Read this is one sitting to findout what would happen. Flows well and written brilliantly. Highly recommend.

#NetGalley #Kala
With thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Colin Walsh writes urgently and vivaciously through the voices of three distinct characters to tell the tale of disappearances, disloyalty and friends reconnecting in this thriller-esque coming-of-age story.
For a debut novel, this is a masterclass in characterisation particularly. Though the story meanders and can feel lengthy at times, the characters formed are vivid and fully formed. Some in flashback, some in the present day and some in both - none feel anything other than real and engaging. So much so that the lingering book hangover is more a perpetual wondering about what Joe, Mush and Helen are doing now. What adds to this further is the beauty of his prose and images he distills of each character through clever, realistic description - accessible to all, yet with a lilting beauty of poetic prose.

With proficiency, Walsh gives honest voice to the protagonist triad of teenagers Mush, Joe and Helen. Whilst both exploring, in it's darker tones, the ferocity, unashamed selfishness and vulnerability of teen life, he also constructs a story that shifts gears through their ever-changing allegiances.
The book follows two timelines, both exposing the rural Irish town's dark substructure which thrives on the group of men doing whatever it takes in their desire to protect their secrets, and their lucrative interests.
The crux of the story is built around the disappearance of the evocative Kala in 1993. But as we jump timelines the real mystery evolves as the three are dragged back to a harsh reality as Kala’s human remains are found in the woods...
Add to this the trauma of Mush’s teenage twin cousins, Marie and Donna, vanishing and Walsh's storytelling settles into a gait which is twisting, enthralling and hugely entertaining. This is a book which packs a punch, and isn't afraid to let go of it's reader's hand to really throw them into the world of Kinlough and all it's catastrophes.

think that this will be a book that people will want to read in one sitting - I couldn’t put it down (which makes work really inconvenient!).

Three friends reunite after many years. Mush has stayed in Kinlough, Joe has become a famous singer, and Helen has been working as a journalist in Canada. As teenagers, they hung around in a group of six, until one of its most popular members (Kala) goes missing. It seems that her disappearance has had a huge effect on all of her friends since then. Helen comes home for a wedding and during this time, remains are found in a hold-all. And they’re Kala.

Mush helps his mother run a coffee shop and is, I think, the most likeable character. He wants to pick up friendships where they were left off after Joe and Helen had left. I can’t help but think that Helen uses this as a way to get him to help her look into the disappearance of Kala.

This isn’t just about Kala though. It’s a book that looks at all of these characters and their lives. They all have issues of one kind or another, whether these issues are caused by Kala’s disappearance, their family lives or something more - the town itself has a violent undercurrent.

It’s beautifully written: the snatches of scenes from childhood are idyllic, the interactions of the characters range from funny to sad to menacing. Do these characters really know one another, and who can they trust? There are a lot of lies to uncover!

I will be very keen to read whatever Colin Walsh writes next - he’s definitely one to watch!

On the west coast of Ireland sits the tourist town of Kinlough, and, in 2003, six teenage friends—Kala, Aoife, Helen, Aiden, Joe, and Mush are living the "summer of [their] lives," daring each other into various exploits, exploring first love, and building tight bonds of friendship.

The Gardai and townspeople search unsuccessfully for 15-year-old Kala, the gang's attitude-filled, enigmatic, yet unstable leader when he vanishes in November. She comes from a "bad family," but she is readily misidentified as a runaway because of this. The ties between these close friends break down due to the events, and they are still plagued by them.

Three of the pals reconnect years later. Helen, a seasoned freelance journalist now residing in Canada, is reluctantly returning home for her father's nuptials to Mush's aunt Pauline Lyons. Joe, a rock musician with a drinking problem who craves attention, is back to reopen a local music venue and attract more fans, and lone, sensitive Mush has always stayed in his mother's cafe because he feels self-conscious about his facial scars.

While this reunion is happening, the discovery of Kala's bones at a building site happens, and tragedy strikes again in this small community. All propel the trio to reconsider their past in a dangerous search for the truth.

Each chapter is recounted from the points of view of one of these fascinating and secret-filled people, skillfully fusing current events with memories of their teen years and leading to a gasp-worthy finish.

This literary book will elicit a wide range of emotions with its rough, suspenseful pace. The author's expert use of striking and dialectical pitch brings the story to life.

I enjoyed this story of friends haunted by the disappearance of one of their group 30 years previously. It did have a slow star, but as the story progressed so did the pace, really picking up in the last third. As I got into the story I found it more compelling and by the last third I found it hard to stop listening as i really wanted to know what had happened all those years ago. I loved the narration, the three voices worked really well in the audiobook, the accents, pitch and tones working far better than I think I could have imagined. The characters were all well done, as was the plot overall. I admit I found the resolution mixed, it worked but I would have liked more 'clues' within the story. Overall I enjoyed this and will probably look out for more by this author.

This is a review of the audiobook.

15 years after the disappearance of Kala Lannan, three of her closest friends reunite over one summer in Kinlough, Co. Cork to solve the mystery of her disappearance. What they find is a confusing and disturbing web of police and gang violence and complicity in their small Irish town.

In Colin Walsh's debut novel, he creates characters that are vivid and engaging and a story will literally leave you unable to put the book down. It's been a long time since a story gripped me the way Kala did. The nostalgia of returning to the hometown of your youth, and observing people you used to spend everyday with, as an adult, is acutely and wonderfully (almost painfully) observed. The possibilities of youth and the disappointment of growing up are threaded throughout, alongside more sinister small town, rural adventures that many people will be able to identify with (although maybe not on this scale!)

I wasn't sure I would enjoy Kala-although I'm always willing to give Irish fiction a chance(!)- I'm not a huge fan of crime/mystery novels. But Kala is far cleverer than I originally gave it credit for. Its brilliance, for me, was that I had no idea how it would end, but as I reached the final pages, I thought: 'of course, of course it was always going to end like this'.

Incredible read, the mystery of what happened to Kala is intriguing but really it's the narratives explored by friends she left behind that are what make it worth your time. There are painfully accurate depictions of the magic and misery of your teenage years and it captured adolescent female friendships beautifully. Definitely recommend!

Loved this

Quality writing with a razor sharp emotional edge, a brilliantly engaging group dynamic of characters that is both nostalgic and very very dark.

Reminds me a little of the way Tana French digs deep into a story. I bought this even though I had a netgalley copy because the hardback is gorgeous and hoping it would live up to the hype and it did.

Recommended.

An enjoyable read full of twists and turns. A group of friends are thrown back together when a body is found on some local land. The narrative shifts between the past and the present and the reader slowly pieces together the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Kala. Changing relationships and young people learning who they can trust made this an engaging read.

After winning lots of awards for his short stories, I was excited to read Walsh's full-length debut, and Kala as a tense summer mystery did not disappoint. The story lent itself to having multiple narratives, as Kala's disappearance 15 years prior shaped each of the narrators in varying ways, and continues to influence how they navigate life in coming back to (or having remained, in Mush's case) Kinlough. In their coming together I found it interesting just how quickly they all reverted back to the power dynamics of their friendship group as teenagers, and I did really enjoy this main plot of unearthing Kala's disappearance. However, I don't think enough time was spent on Aidan's death, and the subplot with Mush's cousins, while definitely adding to the tension, brought with it a whole host of older characters that I sometimes found hard to distinguish from one another. Overall a very strong story and genuinely terrifying at times.

I haven't stayed up into the early hours of the morning to read a book in a long time but I truly couldn't put this down. What an addictive and suspenseful story. Colin Walsh really nailed the depiction of the seedy underbelly of a small town and created characters with real heart. Loved it

When I requested this on Netgalley, I chose it based on the cover and the title. The cover was beautiful and I didn’t know what Kala meant. Let me tell you that I’m glad I love a good aesthetic and that I’m word curious.

Very early on, we learn that Kala goes missing as a teenager. Then there is a time jump and all of her friends are adults. But she’s still missing. As everyone finds themselves back in town where it all began, we learn what happened and how her disappearance impacted the group.

For the most part, this book paints beautiful, yet haunting portraits of the characters in Kala’s life and as events start unfolding and we learn more about that fateful night, the book picks up pace and takes a thriller type turn. I was here for all of that.

I’m trying to figure out how to describe this book but I can’t. It almost seems to defy being labelled. It’s a thriller, yes. But it also sizzles, as Walsh takes us back to the hot summers of our youth. And while it is exciting and often unpredictable, it’s also a slow burn. I was lured in by nostalgia. I stayed because of the heartbreak and tragedy and the way these events shaped everyone. By the time the plot twist hit me, I was so fully immersed that the transition and quickening of the pace felt so natural and had me turning the pages way past lights out.

Read if you enjoy:
· Books about groups of friends
· Teen summers (there are some serious throwback vibes in the flashbacks)
· Red herrings
· Fleshed out characters
· Coffee
· Secrets

An incredible novel, thoroughly absorbing and I found that the multiple perspectives really worked well as the truth was slowly exposed about Kala.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

One girl from a group of friends disappears when they are teenagers in the early 2000s in Ireland. In the present day some of them reunite as the girls bones are discovered which brings them back together to figure out what happened to her. Told from the perspective of three friends in present day and in flashbacks, the story was really good albeit quite gruesome in parts.
I really enjoyed the different perspectives of the people telling the story, the jumping timeline and how it flowed. There were some jumpy parts and some compulsively readable bits that kept me up late reading. Very enjoyable.

Kala is the debut novel from Irish author Colin Walsh.

Kala Lannan went missing in late 2003, forever changing the lives of her friend group. Some blamed themselves, some never got over the loss, some just wanted to move on. Now, fifteen years later, human remains have been found, old wounds have been opened, and secrets are about to come bubbling up to the surface. But this is Ireland - the land of knowing-yet-not-knowing. Even if someone knows what happened, will they ever tell?

Told in a back-and-forth style from the perspective of the now-estranged group of friends, we begin to piece together the events leading up to Kala's disappearance and how it affected Joe, Mush, Helen, Aoife, and Aidan.

It's a heady, tense, rotten-small-town novel. Part coming of age, part nostalgia, part crime - I found it impossible to put down, and although there were a fair few characters to keep track of, once I got a handle on who was related to who I could follow each thread fairly easily.

I've mentioned this already, but I did feel that towards the latter third of the novel it became more violent than I was expecting. I used to read a ton of violent crime books, so it's not that I found any of it particularly shocking, it's just something I may not have reached for right now had I known how dark it was going to get (think Love/Hate level of dark).

Still - I'm glad I did - the writing is stellar, and I can't believe it's a debut. It's an incredibly well written book, and it's one I know I'll think of for a long time. If you've the stomach for a bit of visceral cruelty, you'll be hard pressed to find a better or more atmospheric thriller this year. Personally, the Kala story would have been enough for me without bringing in the arc about the twins, but it was still a hell of a page-turner.

CW violence (human and animal).

Part coming-of-age, part crime novel set in north-west Ireland. This is a slow burn novel that I found hard to read in parts due to the lengthy scenes of animal abuse. Overall an enjoyable book and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next from Colin Walsh.

Kala is a complex and disturbing coming of age mystery full of dark events and emotions. It is raw and relentless in its intrigue and pain.

A girl is murdered and never found.

Many years later as the group of once friends reunite, Kala's remains are found dumped.

The obsession to discover the truth will endanger many more lives before the truth is revealed. And it's more shocking and depraved than anyone could have imagined.

Helen reluctantly returns to the little seaside town of Kinlough for her father's wedding, fifteen years after the event that changed the lives of six friends forever. When 15 year old Kala, the charismatic centre of their group disappeared, it signalled the end of their childhood, and the beginning of the disintegration of their friendship. Now a body has been found and two more young girls are missing, the twin cousins of one of the boys in the group who showed more than a passing interest in what happened to Kala....
Told from the points of view of Joe, a rock star struggling with addiction, Helen and Mush, who still works in his mum's cafe, too scared and scarred to ever leave town, the story is pieced together as each of them comes to terms with the part they played in the events leading up to Kala's disappearance, and how they have each been affected by the tragedy. At once a thriller, a poignant exploration of teenage friendship, and brilliant evocation of what it is like to be an adolescent in a small town, this is a gripping page turner with empathetic and unforgettable characters. Highly recommended.

I am grateful to Net Galley and Atlantic Books for the opportunity to read and review this ppc.
The blurb was not encouraging but I persisted and was glad I did.. The first thing to note is the strong Irish feel of the book in the language.
It is a story of a group of friends, first as teenagers, then as young adults, the two timelines woven together in a way that is at times confusing but used to weave the two stories.
In the present a wedding provides the reason for a reunion of the whole group, though a shadow over the whole is the disappearance of one of their number, Kala, when they were fifteen. The story starts slowly but the pace and tension builds to a violent climax.
There are some well drawn characters: Joe, rich son of a Guard, on his way to rock stardom; Helen, introspective and philosophical, a journalist who is keen to find out what happens to Kala; Mush, an honest, dependable friend, Theresa, Helen’s gritty sister; and the twins, Donna and Marie; as well as a range of relatives and villains.
No punches are pulled as we see bullying, gangs, social outcasts, dog-fighting and bent coppers.

Kala by Colin Walsh recounts the events leading up to the disappearance of an influential teenager called Kala and her friends from their viewpoints fifteen years later. Kala had a tough upbringing as did some of her friends, though some went on to greater things - or so it seems. Helen returns home for a wedding and is unable to deny her own curiosity. Along with the softhearted Mush, they find themselves in a difficult situation.

Walsh has created a rich personal history for each of his characters and they come to life on the page. Kala is an immersive story that builds to an intense climax.