Irish Fiction

Detective Kieran Temple is woken by a 4am call from his ex-partner, Mia Burrows. And she’s just killed her boyfriend. As Temple is compelled to investigate, he must do so behind the backs of his superiors and his wife. Evidence tells him that she was defending herself against a maniac but Temple senses that she is not telling him everything and learns of a complex and dysfunctional relationship, one that’s been manipulated from the start.While carrying out this unsanctioned and disturbing investigation, Temple’s renewed contact with Mia also forces old feelings to resurface, feelings that once nearly cost him his marriage and his career. And with his gut telling him that Mia’s boyfriend was not the brute he’s being made out to be, Temple is determined to get answers while everyone – including Mia herself – just want it left alone.

Helen's expectations were far from starry-eyed, but married life with Frank in the late 1960s seemed bewilderingly joyless; from the honeymoon in a seedy Paddington hotel to their first home in his parents' Irish pub. Would she allow a sense of hopefulness to creep upon her when she finds out that a baby is on the way?

In this collection, one of Ireland's best-known political figures brings us stories of politics, of family, of love and of friendship. These are portraits of Ireland, and especially Belfast, old and new, in times of struggle and in times of peace, showing how our past is always part of our present.

A box of possessions. A father with no memory. A daughter with just one day to piece together the past.