It’s 1981 and Belfast is burning. So, too, is freshly widowed Bessie Halstone: she burns with a desire to break with her troubled past. With her feckless husband gone, she leaves home hurriedly with her naughty nine-year-old son, Herkie, and not much else. The Dentist, an IRA enforcer, is on her tail. He’s convinced that Bessie, with her “yella hair all puffed up like Merlin Monroe’s,” has absconded with the takings from a bank heist. But car trouble strands mother and son in Tailorstown, a sleepy Ulster village. Bessie finds temporary work as housekeeper for the handsome and mysterious parish priest. In the meantime, Lorcan Strong, an artist and a native of the village, is summoned home. He’s been shanghaied into forging paintings for the IRA. It’s work he cannot refuse; his mother and their business are under threat. Yet things are not what they seem in quirky Tailorstown. There is a “sleeper” in the village. But who? Bizarrely, it is young Herkie, due to his childish curiosity, who unravels the mystery and saves the day.
My Review:
This was a sequel and I recommend reading the first book because it explains Bessie's marriage, or lack of one. I liked Herkie and I was upset that he was called "naughty" right at the beginning. What did they expect after what happened with his dad? Tailorstown was freaky and I would not want to visit in the dark. I was always interested in a housekeeper's position to see inside a person's house. They see and hear things that no one else does. Bessie was the perfect character to land a mysterious job. The mystery was hard to solve and I loved that Herkie solved it. He better not be called naughty anymore. I was guessing throughout the book and I did not guess right until I read the end of the book. I also thought that the book was fast paced, and the dynamic between mother and son kept me reading. I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review from Night Owl Reviews, however all opinions are my own.
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