Castlebar Book Club
The Book Club meets once a month (usually the second Tuesday of the month) in Castlebar Library at 8.00pm. Check events page for next meeting. (Previous Book Club selections)
Book for December meeting, 2009
Winterland by Alan Glynn
The worlds of business, politics and crime collide in contemporary Dublin when two men with the same name, from the same family, die on the same night - one death is a gangland murder, the other, apparently, a road accident. Was it a coincidence? That's the official version of events. But when a family member, Gina Rafferty, starts asking questions, this notion quickly unravels. Devastated by her loss, Gina's grief is tempered, and increasingly fuelled, by anger - because the more she hears that it was all a coincidence, that gangland violence is commonplace, that people die on our roads every day of the week, the less she's prepared to accept it. Told repeatedly that she should stop asking questions, Gina becomes more determined than ever to find out the truth, to establish a connection between the two deaths - but in doing so she embarks on a path that will push certain powerful people to their limits... Alan Glynn is a graduate of Trinity College, where he studied English Literature. His first novel, The Dark Fields, was published in the US in 2002. He is married with two children and lives in Dublin.
Amazon.co.uk
This is Alan Glynn’s second novel and comes bedecked with endorsements from crime luminaries such as Val McDermid, RJ Ellory and our own John Connolly. Their praise is not misdirected: Winterland is a page-turner in the best sense of the word, a novel filled with clearly drawn, morally ambiguous characters, drawn from different social backgrounds, with conflicting work ethics and contradictory relationships to the truth, driven either by ambition or a desire to see justice served.
The plot never lets up for a moment and the three set-pieces of the story – the double murder at the beginning, an extraordinary central scene of gangland violence in a warehouse, and the rooftop climax towards the end – are as good as anything I have read in contemporary crime fiction.
The great achievement of the novel, however, is the creation of Gina Rafferty. Believing that a property developer has destroyed her family’s life, she acts as a metaphor for an entire country that has been shattered by greed and the machinations of the filthy rich. Because of this, Winterland takes its place as the first contemporary Irish novel to explore the disastrous effects of the property boom and the damage it has done to countless Irish families.
For that, and for this thrilling, brilliantly written novel, Alan Glynn deserves enormous praise.
The Irish Times
Irish writer Glynn's second novel is a heavyweight, grown-up thriller set in Dublin against a background of dirty politics and even dirtier business dealings. As the landscape is reinvented as a glittering monument to capitalism, morality is sacrificed to profit. When two men with the same name and from the same family die on the same night, one murdered and one in what seems to be a straightforward case of drunk driving, Gina Rafferty, aunt to one and sister to the other, starts to ask questions. When she comes upon an account of another fatal car accident, 25 years before, a pattern begins to emerge. Emotionally truthful, with a plausible cast, and told in wonderfully fluent prose, Winterland is a gripping tale of a world of greed and secrets, where public image is all that matters.
The Guardian
Winterland sets a dramatically high benchmark for emerald noir ... A resonant, memorable and uncomfortable read.
Val McDermid
A terrific read ... completely involving.
George Pelecanos
A dark and powerful slice of Dublin noir. I loved it!
R.J. Ellory
Timely, topical and thrilling.
John Connolly
This is the colossus of Irish crime fiction ... a noir masterpiece.
Ken Bruen
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