Translate

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Next of Kin

Next of Kin is a fictional book that is rooted in the factual observations of its author, Bernadette Maclean.

The story is set in a typical village in rural Ireland and it commences with a funeral of one of the most valued members of the life of the village, which is called Prim.

The village has just witnessed the funeral of an influential and very wealthy village inhabitant, Luke Mulryan.

Luke had made his fortune -and it was rumoured to be a considerable fortune, at that- in running a highly successful racehorse business.

Luke had made promises to a number of the inhabitants of Prim. But, as the book carefully reveals, some relatives of Luke had designs on his fortune. And as they are without scruples so were none too careful about how they might be able to lay their dirty hands on the money!

However, even the most well thought through plans can come awry when there is added to the mix the greed of the plotters, the lusts of the flesh, gambling and even a little bit of marital infidelity.

And then a sprained wrist -not even the wrist of a main protagonist!- brought about the precipitous and dreadful downfall of the plotters.

This book is a rare triumph. It is the first book by Bernadette Laclean and is set within the type of rural village that she was raised in in County Longford, Ireland.

It is written with joy, clarity and with great sympathy, even, perhaps for some of the characters who might not deserve any sympathy!

It is published by the Book Guild in paperback at £12.99 it is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which you will find to the right hand side of this book review.

I can heartily recommend this book.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for reading my blog and for leaving a comment.