We are all products of our upbringing and never was this more true than in this tale of old friends reunited 15 years after an event that will haunt them throughout their lives.
Small town Ireland brilliantly depicted in all is insectious insular worst, where the sins of the fathers are paid for heavily by the generations to come.
This was not an easy read and it took me a while to get into it, but by goodness it was worth it.

Colin Walsh's debut novel is a powerful and evocative Irish literary mystery that may take a little time to become immersed in, but once you do it will hold your attention right through to the end. Beautifully written, it is set on the west Irish coastal town of Kinlough, where 20 years ago, a group of tightly knit teenagers, Kala, Joe, Aoife, Helen, Mush, and Aiden were having the time of their lives. The heart of the group, 15 year old Kala Lannan disappears, and unsurprisingly relationships fragment between them, their lives to be haunted by this past and the repercussions that follow. In a narrative that shifts from the past to the present, a far from happy Helen is now a financially struggling freelance journalist living in Canada who returns to Kinlough for a family wedding.

Joe Brennan had been Kala's boyfriend, he is now a well known rockstar with issues, returning for a musical residency. Mush, with his disfigured face, never left town, spending his time at the cafe, people watching whilst trying to keep a low profile himself. The past becomes inescapable when Kala's skull and a photograph are discovered at a building site, raising the question of what happened to her. Matters are lent an increasing urgency and tension when Mush's twin teenage cousins disappear. There are rich descriptions that paint a picture of the oppressive small town atmosphere, and the terrifying horrors and secrets that lie beneath the surface. There is intrigue, danger and brutal violence as the curtain lifts to reveal the unvarnished truth.

Walsh excels in the creation, qualities and development of his characters, skilfully giving us glimpses into the nature of their relationships, the emotional intensity, and friendships. The exquisite prose had me lingering on a number of occasions over the beauty of the language, although patience is required before links begin to emerge that help to make sense of the mysteries and what precisely is happening, although not all things have an answer. It makes us question whether it is ever really possible to know someone. There is a remarkable assurance and deftness of touch in this coming of age storytelling that has me awaiting the author's next book with eager anticipation. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

It's 2003 and, for six friends living in a buzzing tourist town on Ireland's west coast, it feels like summer will never end. Helen, Aoife, Mush, Aidan and Joe are inseparable, and wild, mysterious Kala is the Sun around which their group orbits. When Kala suddenly disappears, the group fractures and falls apart. Now, years later, three of the estranged friends find themselves thrown back together and forced to confront what happened to Kala and their own roles in her fate.

Colin Walsh's fiction debut is a masterfully written thriller which manages to be both menacing and tender, and it is really very good.

The pacing is perfect, with Walsh gradually introducing the key characters, building their world with astonishing vividness, and weaving together a complex, compelling narrative. By the climax of the novel, Kinlough felt like a real place and I was utterly invested in the fates of the characters as they strive to find out what happened to Kala all those years ago. There are a lot of characters, but it was never difficult to keep them straight or understand how they related to our three narrators - Mush, Helen and Joe - and the events of the story.

The beautifully-crafted prose, which intertwines lyrical descriptions with the plain, often crass dialogue of ordinary people, evokes the hedonism and freedom of being a teenager in the summer with impressive accuracy. At the same time as the mystery is unspooling in the background, Walsh paints a picture of core memories, first loves and the kind of friendships that mould the person you are becoming when you're fifteen.

Each of the narrators - as a teenager and as an adult - has a distinctive voice, and it really added depth to the novel to see events through three contrasting perspectives, of those who thought they'd left Kinlough and all its secrets behind and those who never did.

The mystery, which shines an unflinching light on the dark underbelly of a picture-perfect Irish tourist town, is intriguing but so, equally, are
the relationships between the characters in both timelines, and this is what makes the book work so well. As much as I wanted to find out what happened to Kala, so too was I captivated by the unanswered questions about why the group splintered and withdrew from each other in the aftermath of her vanishing.

The denouement of the story brings all of the tension and 'spaghetti' of the plot to a terrifying, oppressive head and I literally couldn't put the book down as I tore through the last hundred pages. I can't wait to see what Colin Walsh writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

This new debut novel makes a good summer read: literary but not too much. A murder mystery, but a well-written one.

A group of friends in a small Irish town reconnect twenty years after one of them has been killed. The murder was never solved and the group has dispersed. A wedding brings them back together right at the time there are developments in the case. The book is told from the perspectives of three friends and alternates between them in short chapters.

This is not a candidate for the Booker - it doesn't really address bigger themes - but the writing is really good, the characters are very well developed and especially the coming of age sections were excellent.

I mostly listened to the audio version and it reminded me why Irish English is the most beautiful of English accents. It is told by three different narrators for each of the friends.

Kala is the story of the summer a group of teenagers who are not quite the cool kids form a strong friendship group that ends in the disappearance of Kala, the leader of the group. Having not seen each other for many years circumstances bring the remaining friends back together. The story is told by the remaining friends as memories of that summer are woken by the discovery of human remains. The characters are strong and individual and are all fighting their own demons.

As they look back at their memories, each feeling they let Kala down, the secrets of this small coastal Irish town are exposed.

Gripping and unpredictable, I highly recommend Kala - so far one of the best books I have read in 2023

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Kala.

I really couldn't get into this book. I found it very slow going and the dialogue hard to understand. I couldn't feel any connection to the characters and kept getting confused on the timeline and the characters, as there were a lot of them.

Maybe I'm just too old to be reading this kind of book! As they say it's not you - it's me. I think it is a well written book, just not for me.

What a beautifully sad story told in a stunning and evocative way.
I adore the writing style and language used. From the very beginning I could hear the Irish accent. As I wrote in my notes “Love the honest Irish voice. Real. Authentic.”

The story itself had me enthralled. It’s such a phenomenal thriller. It played with my emotions and that innate desire to figure the mystery out.
I love that the story is told via multiple POVs.
The 3 characters have very unique and distinct personalities which help add to the complexities of this gut wrenching story.

I went through an overflow of emotions, emotions I wasn’t expecting to feel. From laughter and joy to sadness, shock, horror and even fear! So many emotions. And the end? Oh, my heart! 💔 There are no words.

I love the eclectic array of characters including bad ones (it wouldn’t be a thriller without them! 😊) but I completely fell in love with Mush. Oh, Mush! 🥰 And, If you don’t love him as much as I do, I don’t think we can be friends. Just saying! 😂

Sublime! Colin Walsh is an instant buy author for me now. Whatever he writes in the future, I will preorder asap!

Thank you so much, Atlantic Books, for inviting me to read an advanced copy of this stunning thriller. I cannot wait for it to be released. I will be getting a copy. ♥️

P.S I’m extremely torn! I LOVE the UK cover, but, after reading the novel, the US cover just has something extra. 🥰

P.p.s. I swear my friend had the same shirt with the Chinese writing & dragon on it.😂

📖 FROM THE COVER

In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland's west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They - Helen, Joe and Mush - were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group's white-hot centre. Soon after that summer's peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.
Now it's fifteen years later: Helen has reluctantly returned to Ireland for her father's wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician, newly back in town; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother's café. But human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. And as past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala's disappearance, and to try to stop Kinlough's violent patterns repeating themselves once again...
Against the backdrop of a town suffocating on its own secrets, in a story that builds from a smoulder to a stunning climax, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption.

REVIEW ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is a one hell of a debut.

From the get go the story had me intrigued. So interesting and smart at the intersection of literature and crime.
Everything about this book was there for me, there was a character lead feel, a mystery , strangely some dark humour set among what was a brilliant and unique story with classic themes and messages…outstanding. It is gripping, moving, compelling and insightful.



We are taken back and forth though time with flashbacks from the POV of Mush and Helen in the first person POV and the 3rd person POV with Joe. The flashbacks are seamless and flow brilliant the narrative is fragmented, with events and timelines being regularly interweaved. It is very well written as this worked brilliantly it wasn’t hard to follow at all but the writing was complex. Within the present day parts they really set up a sense of mystery as well giving us a true understanding of why the characters are the way they are now. It really questions what happens to us in life, does it make us different than we should have been, are we all just playing cards in someone else’s game and how do our choices shape us( great insightful point from the book)

I loved the flashbacks as I was the same
age as the characters at the time, I could identify with the feelings and thoughts. I liked how there was a touch of the young love first love between Joe and Kala the writer got the tone perfect with this. And extra stars for the Dawson Creek, music and make up/style references within these sections.

I found the change in style with Joe very interesting and clever as the story concluded, it left me with questions. There was a real “who knew what when?” Aftermath which made an already a deeply dark, deep multi layered plot all the more interesting and long lasting after reading. I think this book would make a great book club read as well as a great tv series…water cooler discussion a plenty here.

The characters are well developed and beautifully flawed making them see real and also likeable. I really found the contrast from the then and now very well written as previously stated made you really think.

Mush was without doubt my favourite character he was lovely, seemed a real good guy .I loved the twins and his relationship it added a touch humour to what was a dark book. This with the Mammies chat and some of the more colourful Irish language give off slight Derry Girls vibes.


This is the book Sally Rooney wishes she could write it’s got all the self doubt and worries that her books contain but the issues these characters face are real and true not like her books full of spoilt brats looking for issues. This insightful study of human nature is backed up with amazing plot that reminds me of Tana French .

The sign I really love a book is when I search for the audio version so I can continue the story while am going about my business. With Kala I requested the audiobook after reading the first chapter of the ebook I couldn’t put it down or off.

With the audiobook the narrators create added tension to the mystery setting a good pace and style. The tone of all three narrators was pitch perfect and the accents were great.

Both the print and audio versions were equally as good…which is to say five star

This is one of my top books of 2023. I will be looking out for more of the authors writing.

Thanks again for what was a truly brilliant ARC

The plot is as deep and dark as it gets, multi-layered with 'who knew what when?' as the strands come together and the finer details get filled in. This is an absolutely compelling, gripping book full of mystery and suspense. Only a few authors can write deeply involving psychological drama of the very highest quality. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Wow, this is fantastic.

Heart wrenching, stunning, gripping....
A story about the loss of a childhood friend, written in the voices of three of them, present and past memories.
A thrilling mystery that is hard to put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for providing me with an ARC.

This book took a little while for me to get into. The writing style is different to what I'm used to and felt to me like I was following each characters stream of consciousness. Which while it took me a few chapters to get into, it was so important to how much I learned about these characters and their personalities.

We follow three different characters point of views which helps to bring a well rounded view of what is going on in the present but also of the past. It's also the best way for us to meet and get to know Kala, who has been missing for 20 years at the beginning of the book.

Mush was without a doubt my favourite character, that boy just seems to have a heart of gold!

The story had me intrigued from the start and I couldn't stop reading until I had answers to all of the questions that kept growing as the book continued on.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Colin Walsh writes next and can't wait to recommend this to friends when it's released next month!

As the story begins we first learn of a group of six Irish teenage friends, three girls and three boys, delighting in the life they’re living in a large village in north County Leitram, lying between the Dartry Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. The action then quickly shifts to a period some years later, a time when a two of the group have temporarily returned to the village. We learn that one of the group, a high spirited girl called Kala, has gone missing at some point between these two events. It’s a mystery, nobody knows either where she went or what fate has befallen her.

We are to see more of some members of the group than others; we learn that aside from Kala another of the six, Aidan, is not around – it seems that he may have died? And we also begin to discover more about the relationships between them: the three boys formed a band, but only Joe went on to achieve fame; Mush, the third boy, still works at his mum’s café in the village; Kala and Aoife were close friends already when Helen moved to the village with her dad and sister, the two then became three.

The narrative is fragmented, with events and timelines being regularly interweaved. It requires concentration. There plenty are smart lines, making me pause and even to note some down for continued appreciation. And there’s a good deal of Irish slang mixed in, some of it explained and some not. It all bubbles along for more than half the book with nothing much more than the fact that there are clearly some hidden truths here to even hint at the reason for Kala’s disappearance. But then an event happens, a further disappearance, and suddenly the pace picks up, things kick off.

There are a number of mysteries here, some small and obviously the major one concerning Kala. Not all will be resolved, some loose ends will remain. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I feel. In fact the only gripe I have is the fact that the pace and feel of the book was significantly disturbed by events in the second half, and not in a good way. To me it felt unbalanced, it didn’t quite work. But even so, it’s a book I enjoyed and I think plenty of other readers will too.

Beautifully written in alternating voices, a tale of loss and growing up and small town murmurs. I can see this as a film, very evocative.

Absolutely loved this gripping thriller, told from the different perspectives of three adults, once part of a tight knit group of six, and alternating between events back when they were 15 and the near present day. Each of the main characters is expertly drawn, with a genuine warmth and complexity both from the three perspectives and from the friends and family they observe. At times there’s a genuine feeling of dread when it’s increasingly obvious something has gone badly wrong and no one has realised yet, and when violence erupts in both timelines the brutality of it is shocking. A true literary thriller, and for a debut, it’s quite astonishing. I want to read more of Colin Walsh, and to be honest I would like more of these characters - I feel saddened to leave them behind.

Superb writing from this author, a very eye catching cover, this book will go far, 5 stars. Blindingly excellent ... These books should come with a disclaimer as once you start reading you aren’t going to want to walk away.
I can't wait for this to come out and for y'all to lose your minds.

This is my favourite book of 2023 so far - beautifully written with fantastic characters who you are rooting for from the start. Beneath the bright and twinkling lights and laughter of a tourist town there are flashes of cruelty, pain and evil but you are never quite sure of where it is coming from.
The three main protagonists Kala, Mush and Helen are beautifully drawn with the writer managing to make them flawed but innocent; interesting but never unbelievably so.
This is an amazing debut and I hope Colin Walsh is already writing his next book.

I loved this book. I rarely read mysteries but this was far more than a page turner. The characters were beautifully drawn and were complex but relatable. I experienced so many emotions reading this book, sadness but also hope and it certainly made me think of my life experiences

This mystery debut novel from Colin Walsh is brilliant.It tells the story of a group of teenagers of something that happened 15 years ago It is told in two timelines which work perfectly.The backdrop of Kinlough a small village in Ireland and the secrets it holds are so intriguing.

In the small Irish town of Kinlough, a group of friends are inseparable and enjoying the thrill of being a teenager with the all the possibilities of a new millennium ahead of them. Until the disappearance of free-spirited Kala - who vanishes without a trace. A wedding brings the estranged friends back to the town ten years later and the discovery of human remains forces everyone to re-examine their role in Kala's disappearance.

This book had me completely gripped from the first chapter and still has not let go nearly a week after finishing!

I'm only a couple of years younger than Kala and the rest of the gang, so I connected straight away to their experiences of being a young teenager in the Noughties - the music and film references, how every lad you knew seemed to be in a band, still being a child in many ways (just going for long bike rides and having a laugh with your friends), but also becoming an adult and realising that there are dark and frightening things in the world.

I found the present day/flashback format really worked to help me connect to the characters as teenagers in 2003 and to understand how the events that occurred still affect them ten years later. I have read some other books recently that use a woman going missing as a plot device, however the voice of that woman is then often missing from the narrative. Not the case here - Kala was a vibrant, intriguing and fully realised character, with her voice coming through from the memories of her friends Helen, Joe and Mush. I did find it intriguing that Aoife only makes a very brief appearance as an adult but perhaps the author decided that having four voices was enough!

Kala is a thriller and a well-crafted mystery. It builds up slowly and the tension turns up and up every chapter - I had no idea who was responsible for her death until the big reveal. I had earmarked a couple of people along the way as the culprit and was totally wrong!

The only thing I didn't really get was why Mush and Helen's chapters were told in the first person but Joe's is told in the second person. Perhaps he is trying to distance himself from the events...?

An Irish thriller with Millennial 'Derry Girl'/Sally Rooney vibes.

‘Sometimes I think of who we were back then,
When she was with us,
We were such a force’
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Everyone on Netgalley, I give you my favourite read of 2023 so far! Colin Walsh has absolute SMASHED it out the park with this one, and it’s his debut novel?! My word is pre order his next book right now if I was capable!
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In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They – Helen, Joe and Mush – were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group’s white-hot centre. Soon after that summer’s peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.
Now it’s fifteen years later: Helen has reluctantly returned to Ireland for her father’s wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician, newly back in town; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother’s café. But human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. And as past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance, and to try to stop Kinlough’s violent patterns repeating themselves once again…
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I was swept away with this one! When I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it. When I was reading it, I was upset when it came to a point I knew I’d have to put it down. It was a tour de force in story telling that grabbed me and didn’t let me go. At times a gripping thriller and then at others a drama about a small Irish town in 2 different time periods, one as our main players are coming-of-age and the other as who they are now as adults. I’ll be thinking of this one for a long while!