan” sent her children to a Protestant school but she was pregnant at the time and the priest did curse everything about her including “everything that would spring from her”. The attempted suicide I have depicted in the novel though is entirely fictional.
The incidents around Trevelyan are more firmly based in historical fact. Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Jones was the Chairman of the Board of Works in Ireland, a relief agency which oversaw public works such as road building. I cannot find any evidence as to whether Jones and Trevelyan actually met but I imagine they must have done; either way I’ve invented a meeting between them rather than an exchange of letters because I felt it dramatised their relationship more effectively. The sentiments I’ve attributed to Trevelyan though in that meeting and throughout the novel are real and are taken from his correspondence at the time or other historical records. I’ve also included other historical figures with a more humane approach the famine, including Sir Randolph Routh, Chairman of the Irish Relief Commission and Edward Twistleton, Director of the Irish Poor Law system.
Michael McGuinness is also a purely fictional character. McGuinness was my Mum’s maiden name; he is a member of Young Ireland, an Irish protest movement who were seeking repeal of the Act of Union of 1801 and who also wanted land reform. The novel deals with his involvement in this movement, his arrest on allegations of sedition and the supposed murder of a local landlord, Gleeson. The village in which McGuinness lives is raised to the ground by Gleeson’s men and a troop of soldiers; one of his children is killed in the mayhem which ensues and in her grief, his wife, Sorcha, is struck dumb. The novel ends with a long trial scene in which Michael is convicted and sentenced to hang. Following an appeal his sentence is commuted to hard labour for a period of seven years with transportation to the colonies. Mary, Sorcha and her remaining child resolve to also travel to Australia to wait out the finish of his sentence with the hope of them all then starting a new life together.
So, in summary it’s really a novel about family but it’s also a commentary on the British government’s behaviour and policies at the time. There is a very strong view that what the British did during the famine was a very deliberate policy of genocide but I’ve tried to be as balanced as possible; many officials in government and the military went out of their way to help the Irish and reduce their suffering; there were also both good and bad landlords. So it was a complex picture and this is what I’ve tried to capture.
The Reckoning
My first novel, The Reckoning, is a modern crime thriller told from the perspective of a young woman.
Rachel is an attractive, ambitious young woman who falls victim to an unexpected and horrific physical attack.
Who attacked her and why? Was it her now embittered ex-boyfriend? Her jealous flatmate? Or someone else?
No one is what they seem. Not even her. And it soon seems clear that whoever attacked her is only just getting started.
The Invitation is my most recent novel and is also a psychological thriller.
Claire Evans is a top forensic pathologist. At the peak of her career, she has successfully overseen countless investigations into some of Britain’s most brutal and complex crimes
Arriving home late one night, she finds what at first appears to be a simple card has been delivered.
But it’s a very far from ordinary piece of mail.
It’s an invitation. To her own funeral.
Uncertain as to whether it’s a hoax or something more sinister, Claire begins to search for answers.
Then her son, Toby, is abducted from his nursery school.
With her son’s life now in jeopardy as well as her own, Claire must identify her tormentor immediately. But it may already be too late…