Showing results by narrator "Aoife McMahon" in All Categories

This is a love story, set in the Irish literary world between 1986 and 2015. When they were first introduced by the poet Derek Mahon, Alannah Hopkin was an arts journalist turned full-time writer and Aidan Higgins, twenty-three years her senior, was a literary stylist, often cited as the heir to Ireland’s great Modernist tradition. They wrote steadily during their twenty-nine years together, but their careers could not have been more different: while Aidan focused on fiction and memoirs, Alannah prioritised work that paid the bills.

Separating fact from fiction, Anatomy of an Injustice—The Killing of Fr Niall Molloy re-examines the astonishing circumstances surrounding the death of a 52-year-old priest almost forty years ago.

Four hundred and twenty pearls hand sewn onto the wedding dress. The Mediterranean honeymoon booked for months. A pile of presents bigger than Everest. And her lovely Tim, the most perfect bridegroom a girl could wish for. Except, two weeks before the wedding, he changes his mind...Isobel's wedding is off. Her world in tatters, Isobel turns to Spain, a new job, a new life and as many men as she can decently manage. Including the very appealing Nico with whom, she feels, there could be a long-term future. But part of Isobel knows that she will have to go back home some day.

In a small town where everyone knows everyone, Emma O'Donovan is different. She is the special one - beautiful, popular, powerful. And she works hard to keep it that way. Until that night.... Now she's an embarrassment. Now she's just a slut. Now she is nothing. And those pictures - those pictures that everyone has seen - mean she can never forget. For fans of Caitlin Moran, Marian Keyes and Jodi Picoult. The award-winning, best-selling novel about the life-shattering impact of sexual assault, rape and how victims are treated.

After his father's death, Prince Lir is tricked into embarking on a perilous quest to rescue a maiden from a dragon. The studious young prince is no warrior, but he uses his brains to make himself indispensable to the grumpy dragon. However, neither prince nor dragon have bargained on the dark magic which manipulates them both, and it may be left to maiden herself to save them all…

On Doogort East Bog, Achill Island, a body is found. The close community is stunned to learn that it's Lisa Moran, a popular teacher who disappeared two days earlier. DS Lucy Golden is assigned to the case. For her, it's personal. As an Achill native, she knows that sometimes great evil can lurk in plain sight. Having moved back from Dublin, she has spent the last 10 years trying to prove herself to her colleagues after her husband was jailed for fraud. This is her chance to put the past behind her.

For one week, everything in Luke Miller's life is perfect. Surprised with a belated honeymoon by his wife, Rose, he's had seven days with her in a Caribbean paradise. It's more than he ever thought he'd deserve. But as they pack their bags, Rose breaks down, confessing that on the day they left London, a violent man from her past tracked her down and broke into their home. He wasn't expecting her to fight back. And, in her terror, Rose killed him. Now there's a dead body in Luke's apartment, and only one person he can think to turn to.

This was the night train to Barcelona, some hours before the dawn. This was 1950, late September. I had left my husband. I had left my home. Katherine Proctor has dared to leave her family in Ireland and reach out for a new life. Determined to become an artist, she flees to Spain, where she meets Miguel, a passionate man who has fought for his own freedoms. They retreat to the quiet intensity of the mountains and begin to build a life together.

In an isolated house by Dugort pier a body is found. DS Lucy Golden is shocked to discover that the victim, Sandra Byrne, is a sister of one of her old school friends. To further complicate matters, Ben Lively, one of Lucy's colleagues, is the chief suspect. Lucy must put aside her bias in order to uncover the truth. But the deeper she digs into Sandra's life, the more the past starts to unravel and the less she seems to know. How do you solve a murder when all you have are lies?

Oliver Molloy never meant to hurt his wife. It was an accident, not his fault. A respected lawyer, he needs to make sure no one finds out the truth. But there’s someone watching him, waiting for him to slip up. Photography student Joanna Lacey has always been close to her mother. But when Rachel Arnold turns up on her doorstep, Joanna’s world falls apart. The father she never knew has been found in the canal – a married man, now dead.

When Louisa arrives at Temple House, an elite catholic boarding school, she quickly finds herself drawn to sophisticated fellow pupil Victoria and their young bohemian art teacher, Mr Lavelle. The three of them form a bond that seems to offer an escape from the repressive regime of the nuns who run the cloistered school. Until Louisa and Mr Lavelle suddenly vanish. Years later, a journalist with a childhood connection to Louisa determines to resolve the mystery.

On the verge of a marital breakup after the death of their stillborn son, a journalist, Omar Wilde, who is covering the Centenary Bloomsday celebrations of James Joyce’s Ulysses in Dublin, Ireland, is desperately looking for "the story" that will prove his worth to his disillusioned wife, Flora. While wandering around the Bloomsday celebrations, they find themselves embroiled in a potential terrorist attack. Faced with this life-threatening situation, Omar must finally conquer his fears and sense of failure before hundreds of people, including many dignitaries, are murdered horribly.

An Irish Nature Year is a filled with plants, animals, birds and creepy-crawlies from all over the island of Ireland. With one short entry for every day of the year, nature columnist Jane Powers serves up five minutes worth of wonderment to enjoy on your coffee break, on your commute or to relax with at bedtime.

Dublin, 1943. Actress Julia Bridges disappears. She was last seen entering the house of Gloria Fitzpatrick, who is later put on trial for the murder of a woman whose abortion she facilitated. But it’s never proved that Gloria had a hand in Julia’s death—and Julia’s body has never been found. Gloria, however, is sentenced to life in an institution for the criminally insane, where she’s found dead a few years later from an apparent suicide, and the truth of what happened to Julia Bridges dies with her.

Izzie Silver left the small Irish town of Tamarin behind her for life in New York. She's big, beautiful, and dreams of her own model agency for plus-sized women (what her grandmother would call "healthy" women). Life is good - but she's just broken one of her cardinal rules and fallen for a married man.

A mosaic of seven regular townsfolk are going about their days, blissfully unaware their lives are about to interweave, interchange and interact; entangling into such a messy web that, together—and unbeknownst to them—they end up changing the face of America forevermore. In the mold of movies such as Traffic, Magnolia & The Usual Suspects, In the Middle of Middle America follows multiple characters, allowing the listener to become a fly on the wall to observe seven lives as they entangle into such a mess that it all leads to a head-spinning twist.

A thoughtful, captivating and ultimately uplifting novel from this uniquely talented author. She has just two weeks. Two weeks to teach him how to fall in love - with his own life. Adam Basil and Christine Rose are thrown together late one night, when Christine is crossing the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin. Adam is there, poised, threatening to jump. Adam is desperate - but Christine makes a crazy deal with him. His 35th birthday is looming and she bets him that before then she can show him life is worth living.

During an unprecedented heatwave, the body of a young girl is found in a submerged suitcase in Loch Acorrymore on Achill Island. DS Lucy Golden is tasked with identifying her and returning her to her family. With the help of her team, they discover that the girl was a runaway, who had spent some time in a homeless shelter. She has been murdered and an investigation is launched. Despite some promising leads, Lucy's enquiries seem to be going nowhere until another the body with connections to the homeless shelter is discovered in what initially appears to be a suicide.

When Marianne’s carefully constructed life and marriage fall apart, she is forced to return to Ancaire, the ramshackle seaside house perched high on a cliff by the Irish Sea. There she must rebuild her relationship with her mother, Rita, a flamboyant artist and recovering alcoholic who lives by her own rules. Marianne left home when she was 15 following a traumatic and tragic incident. She never planned to return, and now she has to face the fact that some plans don’t work out the way you wanted them to.

Things are finally looking up for Anna. Fourteen miserable years of marriage to man-child Connor have left her drained and ready for a new start. So when they separate, she couldn't be more thrilled to move in with James, a handsome lecturer who is everything her ex-husband is not: kind, thoughtful and above all, reliable. But Anna and James' kids hate living with the loved-up couple and the new set-up. Their teenage daughters—one a studious high achiever and the other a cool rich girl unbothered by grades or exams—have nothing in common.