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Brendan’s Year In Books

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Brendan Gerad O'Brien

Goodreads Author

Born

in Tralee, Ireland

Website

https://bgobriencom.wordpress.com

Twitter

Brendan G O'Brien @obgowan

Genre

Fiction, Crime, Historical Fiction

Influences

valmcdermid.com

Member Since

March 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/obgowan

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Originally from Tralee, on the west coast of Ireland, I now live in Newport, South Wales with my wife Jennifer and daughters Shelly and Sarah.
When I won my first writing competition I was so excited I ran all the way home. I was about eight years old. The Fun Fair was coming to town and our English teacher asked us to write an essay about it. I won the only prize - a book of ten tickets for the fair.
My uncle Moss Scanlon had a Harnessmaker’s shop in Listowel, and I spent some wonderful holidays there. The shop was a magnet for all sorts of colourful characters who’d wander in for a chat and a bit of jovial banter. One famous storyteller who often popped in was John B Keane, and I was there when John B’s first story was read out on Radio Eir Originally from Tralee, on the west coast of Ireland, I now live in Newport, South Wales with my wife Jennifer and daughters Shelly and Sarah.
When I won my first writing competition I was so excited I ran all the way home. I was about eight years old. The Fun Fair was coming to town and our English teacher asked us to write an essay about it. I won the only prize - a book of ten tickets for the fair.
My uncle Moss Scanlon had a Harnessmaker’s shop in Listowel, and I spent some wonderful holidays there. The shop was a magnet for all sorts of colourful characters who’d wander in for a chat and a bit of jovial banter. One famous storyteller who often popped in was John B Keane, and I was there when John B’s first story was read out on Radio Eireann. I can still remember the buzz of excitement. And I dreamt of being a writer too.
But it was only when I got married and the children came along that I made any serious attempt to write a book.
The result was Dark September, an alternative history thriller set in Newport during WW2. Germany invade Britain. Stormtroopers attack the South Wales coast to capture the coal mines. Newport is blitzed. Irishman Danny O’Shea’s wife is killed. O’Shea heads for neutral Ireland with his son …
I find writing very therapeutic. I get a great buzz from taking an idea and developing it, often watching it evolve into something completely different from how it started out. Great ideas are all around us. Little gems are waiting to be harvested everywhere. I find myself listening to what people are saying, and the way they say it.
For instance, the Irish are famous for their colourful and exaggerated language, always using a dozen words when one would do. So I set all my stories in Ireland. The names are changed, of course, because I don’t earn enough to survive a lawsuit.
The title of my collection of short stories, Dreamin’ Dreams, comes from something my father said years ago when I got poor grades at school. ‘What do you expect?’ he told my mother. ‘He never does any studying. He just sits there, dreamin’ dreams.’
The characters are all based on real people who passed through my life at some time or other, or events that actually happened to me. Enhanced, of course, and sometimes exaggerated out of all proportion.
My second novel, Gallows Field, introduces Eamon Foley, a Local Security volunteer. Set in Tralee in 1941, Foley is in a crowded pub when his brother-in-law Joe McCarthy is shot dead. And no one sees a thing.
In A Pale Moon Was Rising, Eamon Foley is now a guard. A young man’s body is pulled from the River Lee. He’s wearing a distinctive silver ring that belonged to Paudy Daly, the eldest son of the notorious Mixer Daly.
A Crack in the Ice is the third in the series of murder mysteries featuring Guard Eamon Foley.
A Murder in a Different Light is the fourth Guard Eamon Foley thriller. Ireland 1947. Seven weeks of relentless snow. Guard Eamon Foley is searching for a missing child.
At Toby Appleyard’s farm, he discovers the kitchen littered with dead cats. And the skeletal remains of a woman. Upstairs, Toby is dead in his bed.
Footsteps is a stand-alone thriller set in 1967, the summer of love. Dakota Lacey, a young American backpacker, arrives in a beautiful Irish seaside town on a glorious holiday weekend.
There are a load of interesting ideas fermenting in my mind right now, but the hard part is trying to isolate the good ones and mould them into some sort of story that will make sense. Wish me luck, and thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. Have a good day.

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Brendan Gerad O'Brien’s books

Average rating: 4.14 · 226 ratings · 115 reviews · 31 distinct works • Similar authors

	Gallows Field really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 48 ratings — published 2010 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Footsteps 3.91 avg rating — 33 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dark September really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 32 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Pale Moon Was Rising 4.06 avg rating — 16 ratings — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Murder in a Different Light 4.20 avg rating — 10 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dreamin' Dreams 4.67 avg rating — 9 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Crack in the Ice 4.13 avg rating — 8 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Can't Take You Home Again, Kathleen 3.71 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Since My Last Confession (A Guard Eamon Foley Mystery, #5) 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bunny Dundee it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Brendan Gerad O'Brien rated a book really liked it Past Lying (Karen Pirie #7) by Val McDermid	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Strangely, being a big fan of Tony Hill, I couldn't warn to the Karen Pirie character so I didn't get past the first few chapters. Then, on holiday recently, I needed something to read so I tried again. And discovered a real gem. Beautifully crafted, ...more
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Brendan Gerad O'Brien rated a book it was amazing Gallows Field by Brendan Gerad O'Brien (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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In the beginning, this was like a bunch of beautifully crafted pieces of a jigsaw that were randomly thrown on a table leaving a heap of questions. Who was the young girl Nell had with her? Why would anyone want to do her harm? Then, as if by the inv ...more
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Brendan’s Quotes

“Human history is one prolonged and painful limping. We invariably step with one foot on the rock of justice, and with the other, we sink into the mire of deceit and self-delusion.”
― Danail Hristov, The End of the Jesus Era

tags: deceit, human-history, justice, self-delusion

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