The Garfield Conspiracy by Owen Dwyer

 The protagonist of Dwyer’s excellent new novel - part mystery, part examination of a writer in mid life crisis - Richard has his life unwittingly turned upside down when a new research assistant, Jenny, arrives to “help” him finish his book. They both know, though they leave it unspoken, that she’s there on the publishers’ orders to coax him along. 

However, the work is quickly made less of a priority as sparks fly between the pair and they engage in an affair that results in Richard leaving his wife and moving in with Jenny. In the meantime, Richard has started having unwelcome visitations from long-dead American political figures in his bid to find out who killed President Garfield. 

The grounding of an examination of a writer struggling with his legacy and health, along with trying to restore his reputation by writing a novel that would be explosive, makes more absorbing and compelling reading. We want Richard and Jenny to succeed on their literary mission, but outside of this it is much less black and white. It’s well paced, pulls the various strands of the story together well, and reaches an ending that is as shocking as it necessary. 

An excellent voice, not just in Irish fiction, but fiction as a whole. 

Review: Codename Firefly by C. J. Daugherty

 The brilliant sequel to No. 10 sees Gray, the daughter of the Prime Minister, face new but equally intense challenges. Gray has survived an assassination attempt and is now at a highly secure boarding school, working through her trauma while trying to make new friends, and still keeping safe from would-be assassins. Normal teenager problems mixed with an extreme situation, such as knowing her mother’s would be killers are after her, give Gray nightly panic attacks. Unsurprising. 

The school staff reintroduce NIGHT SCHOOL, a self defence class for the highest priority students. Along with Gray is a young man called Dylan, who is surely hiding a secret…

The second in this series is as full of intrigue and suspense as the first. A closed setting packs no less of a punch, and indeed helps build up the tension even more. There are intriguing and interesting new characters to complement the existing ones, and finishes with a huge set piece that does justice to the pace set by the novel.