Pat Brennan

Gene Kerrigan

The A-Z of Irish Scandals & Controversies

This Great Little Nation

From the author of The Rage: “A ripping crime tale, impressive in scope and crackling with energy . . . a fascinating portrait of contemporary Ireland” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). The Midnight Choir teems with moral dilemmas, and Dublin emerges as a city of ambiguity: a newly-scrubbed face hiding a criminal culture of terrible variety. Small-time criminals have become millionaire businessmen, the poor are still struggling to survive, and the police face a world where the old rules no longer apply. “Believe me, you want The Midnight Choir with you on holiday,” says the Sunday Business Post. “This is the kind of book you pass on to someone you like, and say ‘read this.’” “The author does everything well. He conveys beautifully the ritual of cops and their quarry, while evoking the feel of a city where new yuppie influence rubs up against the remnants of a seedy, savage past.” —New York Magazine “The lethal precision of his closing punches leaves quite a lasting mark.” —Entertainment Weekly “It’s Kerrigan’s firm control of the procedural genre and the breathtaking twist he gives his plot that show him to be a master of the form.” —Publishers Weekly “An absorbing, beautifully written tale.” —The Times (London) “Kerrigan’s moody, unsettling tale explores the criminal underside of Dublin and, by extension, the dark, hidden face of twenty-first-century Ireland . . . Gripping crime fiction in which the setting is unequivocally the protagonist.” —Booklist “Good news for readers who can appreciate the moral complexities of this flawed hero.” —The New York Times “An intricately plotted novel that can safely be mentioned in the same breath as those by Rankin.” —Library Journal (starred review)

The Midnight Choir

Ireland’s economic collapse hit with bewildering speed and cut deep into many lives. At a time when we most needed leadership, our politicians let us down, telling us we were all to blame for the recession and that we just needed to suffer a little pain to make everything right again. It was a Big Lie. This book offers an alternative view to the official cover story of austerity. It’s about the great majority of us who weren’t gambling with our future. It’s about what’s being done to us, who is doing it and why. It’s also about who benefits from this and who gets it in the neck. And what we might do about that. Gene Kerrigan delves deep into the muddy waters of the boom and crash, the chaos in the banks, the intervention by the troika and the erosion of democracy. He looks at how the Dáil and the media became full of mindless free market cheerleaders, how the country became laden down with unregulated bankers, and how the government acquiesced in imposing a destructive programme of austerity on the Irish people. Meanwhile, the elites in our society wrap the green flag around themselves, calling for sacrifice and patriotism, while they hold on fiercely to every perk and privilege. It’s time to tell the truth.

The Big Lie - Who Profits From Ireland’s Austerity?

Rage

Colette McCormack

A story of a young girl during the time of the potato famine in Ireland. Extracts from a recently found diary form the basis of the story.

Small Legends Or Law & Order

Hardcases

The author of The Rage delivers “an absorbing, beautifully written, gritty tale of Irish detection and corruption” (The Times, London). Danny Callaghan is having a quiet drink in a Dublin pub when two men with guns walk in. They’re here to take care of a minor problem—petty criminal Walter Bennett. On impulse, Callaghan intervenes to save Walter’s life. Soon, his own survival is in question. With a troubled past and an uncertain future, Danny finds himself drawn into a vicious scheme of revenge. Dark Times in the City depicts an edgy city where affluence and cocaine fuel a ruthless gang culture, and a man’s fleeting impulse may cost the lives of those who matter most to him. Gene Kerrigan’s new novel is his finest yet; a CWA Gold Dagger Crime Novel finalist, it’s gripping from start to finish, powerful, original, and impossible to put down. “Following The Rage, Kerrigan delivers another spare, cut-to-the-bone noir in which a well-meaning ex-con finds himself trapped in the vice of circumstance. . . . Kerrigan’s grasp of contemporary Dublin and its underworld denizens puts him shoulder to shoulder with the best Irish crime writers.” —Booklist (starred review) “Kerrigan gives us a Dublin we never knew in sharp clear prose and neatly bounded dramatic scenes of Irish cops and robbers that leave us fearing that some of the dust and other detritus they stir up may very well end up splattering on our shoes.” —The Boston Globe “Kerrigan’s gripping police procedural . . . is good news for readers who can appreciate the moral complexities of this flawed hero.” —The New York Times

Dark Times in the City

Justin and Angela Kennedy have money, love, children and a limitless future. Jo-Jo Mackendrick is a pillar of Dublin gangland society; a man determined that nothing will endanger his hard-earned supremacy. Into their lives come Frankie Crowe, an ambitious criminal tired of risking his life for small change. Kidnap could be the first step on his climb to a better life, and he knows just the kind of dangerous men to make it happen...

Little Criminals

Danny Callaghan is just out of jail and enjoying a quiet drink in a Dublin pub when two men walk in with guns. On impulse, he intervenes to rescue the intended victim, petty criminal Walter Bennett, and finds himself dragged into Dublin's murky underworld. As the police grope for answers and Danny struggles to protect those he loves, the rising tensions between the gangs threaten to erupt into a bloody showdown. Dark Times in the City portrays a society stumbling from prosperity to uncertainty - where cocaine and easy money have fuelled a ruthless gang culture and a man's impulsive decency may cost him the lives of those who matter most.

Sometimes, getting away with it is all that matters. Dixie Peyton, widow of a petty criminal, is struggling to regain custody of her son. In desperation she seeks the help of controversial detective Harry Synnott, a man obsessed by his own interpretation of justice. But Synnott has other priorities. As he finds himself getting deeper into trouble, Dixie risks becoming a sacrifice on the altar of Synnott's career. Meanwhile the police have arrested a blood-stained man. They seem to have chanced upon a murderer - now they need to find out who he killed. Ruthless gangland leader Lar Mackendrick is hunting an informer. And armed thief Joshua Boyce is about to rob a jeweller's shop. For all of them, as the pressure mounts and the choices become stark, getting away with it is all that matters.

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. “Fans [of The Wire] can find many of the same strengths in Kerrigan’s work” (The New York Times). Vincent Naylor has just been released from prison and has already begun to plot his next heist—the robbery of an armored car. Det. Sgt. Bob Tidey has been caught perjuring himself to protect fellow officers. He’s also found the link between an unsolved murder case and the recent execution of a corrupt banker in serious financial difficulty. An old acquaintance will change the course of the investigation. A retired nun living on regrets and bad memories notices something deeply suspicious and makes a phone call that sets in motion a series of fateful events. In The Rage, Gene Kerrigan weaves together astute observations regarding a financial crisis, church abuse, and gangland crime. The writing is, as always with a Kerrigan novel, superb, with an engaging story that has pitch perfect dialogue and characters that come fully alive. The prize-winning crime fiction is set in contemporary Ireland where nothing is neatly resolved and there are no easy choices. Like life itself. “A perfect novel . . . beautifully constructed, with sharp and relevant dialogue, and not a superfluous word to be found.” —The Oregonian “Gritty and compulsively readable.” —The Wall Street Journal “Tightly plotted . . . the story’s pacing is masterly.” —The New Yorker “A boundlessly readable portrait of an Ireland in which all the old certainties have vanished. Remarkable for its verve, moral trickiness, and nifty plotting.” —NPR Fresh Air “Fans of Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and Declan Burke won’t want to miss this one.” —Booklist (starred review)

Gene Kerrigan

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