Connie is a tired, dispirited thirty-something rebounding from a toxic marriage in Amsterdam who finds herself back in Dublin to sort herself out and take over the running of The Silver Bullet Cafe, a weedy cafe in a seedy part of town, from her elderly aunt. The only thing Aunt Aggie stipulated before she headed out to find a Texas Hold Um game in the US was not to burn down the cafe, and to look out for that lad, Stevie Hennessy. Aggie looked on Stevie as a son. Stevie was a gifted and sensitive young man who might require a helping hand.

Things don't start well, and nor do they get better. Connie is pretty sure if the coffee machine doesn't kill her, boredom will. The staff at the cafe, all placed long ago by Aggie for various - rarely talent oriented - reasons prefer things just as they are, thank you. No menu changes or routine alterations or added cleaning details. And then Stevie is found dead, either murdered or a suicide, and Connie's life goes from bad to very much worse. Doing her best to discover just what happened to Stevie, Connie is forced to immerse herself more and more deeply into the life of the neighborhood and the friends of Stevie. She had no idea things could even reach the depths of the despair most of Stevie's co-residents of the Sunrise Hotel deal with daily. Clearly, Connie has very much more to learn before she will be comfortable contacting her Aunt Aggie.

This is a really good read. Despite the angst involved, you will find yourself in laughter as often as not, and I enjoyed how the neighborhood denizens evolve in Connie's mind to the not always warm but human folks they actually are.

I received a free copy of this novel on January 16, 2018 from Netgalley, Niamh McBrannan, and Arlen House Publishers in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.