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Orchid Blue
January 1961, and the beaten, stabbed and strangled body of a nineteen year old Pearl Gambol is discovered, after a dance the previous night at the Newry Orange Hall. Returning from London to investigate the case, Detective Eddie McCrink soon suspects that their may be people wielding influence over affairs, and that the accused, the enigmatic Robert McGladdery, may struggle to get a fair hearing. Presiding over the case is Lord Justice Curran, a man who nine years previously had found his own family in the news, following the murder of his nineteen year old daughter, Patricia. In a spectacular return to the territory of his acclaimed, Booker longlisted "The Blue Tango," Eoin McNamee's new novel explores and dissects this notorious murder case which led to the final hanging on Northern Irish soil.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
9 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
About the author
Eoin McNamee
32 books66 followersMcNamee was awarded a Macaulay Fellowship for Irish Literature in 1990, after his 1989 novella The Last of Deeds (Raven Arts Press, Dublin), was shortlisted for the 1989 Irish Times/Aer Lingus Award for Irish Literature. The author currently lives in Ireland with his wife and two children, Owen and Kathleen.
He also writes as John Creed.
He also writes as John Creed.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 17, 2014
So, here we go again with all the usual motifs of an Eoin McNamee novel: artifice and mystery; ripe and limpid imagery; dodgy geography and anachronism; corrupt and corrupted politicians, lawyers, policemen and citizens; a razor sharp ear for provincial Protestant dialect, ungrammatical but laced with a rich biblical vocabulary; an almost invisible Catholic population; the inevitable RUC man ineffectually striving for an unattainable justice.
McNamee's style irritates some readers - I guess you either love it or hate it. I fall into the former category, and this novel represents a huge improvement on his last, the Princess Diana book. Indeed, I would consider Orchid Blue perhaps the best he has written yet, as it is more assured, with a greater sense of character and place while retaining the lyricism of earlier novels. The plot focuses on the real life murder of Pearl Gamble near Newry in 1961 and the subsequent arrest, trial and execution of Robert McGladdery for her murder - the last man hanged in Northern Ireland. A leading character in the novel is Judge Lancelot Curran, father of the murdered Patricia Curran, and the subject of The Blue Tango, to which this novel serves as a type of sequel. Regarding Curran's part in his daughter's death, this novel is much more forthcoming. At the centre of events is Inspector Eddie McCrink, an honest man, attempting to make sense of all that is happening around him. Returned to Northern Ireland from England, he has lost touch with 'how things work' and is out-manoeuvered at every turn. Events have an inevitability about them, as McGladdery is pushed towards his fate by the other players in the drama, while the author more subtly steers the reader to another conclusion entirely.
Was McGladdery innocent? McNamee's own background is in the law and he brings his own forensic skill to suggest a particular conclusion. The reader has to keep in mind constantly that this is a novel and nothing is quite what it seems. The author does not provide everything that is needed for a fair decision. But that too is what it is like in life. We are rarely told everything we need to know, but must carry on as best we can. No, this book is not in the end about the guilt or innocence of Robert McGladdery, but a brilliant polemic on a corrupt system and the meaning and nature of justice itself.
Footnote on the author's geographical errors: Reviewers of other novels have commented extensively on these. There are plenty in Orchid Blue as well. Eoin McNamee must know you cannot see the lights of Belfast from the terminal at Aldergrove; he is surely aware that the 'new city' of Craigavon did not exist in 1961; and if you go 14 miles east of Belfast you do not arrive in Larne, but somewhere in the middle of the Irish Sea. So why does he do it? Here are a few suggestions.The first possibility is that the author wishes to emphasise the impossibility of precision in anything, even in what we might consider the hardest of facts - that everything we consider certain is open to question, a kind of metaphor for the plot of the novels themselves. A second possibility is more political. Just as Northern Ireland seems an unreal place, a kind of pseudo-state, so its geography is warped and unreal. The third possibility is that Eoin McNamee simply includes them as a sort of motif, so that reviewers on Goodreads can have fun finding and correcting them. The fourth possibility is they are careless mistakes. Some support for this possibility comes in page 268. Who is the McVeigh who appears from nowhere and suddenly speaks to Robert in the condemned cell?
In the end it does not matter. Eoin McNamee is one of the most original writers around. He abhors the easy formula for success. This novel is gripping, moving and beautifully written. It is highly recommended.
McNamee's style irritates some readers - I guess you either love it or hate it. I fall into the former category, and this novel represents a huge improvement on his last, the Princess Diana book. Indeed, I would consider Orchid Blue perhaps the best he has written yet, as it is more assured, with a greater sense of character and place while retaining the lyricism of earlier novels. The plot focuses on the real life murder of Pearl Gamble near Newry in 1961 and the subsequent arrest, trial and execution of Robert McGladdery for her murder - the last man hanged in Northern Ireland. A leading character in the novel is Judge Lancelot Curran, father of the murdered Patricia Curran, and the subject of The Blue Tango, to which this novel serves as a type of sequel. Regarding Curran's part in his daughter's death, this novel is much more forthcoming. At the centre of events is Inspector Eddie McCrink, an honest man, attempting to make sense of all that is happening around him. Returned to Northern Ireland from England, he has lost touch with 'how things work' and is out-manoeuvered at every turn. Events have an inevitability about them, as McGladdery is pushed towards his fate by the other players in the drama, while the author more subtly steers the reader to another conclusion entirely.
Was McGladdery innocent? McNamee's own background is in the law and he brings his own forensic skill to suggest a particular conclusion. The reader has to keep in mind constantly that this is a novel and nothing is quite what it seems. The author does not provide everything that is needed for a fair decision. But that too is what it is like in life. We are rarely told everything we need to know, but must carry on as best we can. No, this book is not in the end about the guilt or innocence of Robert McGladdery, but a brilliant polemic on a corrupt system and the meaning and nature of justice itself.
Footnote on the author's geographical errors: Reviewers of other novels have commented extensively on these. There are plenty in Orchid Blue as well. Eoin McNamee must know you cannot see the lights of Belfast from the terminal at Aldergrove; he is surely aware that the 'new city' of Craigavon did not exist in 1961; and if you go 14 miles east of Belfast you do not arrive in Larne, but somewhere in the middle of the Irish Sea. So why does he do it? Here are a few suggestions.The first possibility is that the author wishes to emphasise the impossibility of precision in anything, even in what we might consider the hardest of facts - that everything we consider certain is open to question, a kind of metaphor for the plot of the novels themselves. A second possibility is more political. Just as Northern Ireland seems an unreal place, a kind of pseudo-state, so its geography is warped and unreal. The third possibility is that Eoin McNamee simply includes them as a sort of motif, so that reviewers on Goodreads can have fun finding and correcting them. The fourth possibility is they are careless mistakes. Some support for this possibility comes in page 268. Who is the McVeigh who appears from nowhere and suddenly speaks to Robert in the condemned cell?
In the end it does not matter. Eoin McNamee is one of the most original writers around. He abhors the easy formula for success. This novel is gripping, moving and beautifully written. It is highly recommended.
February 21, 2022
DNF @ page 93. Perhaps people in Northern Ireland in 1961 really did speak like they had swallowed a Bible and all the notable literary works pre-1900. Perhaps this should be lauded (the critics loved it) for its unconventional telling of a crime. But it’s not for me. I don’t like the style or the structure. I do not have the time to try and understand the supposed uniqueness of this novel.
December 7, 2012
Das erste Wort, was mir zu diesem Buch einfällt: Schwermut.
Das Besondere an diesem Buch: Es ist kein Krimi im eigentlichen Sinn, und wenn, dann nur oberflächlich. Viel mehr werden gesellschaftliche Werte untersucht und in Frage gestellt, das Pech und der Vorteil des Einzelnen beleuchtet, Intrigen aufgedeckt. Krimi-Elemente sind eigentlich nur darin zu sehen, dass es eine Leiche und mehr oder weniger ermittelnde Polizeiarbeit gibt. Der Grundton bleibt dabei durchweg düster und bedrohlich, die Kulisse der irischen Stadt aus den 60ern wirkt wie aus einem modernen Steampunk-Märchen herausgerissen und die schnellen Wechsel der Foki innerhalb der Erzählung aber auch zwischen erzählerischen und sachlich informierenden Elementen lassen ein außergewöhnliches Lesegefühl aufkommen.
Das Nervige an diesem Buch: rein gar nichts. Rundum bemerkenswert, ein Buch, das mir in Erinnerung bleiben wird.
Auch heute noch gibt es in einigen Ländern die Todesstrafe. "Requiem" macht deutlich, welche Fehler bei einer Ermittlung und Verurteilung passieren können bzw. hingenommen werden. Ganz abgesehen davon, ob ein Angeklagter schuldig oder nicht schuldig ist, steht es einem Repräsentanten einer zivilisierten Gesellschaft auch nur in einem dieser Fälle zu, über den Wert des Lebens zu urteilen?
Das Besondere an diesem Buch: Es ist kein Krimi im eigentlichen Sinn, und wenn, dann nur oberflächlich. Viel mehr werden gesellschaftliche Werte untersucht und in Frage gestellt, das Pech und der Vorteil des Einzelnen beleuchtet, Intrigen aufgedeckt. Krimi-Elemente sind eigentlich nur darin zu sehen, dass es eine Leiche und mehr oder weniger ermittelnde Polizeiarbeit gibt. Der Grundton bleibt dabei durchweg düster und bedrohlich, die Kulisse der irischen Stadt aus den 60ern wirkt wie aus einem modernen Steampunk-Märchen herausgerissen und die schnellen Wechsel der Foki innerhalb der Erzählung aber auch zwischen erzählerischen und sachlich informierenden Elementen lassen ein außergewöhnliches Lesegefühl aufkommen.
Das Nervige an diesem Buch: rein gar nichts. Rundum bemerkenswert, ein Buch, das mir in Erinnerung bleiben wird.
Auch heute noch gibt es in einigen Ländern die Todesstrafe. "Requiem" macht deutlich, welche Fehler bei einer Ermittlung und Verurteilung passieren können bzw. hingenommen werden. Ganz abgesehen davon, ob ein Angeklagter schuldig oder nicht schuldig ist, steht es einem Repräsentanten einer zivilisierten Gesellschaft auch nur in einem dieser Fälle zu, über den Wert des Lebens zu urteilen?
May 12, 2012
Orchid blue is a fictionalised version of the real Gamble/McGladdery case. Ultimately McGladdery was found guilty of Gamble’s death and he was the last person hung in Northern Ireland in 1961. McNamee then is exploring some troubling elements of the case through a fictional lens. The problem for the reader is that it’s not at all clear which elements are based on fact, which elements of the case are being challenged, and which bits are entirely fictional and imagined. Somewhat disconcertingly, large portions of the story are written in the style of a true crime book, with a dispassionate, distant and timeless voice, although in a much more sophisticated prose than in most true crime. For me, this style had the effect of leaving me outside the story, instead of being immersed in it. As a result, I struggled through a good portion of the book, though I did begin to feel more hooked in in the last third. Overall, I found this quite a difficult book to get into and I found the read quite disconcerting for the reasons above. Nevertheless, the case is an interesting one.
September 28, 2011
Very well written and fascinating story - may be a bit biased as I grew up in the town it is set.
December 22, 2024
Eoin MacNamee erzählt die Geschichte von Robert McGladdery, dem letzten Mensch der in Nordirland hingerichtet wurde. McGladdery wurde wegen des Mordes an der 19jährigen Pearl Gamble angeklagt und schuldig gesprochen.
Roberts Geschichte ist die eines jungen Mannes, dessen Schuld von Anfang an festzustehen schien. Die ermittelnden Beamten waren nie auf der Suche nach möglichen anderen Tätern, sondern nur nach Beweisen für McGladderrys Schuld. Er stand schnell als Verdächtiger fest und wurde überwacht. Diese Aufmerksamkeit schien ihm zu gefallen. Er gab damit an, Verdächtiger in einem Mordfall zu sein. Ob er sich der Folgen dieses Handels bewusst war, hat der Autor offen gelassen.
Für mich ist das nicht das Einzige, was offen geblieben ist. Der zuständige Richter will eine Verurteilung um jeden Preis. Seine Voreingenommenheit ist offensichtlich, trotzdem wird er nicht von dem Fall abgezogen. Roberts Mutter scheint nicht an der Schuldfrage ihres Sohns interessiert zu sein. Vielmehr beschäftigt sie die Schande, die er über sie bringt. Und auch der neue Ermittler im Team, McCrink bleibt vom Charakter eher farblos.
Das Buch ist eine Aneinanderreihung von Fakten, aber nicht mehr. Nicht nur McCrink bleibt blass, auch die anderen Charaktere entwickeln sich seit dem ersten Eindruck, den ich von ihnen gewonnen habe, nicht weiter. Robert McGladdery war ein Angeber und nicht wirklich sympathisch, aber macht ihn das zum Mörder? Er bestreitet seine Schuld und ist sich bis zum Prozess sicher, dass er freigesprochen wird. Erst ganz zum Schluss legt er ein Geständnis ab, aber was ist es wirklich wert nach der Verurteilung? Für mich blieben nach der Lektüre mehr fragen offen, als mir der Autor beantworten konnte.
Roberts Geschichte ist die eines jungen Mannes, dessen Schuld von Anfang an festzustehen schien. Die ermittelnden Beamten waren nie auf der Suche nach möglichen anderen Tätern, sondern nur nach Beweisen für McGladderrys Schuld. Er stand schnell als Verdächtiger fest und wurde überwacht. Diese Aufmerksamkeit schien ihm zu gefallen. Er gab damit an, Verdächtiger in einem Mordfall zu sein. Ob er sich der Folgen dieses Handels bewusst war, hat der Autor offen gelassen.
Für mich ist das nicht das Einzige, was offen geblieben ist. Der zuständige Richter will eine Verurteilung um jeden Preis. Seine Voreingenommenheit ist offensichtlich, trotzdem wird er nicht von dem Fall abgezogen. Roberts Mutter scheint nicht an der Schuldfrage ihres Sohns interessiert zu sein. Vielmehr beschäftigt sie die Schande, die er über sie bringt. Und auch der neue Ermittler im Team, McCrink bleibt vom Charakter eher farblos.
Das Buch ist eine Aneinanderreihung von Fakten, aber nicht mehr. Nicht nur McCrink bleibt blass, auch die anderen Charaktere entwickeln sich seit dem ersten Eindruck, den ich von ihnen gewonnen habe, nicht weiter. Robert McGladdery war ein Angeber und nicht wirklich sympathisch, aber macht ihn das zum Mörder? Er bestreitet seine Schuld und ist sich bis zum Prozess sicher, dass er freigesprochen wird. Erst ganz zum Schluss legt er ein Geständnis ab, aber was ist es wirklich wert nach der Verurteilung? Für mich blieben nach der Lektüre mehr fragen offen, als mir der Autor beantworten konnte.
October 26, 2021
Probably a 3.5 stars from me.
Based on a true story, it was an interesting read. I really felt the atmosphere of the time in it and also the character development was well done. The different voices in the book were also a good way to understand what happened in the story.
Based on a true story, it was an interesting read. I really felt the atmosphere of the time in it and also the character development was well done. The different voices in the book were also a good way to understand what happened in the story.
July 18, 2023
The fact that this book is based on real events is actually horrifying to me. Like there was literally no concrete evidence tying him to the murder but he was still hanged. (It was very obviously his best friend and he just took the blame)
Yuck yuck yuck this was infuriating.
Yuck yuck yuck this was infuriating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2024
A good book that is exploring the justice system in Northern Ireland Based in a true-life murder case of Pearl Gamble , a 19 year old girl . The book shows how influence can effect a investigation/court case due to outside sources .
Its a sad , shocking read thats rather slow paced !
Its a sad , shocking read thats rather slow paced !
December 17, 2019
This is not my usual type of fiction but I really enjoyed the plot. A page - turner that keeps you wondering if it will be satisfactorily resolved.
October 20, 2022
Another fictionalisation of a well-known Northern Irish murder case (following on from the author's earlier 'The Blue Tango'). As with the earlier book, it would appear that many of the facts have been changed, but if you can accept this then this is a very enjoyable and historically interesting novel.
April 7, 2016
This second part of the Blue Trilogy is just as excellent as the first novel. It takes place nine years later than the 1952 timing of BLUE TANGO. Another murder of a young woman, this time in Newry, NI. Some familiar characters from the first book, notably Judge Curran and his wife. Some vital, new characters, notably Inspector of Constabulary McCrink and the accused man, Robert McGladdery. Many references to the murder of Judge Curran's daughter that occurred in the first book. You may be at the edge of your seat hoping that the lacunae in that case's original investigation will be filled. I won't tell you if they are. But suffice it to say that the lacunae in this book's new case are wide and deep enough to stun you. Again, McNamee paints a picture of a province infused with hypocrisy, corruption, rottenness, and desiccation. A quotation from this novel, from an unlikely source (look for it): "To equate law with equity is a mistake. Justice is a by-product of our system of law, not an end." I look forward to the third volume of the trilogy.
March 20, 2016
I was more aware, right from the start, with this than with 'The Blue Tango' that it was based on a true crime, and that the outcome was told at the start lent the whole of it a heavy sense of frustrated doom, as what sounded like a miscarriage of justice was perpetrated. McNamee's use of language is stark and impactful, necessitating that one read to the dreadful end, soaking up yet another way in which justice can not be said to have been done.
May 6, 2016
A fictionalised account of the true story of the conviction and execution of Robert McGladdery for the 1961 murder of Pearl Gamble in Newry, Co Down, in Ireland. It was to be the final hanging on the island. The judge presiding over the case was Lance Curran, father of the 1952 murder victim Patricia whose death and case was the subject of McNamee's previous book The Blue Tango. Further detail as to what happened in 1952 also comes to light, but can it and its source be trusted?
Want to read
December 8, 2010Set in my home town of Newry, I heard the story of Pearl Gamble's murder by Robert McGladdery, the last man to be hanged in Northern Ireland, as a child. But did he really kill her?
May 6, 2016
Good story and well written.
June 2, 2021
Excellent
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews