Eithne Shortall

It Could Never Happen Here by Eithne Shortall is a highly recommended domestic thriller told through multiple points of view.

In the town of Cooney in West Cork, a body has been pulled from the river behind the school. The parents and others in the school must be interviewed and the much anticipated play will be cancelled. Before this incident parents were jockeying for positions for their children or themselves in the play.

Beverley Franklin is a highly controlled, tightly wound woman. As the director of the Glass Lake primary school play, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, she must make sure every goes smoothly to protect the school's reputation as well as that of her daughter, Amelia, who is the lead character. When she catches Amelia in a shocking action, she immediately gets to work to make sure the right decision is made concerning it. The problem is that Beverly has no idea what is really going on and gossip is created and past on at lightning speed in Cooney.

There are many characters in It Could Never Happen Here, but the majority are truly unlikable and written as such. The pleasure in the narrative is following the utterly despicable and gossipy bunch of rumormongers, which includes all the mothers associated with the primary school. These women aren't your average helicopter parents, they are Chinook helicopter parents.

Readers won't know who was murdered until the very end, so with this group of characters for most of the novel everyone could be the victim. Interspersed within the narrative are brief insights into the police investigation and clips from interviews with those present in the school. There is a subplot about a cat kidnapping that is odd but funny.

While the novel is interesting at first, things drag on way too long and the gossipy cliques, prejudices, and rehashing of past events begin to grate. For the review copy, transitions between character's viewpoints weren't clearly delineated which may be changed in the final copy. 3.5
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Corvus via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2023/08/it-could-never-happen-here.html… (meer)

Grace After Henry by Eithne Shortall is a poignant yet ultimately uplifting novel of healing from a heartrending loss.

Grace McDonnell and her fiancé Henry Walsh are moving on to the next stage of their lives when he dies in a tragic accident. After retreating from life for a few months at her parents' house, Grace is finally ready to move forward. She moves into the house they purchased before his death and she returns to work. Yet every day remains a struggle for Grace as she thinks she sees Henry everywhere and mourns not just his loss, but the future they planned together. However, when her plumber turns out to be Henry's long lost twin brother, Andy, is Grace finally ready to truly move on?

Grace and Henry are idyllically happy and eager to enter the next stage in their relationship. After Henry's death, Grace is mired in grief and guilt yet with the support of her parents and best friend, she faces her future without him. However, after she moves into their dream home, Grace still finds it difficult to carry on with her day to day tasks. She forces herself to go to work only to return to an empty house that leaves her depressed and missing Henry more than ever. Help arrives in a very unexpected man but is Grace fooling herself as she and Andy grow close?

Andy always knew he was adopted and after his mum passes away, he leaves Australia for Ireland in hopes of finding more information about his birth family. He is aware his birth mother and twin brother are deceased but he craves more details about his birthplace. Through sheer coincidence, he meets Grace and through her, he gets to experience the life he has always missed. But is Andy a little too ready to accept the vestiges of Henry's life?

Grace is comforted by Andy's presence and initially, it is difficult to understand whether she sees him as Andy or her lost fiancé. Their interactions soon have a bit of a familiar feel to them as they slip into easy camaraderie and quiet evenings together. But Grace is not eager to introduce Andy to her family or friends and in fact, she lives in fear that people who knew Henry will see her with Andy. Is their friendship fair to Andy? Is Grace doing to the right thing as becomes deeper enmeshed in his life? Are she and Andy making the right choice after an unexpected complication arises? And most importantly, is Andy settling for less than he deserves as he embraces a life he feels he was denied with his flighty mum?

Grace After Henry is a captivating novel that is deeply affecting and quite impossible to put down. Grace is a very empathetic character as she tries to overcome her grief over Henry's loss. Andy is an amiable, laid back man whose somewhat dysfunctional background leaves him uncomfortably eager to fill in for Henry. Eithne Shortall brings this thoughtful portrait of grief and starting over to a realistic conclusion. An engrossing novel that I absolutely loved and highly recommend to fans of the genre.… (meer)