Ordinary Decent Criminals

From the Orange Prize-winning author of WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN comes a bold and savage story of the intersection of politics and human relationships, set in turbulent Northern Ireland. Having abandoned Philadelphia for the life of an international nomad, Estrin Lancaster has a taste for hot spots. She now finds herself in Belfast, a city scarred by twenty years of ritualised violence. As the former purveyor of his own bomb-disposal service, Farrell O'Phelan courts the company of destruction. Technically a Catholic, he shuns allegiance of any kind. For these two, normal life is anathema; love is a trap. What ensues is an affair between two loners who are beset with a fear of domesticity and a hunger for devastation.

Shriver doesn’t rely on the glamour of violence or political

intrigue for dramatic effect: she consciously shuns the

hackneyed Romeo-and-Juliet yarn and the

IRA-bomber-with-a-heart-of-gold cliché … The background

details and dialogue ring very true to life; and the story is

anchored in a recognisable Belfast. Shriver was able to infiltrate

the local ethos and quickly assimilate its culture … Humour is

a vital element in the novel. Shriver has a mischievous,

hard-edged wit which borders on the cynical … The author’s

indifferent comic perspective is best revealed in the novel’s

“Glossary of Troublesome Terms.” Doubling as an often

hilarious guide to Ulster politics and an astute mini-essay on

the complicated nature of the situation, the glossary contains

the kind of home truths which have eluded political analysts for

decades