A Famished Heart: The Sunday Times Crime Club Star Pick

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

Her head was bowed, and the hands braced on the chair arms were not like hands at all, but the dry dark claws of a bird...

The Macnamara sisters hadn't been seen for months before anyone noticed. It was Father Timoney who finally broke down the door. One woman was sitting in her armchair, surrounded by religious tracts, the other was crouched under her own bed. Both had starved themselves to death.

Francesca Macnamara returns to Dublin after decades in the US, to find her family in ruins. Meanwhile, Detectives Vincent Swan and Gina Considine are convinced that there is more to the deaths than suicide. Because what little evidence there is, shows that someone was watching the sisters die...

Reviews

'Fabulous Dublin-based crime. Dark, atmospheric, well-written. Very much in the vein of Tana French' -- Jo Spain, bestselling author of The Confession
'An intriguing, compelling and highly entertaining story. Formidably impressive writing!' -- Liz Nugent, award-winning author of Unravelling Oliver
'A fabulous closed room mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. This is a gorgeously poetic deep-dive into the pieties and myth-making of Dublin in the early eighties' -- Denise Mina, acclaimed author of Conviction
'A terrific new gem of Irish noir, written with a light touch but a firm command of character, mannerisms and speech' * Sunday Times *
'Sombre, psychologically nuanced and compassionate... as gripping as it is disturbing' * Irish Times *
'Thrilling... will keep you guessing until the very end' * My Weekly *
'This creeps up on you until you're hooked' * Heat *
'An intriguing and haunting story that will appeal to lovers of the Irish police procedural' * NB Magazine *
'Infused with depth, darkness and acute psychological drama. Her polished prose comes studded with original imagery and her dialogue crackles. We are propelled towards an explosive denouement which, artfully, doubles as a kind of moral reckoning' * Herald *
'Set in 1980s Dublin, staunch and stoic Catholic tones measure the pace and impregnate the complexity of A Famished Heart' * Business Day *

Author Bio

Nicola White won the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award in 2008 and in 2012 was Leverhulme Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University. Her novel The Rosary Garden won the Dundee International Book Prize, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, and selected as one of the four best debuts by Val McDermid at Harrogate. She grew up in Dublin and New York, and now lives in the Scottish Highlands.