Review Summaries

• The narration is valued for layering quiet feeling with a strong sense of place. Rather than relying only on crime-fiction tension, it leaves an impression through human loneliness.

Reviews

• Thoroughly Enjoyed It!

  A fantastic read. It was hard to put the book down, call it quits and go to bed. It had great flow from the get-go. The characters in story had me pushing on to find out what was going on, what they were thinking and feeling. I haven't been to Killarney, but after reading O'Sullivan's novel, it's a place I'm wanting to see and experience. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

• A must for those that love Killarney and The Blues. A well paced adventure through love and loss

  This is a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish that draws you in as the story develops. For anyone familiar with Killarney, the novel takes you on a delightful journey around the town and its environs, while never getting in the way of the story. For anyone familiar with The Blues, it is a similar journey through the back catalogues of the genre seen through the eyes (and ears) of the characters. In addition, the story tugs at your emotions that will have you rooting for and empathising with characters all through the story. A good old fashioned page turner, the writing style keeps the story moving along at just the right pace. I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it – Enjoy!

• Une belle découverte

  Voici un premier roman fort et original: une Irlande loin des clichés, une voix âpre et une histoire qui ne laisse pas indifférent.

• life goes on

  Ordinary people in an ordinary place living ordinary lives, but with so much sadness woven through this tale. Poetic at times, and well painted,I engaged with the storyline and was left wanting just a little more

• What the Joy of Reading is All About

  In Tom Russell's song about Lightnin' Hopkins, 'Scars on His Ankles,” he writes of Lightnin's scars on his ankles where the chain from the chain gang cut his skin. In Colin O'Sullivan's jewel of a first novel, Killarney Blues, winner of the “Prix Mystere De La Critique,” in France, the main characters also have scars, but they are the emotional ones, ones that were thought to be buried, ones that lie scratching deep beneath the surface of their skin, never to be forgotten. Thirty year old Bernard Dunphy is a jarvey by trade, driving a horse-carriage, that carries the many tourists, who flock to the lovely Irish town of Killarney each year. Pulled by his old worn-out, dying, but gallant horse, Ninny, Bernard is considered by most a town weirdo. Gap-toothed, overweight, and grubby in his old tobacco and sweat stained black coat, that he wears on even the warmest of days. Walking alone through the town, large headphones in place, listening and mumbling along with the likes of blues-man Son House, as his raw, passionate, stomping sound tears up out of his body and soul, filling Bernard's ears. “That rhythm is the beat of Bernard's heart.” He knows all the old blues-men, from Muddy Waters to Howling Wolf, Sleepy Ma Rainey, John Estes, and Robert Johnson. They are his heroes and Bernard cannot get enough of them. In his small room alone at home with his guitar, and voice he records blues songs, then gives them to his childhood crush, and love of his life, the beautiful Marian, though she is less than pleased about it. In fact her two childhood friends, Cathy and Mags delight in teasing her relentlessly about poor old goofy Bernard's ongoing devotion to her. Bernard's other childhood friend is the handsome, popular, footballer, heavy drinker, and ladies man, Jack Moriarty. Jack is supposed to be Mags steady, but he is spending a lot of bed time with her best friend Cathy behind Marian's back. Bernard and Jack share a dark secret that remains a scar on their souls from a terrible night back when they were little boys, young and innocent. A terrible night that also scared Bernard's father John Dunfey, who also loved the blues, and taught Bernard to play, and his mother, Brigid, who smothers Bernard with love and devotion, since her husband John Dunfey's questionable death by drowning in the lake. They only have each other, a home that once held lovely memories, but also a never mentioned shameful secret. A secret that during this green, glorious summer, will finally scratch through their skins. The green and blue lake beauty of Killarney, Ireland runs through this wonderfully written novel, and the blues are the glue that holds it all together. Colin O'Sullivan writes gloriously. Hope, frailty, sadness, joy, resilience and surprise. The novel jumps back and forth in time, and character viewpoints, but never once does it alter in any way the grand flow of this lyrical and compelling story as it moves forward. The reader carried along steadily, and then hurriedly as the pages fly by a bit faster, eyes reading in a hurry to find out what happens next, until finally the last paragraph, and a large smile spreads across the face. Killarney Blues is what the joy of reading a totally enjoyable novel is all about.

• An Addictive Read

  A compelling story from it's bloody outset. I couldn't put it down. Well drawn characters I cared about kept this book in my hands. It has left me wanting more.

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