Brouhaha
by Ardal O’Hanlon· 2022
The second novel from Ardal O’Hanlon is a black comedy of buried secrets and deadly rumours, as a suicide in an Irish border town rekindles the memory of a long-vanished girl.
Dove Connolly is dead. That's not good for anyone in Tullyanna, never mind Dove. Now his best friend Sharkey is home asking questions about Dove's death, about the strange graphic novel he left behind, and, most of all, about Sandra Mohan. Missing now for over a decade, whereabouts unknown. This, however, is a town set on keeping its secrets. And Sharkey is already drawing attention from all the wrong quarters.
A mystery, a black comedy, and a satire on Ireland's tangled politics of memory, Brouhaha is set in a small town on the Irish border during the transition to peace.
Over the past few days, Kevin had sensed a tension in the town thanks to Dove Connolly's decision to blow his own head off. It wasn't just the act itself, the splattering of blood and bone and brain all over his bedroom wall, that was the issue, unsettling as that was. In so doing, Dove had spread panic amongst the townspeople, raising all sorts of ugly questions, reviving all sorts of rumours, and inviting all sorts of unwelcome attention upon them. In Kevin's mind, there was method in Dove's madness. Showing assertiveness for possibly the first time in his life, Dove blew the lid off the whole town.
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The second novel from Ardal O’Hanlon is a black comedy of buried secrets and deadly rumours, as a suicide in an Irish border town rekindles the memory of a long-vanished girl. Dove Connolly is dead. That's not good for anyone in Tullyanna, never mind Dove. Now his best friend Sharkey is home asking questions about Dove's death, about the strange graphic novel he left behind, and, most of all, about Sandra Mohan. Missing now for over a decade, whereabouts unknown. This, however, is a town set on keeping its secrets. And Sharkey is already drawing attention from all the wrong quarters. A mystery, a black comedy, and a satire on Ireland's tangled politics of memory, Brouhaha is set in a small town on the Irish border during the transition to peace. Over the past few days, Kevin had sensed a tension in the town thanks to Dove Connolly's decision to blow his own head off. It wasn't just the act itself, the splattering of blood and bone and brain all over his bedroom wall, that was the issue, unsettling as that was. In so doing, Dove had spread panic amongst the townspeople, raising all sorts of ugly questions, reviving all sorts of rumours, and inviting all sorts of unwelcome attention upon them. In Kevin's mind, there was method in Dove's madness. Showing assertiveness for possibly the first time in his life, Dove blew the lid off the whole town.