The Devil Looks After His Own
by Niamh McBrannan
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Pub Date 16 Nov 2017 | Archive Date 4 Feb 2018
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Description
Welcome to Sin City on the Liffey…
Betrayal on every level is the order of the day in a city where an ordinary woman is pushed beyond her limits against dark forces she only gradually comes to understand.
When the dead body of teenage street artist, Stevie Hennessy, is pulled from the river, his best friend, Kitty Lee, insists it’s not another homeless addict’s misadventure – and Connie Ortelius foolishly gets involved.
Burnt-out Connie has abandoned her ruined past to run Dublin’s greasiest café for her ancient Aunt Aggie. But along with the Silver Bullet Café, she discovers a clutch of readymade enemies as well as a vengeful coffee machine. Warned off by the guards and threatened by gangland racketeers, soon she’s in a race to unlock the secret of a danger about to destroy the city’s most vulnerable people. As intrigue, treachery and more bodies mount up, the story spirals rapidly from tea and gur-cakes to the ninth circle of hell. This is a place where no-one can be trusted… and your only choice for starters is – the Truth Du Jour.
'The Devil Looks After His Own' is a gritty contemporary crime novel, with a heart of hell.
Advance Praise
"Sharp, utterly brilliant, a rollercoaster ride that will keep you turning the pages. Dark, witty, and as fast paced as they come. An exceptionally unique perspective on Ireland's capital city and its kaleidoscope of characters." – Louise Phillips, award-winning author.
Featured Reviews
Bonnye Reed F, Reviewer
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.
