One night in Dublin, insomniac widower Paddy Buckley knocks someone over in his car. Closer investigation reveals that he’s killed the brother of feared mobster Vincent Cullen. Scarier still, the undertaker that Paddy works for is called upon to make the arrangements for the dead man’s funeral, and a nervous Paddy has to meet the grieving brother face to face. If you like the concept, you’ll probably enjoy the book. Paddy has to negotiate his way through the next few days on his wits, and his wits aren’t always up to the task. For good measure, throw in a love triangle involving a client of the funeral home and her daughter, and you’ve got a tense and funny thriller which revels in its macabre premise. As the debut novel from a screenplay writer, it has the dynamism of a motion picture, and the fact that Massey comes from a family of undertakers gives the scenes set in Paddy’s workplace a ghoulish authenticity.
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