The Blue Tango

by Eoin McNamee

A thriller set in a shadowy world of corruption and sexual intrigue. A narrative of white mischief in post-war Ireland, of false accusation and savage murder, presided over by the tragic figure of the 19-year-old daughter of a judge.

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Irish Literature, Ireland, True Crime, Drama, Death

406 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

McNamee 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.

Reviews

[Srividya Vijapure · Rating 3 out of 5]

When in Ireland this time, I couldn’t truly browse through book stores as much as I would have loved to. Instead, I browsed through the bookshelves of my friends and picked up a few that I thought were interesting. This book is one such find, which I had almost left behind but luckily didn’t. And boy, am I glad that I didn’t. While it isn’t the best book in this genre or even a great book, it has something about it that makes you want to read and keeps you turning the pages even when you know the end, which in itself is saying a lot about this book and why I am glad to have read it.

Eoin McNamee’s The Blue Tango is based on a true story that happened in Northern Ireland. In 1952, the daughter of a sitting judge was brutally murdered right outside her house. While the crime by itself was shocking, what made this even worse is the fact that the police have never been able to solve it. McNamee, in this book, tries to bring to life both the crime as well as the reasons for it still being an inactive cold case that hasn’t reached its conclusion. Part drama part fact, this book tries to balance that slender line in between fact and fiction with aplomb, making it extremely readable once you get over the initial few pages.

Patricia Curran was 19 years old and was returning home after her usual day at school when she was murdered. It was her brother who found her body in the grounds around their home in the wee hours of the morning while searching for her after having called all her friends only to find out that she had left for home long back. He assumed she was alive and he with his father took her to the doctor where she was pronounced dead on arrival. While the doctor had initially ruled heart attack as the cause of death, it was soon changed to murder after he found evidence of stabbings, 37 in number, on her body. What followed afterwards was a mockery where the only role Patricia played was to be a body that didn’t matter in the whole scheme of things. Complete with prejudices that were prevalent during those times and the reconstruction of the eerie nature of the crime, McNamee brings to life the last few hours of Patricia’s life, the investigation such as it was and the different players and their roles making it both intriguing as well as disheartening at the same time.

McNamee’s writing is wonderful inasmuch as it truly transports you to Northern Ireland in the 50s. The bleak weather, the morbid nature of the house where Patricia lives, the interpersonal relation that she has with her family and friends, and more importantly the society such as it was back then are all brought to create an atmosphere that is chilling and unforgivable. When you read the book, you have a sense of the harsh and brutal nature of the country and you immediately feel increasingly lonely and absolutely desolate, as if there is no end to the tunnel that you are going through; or if there is an end it is only achievable through death. The descriptions of the house and weather along with the misogynistic views held by society at that time dominate most of the book making you get angry as well as wretched at the same time.

While one can get really irritated with the misogynistic views that are present in the book, and one does mind you, you have to accept that it was the way it was in those days. Women had to yield to the rules and regulations laid out by what was a totally patriarchal society and if she didn’t, she didn’t get the respect that she deserved. While I can write reams on this particular aspect of human fallacy, it won’t matter much as far as this book is concerned for Patricia Curran faced what was meted out to her because of this prevalent prejudice. Patricia, instead of becoming the victim of a crime, merely became an instrument to enforce more misogynism in the already horrible world. “She got what she deserved because of how she was”, was how the country seemed to look at her. Were they right? Absolutely not! But then how can one argue with a society that is long gone when even today we are living in a society that feels the same way? The author brings an honest and as unbiased view as he can when tackling this issue. By being factual in his writing style, he talks about what was rather than what should have been, but nevertheless one can’t help but feel that he is leading you, albeit gently, towards understanding what should have been.

Class differences have been portrayed with similar tact. His writing is definitely superlative given that he manages to transport you literally to those days in Northern Ireland. You aren’t simply the reader but actually a voyeur of those events that took place all those many years ago and are witness to how society, such as it is, deals with such crimes and its aftermath.

The book also brings to the forefront the pressure that the investigators face while dealing with such crimes, that is the murder of the daughter of a sitting judge who has excellent chances of growth in his career. While one can’t call it corruption, it is definitely a scenario where the police have no autonomy over the investigation and have to go through the motions of investigating within the parameters set by those in power above them. How much of this is fact and how much fiction, one doesn’t know but the tension that it brings to the book is definitely something that makes it an immensely readable one.

Albert Camus once said, “Fiction is the lie that tells the truth” and so it is with this book. While this is a dramatized version of the events, you can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a kernel of truth hiding somewhere inside all that drama? All in all, I would say that this is a book that is worth reading at least once.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book but I really, heavily dislike the approach that the author took to the story, with it being based on the true murder of a young girl. The more the book went on and the more I thought about it, the more it disturbed me. I could write an essay on this, but it would be a long and severe rant, so I won't
2.5

[GloriaGloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thriller non molto tale, straniante, tranqullamente crudele, magnificamente scritto. Consigliatissimo.

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Blue Tango by Eoin McNamee has a haunting cover. It immediately sucked me in. I couldn't resist a fictionalized true-crime story of Northern Ireland!

At a very high level, I liked this book. McNamee is a brilliant writer and that made me fly through majority of this book's pages. The Blue Tango tries to present, and even rationalize, the events surrounding the murder of Patricia Curran as this murder remains largely unsolved. There are obviously opinions as to why, how, or by whom Patricia was murdered, but nothing concrete. This was a murder that shook the small town wherein which they live, but it almost feels as though it was less because of the murder and more of the liberated, free-willed female that was the victim.

I am not sure if McNamee tried to write without presenting a confirmation bias, but his portrayal of all the characters seemed hyperbolized and almost untruthful. (Maybe not so much as UNTRUTHFUL as it is potentially unfaithful to the actual events that occurred and people that existed. Perhaps that is what makes this a novel versus a non-fiction?) I found myself struggling with the portrayal of the women in the text (Doris Curran, Patricia, Hillary...etc.) because I couldn't help but feel awful that they are representative of damaging and limiting female tropes: the mad woman in the attic/upstairs, the promiscuous young woman who "deserved it", and the innocent friend. Interestingly, I find the representation of homosexuality in this novel to be more forgiving than how McNamee dealt with the women. Sure, there was an injustice (confirmation bias) done in the persecution of Iain Hay Gordon, but there was a kinder representation (and almost acceptance) of this "inappropriate behaviour" (hey, it's Northern Ireland in the 50's) than of women being complex creatures. Maybe this is true of the time, and McNamee wrote from a lot of existing secondary sources, maybe he even had the chance to interview real people for this book... I have no idea, and nor will I ever know. When one googles "Patricia Curran" her FATHER is the top hit. This is where I learned that the rest of McNamee's Blue Trilogy is centered around Judge Curran. Why is he such an attractive figure? One so untouchable and seemingly redeemable in all of this mess?

In spite of the strong writing, I couldn't get over the female persecution and victim blaming that is The Blue Tango . It killed me when I read it. It kills me MORE that Patricia is only associated with her father online. I feel awful that her legacy is marred by what others view as inappropriate behaviour and her legacy doesn't exist beyond that. I wanted to learn more about her, as an individual but that seems to be lost to the bias of time. In my mind, this is deeply regrettable.

[Den · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic of this book is intriguing; the book itself, not so much. There were promising points in this book where the writing was very eerie and written beautifully. There were a lot of low points and slow parts in this one, however, which pretty much ruined it for me.

[Paul Breen]

Excellent in parts though felt it did dip slightly in the middle where there was a feeling that maybe nothing new is going to come out of this in terms of the historical context and story. However the way it is stitched together in the end does make this a book worth persevering with. Also the way that Eoin McNamee writes is amazing - he paints this vast landscape and then suddenly hones in on tiny brush strokes of description.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as it’s based on a crime that took place about half a mile from my house.
Very niche but the descriptions of places and distances set my teeth on edge, it felt like he had done in-depth research but then just fudged it for a line.
I was uncomfortable with the continual analogy of the victim as being under a cloud of death, akin to pre ordained romanticism.

[Tim Orfanos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ο McNamee γοητεύεται από την άλυτη υπόθεση δολοφονίας της δεκαεννιάχρονης Πατρίσια Κάραν το 1952, κοντά στο Μπέλφαστ, και το χρησιμοποιεί ως πηγή έμπνευσης για το συγκεκριμένο μυθιστόρημα που ήταν υποψήφιο στη μακρά λίστα του Man Booker Prize 2001.

Η βασική ιστορία είναι αρκετά ενδιαφέρουσα με πλήθος σκοτεινών 'σημείων', ενώ η δομή της πλοκής και το συγγραφικό 'ύφος' έχουν δημοσιογραφικό χαρακτήρα, αφού υπάρχει έντονη εναλλαγή των γεγονότων πρίν και μετά τη δολοφονία, όπως και πολλές λεπτομέρειες για την κατάληξη και την τωρινή ζωή κάποιων ηρώων που βρίσκονται ακόμα στη ζωή.

Σε όλο το βιβλίο υπάρχουν διάχυτα στοιχεία ψυχολογικού θρίλερ και police procedural, ενώ καί υπερβολικά πολλές λεπτομέρειες για την καθημερινή ζωή των προσώπων που διαδραμάτισαν σημαντικό ρόλο στη δολοφονία της νεαρής κοπέλας - δεν υπάρχει, επίσης, οικονομία στην περιγραφή των γεγονότων, γιατί ο συγγραφέας πλατιάζει σε αρκετά σημεία του βιβλίου με αποτέλεσμα, ίσως, κάποιοι αναγνώστες να δυσφορήσουν. Πέρα από αυτό, δημιουργείται η αίσθηση ότι ο συγγραφέας αποφεύγει τεχνηέντως να μπει στην ουσία των γεγονότων και να αναλύσει ικανοποιητικά την προσωπικότητα των 'σκοτεινών' ηρώων της υπόθεσης, δίνοντας μεγαλύτερη σημασία στην επιφανειακή περιγραφή ασήμαντων λεπτομερειών.

Καί τα 2 μέρη του βιβλίου είναι 'αργά', ενώ χρειάζεται υπομονή κατά τη διάρκεια της ανάγνωσης, αφού η ροή της πλοκής είναι αρκετά βραδυφλεγής - ωστόσο, οφείλω να τονίσω, όμως, ότι σαν ντοκουμέντο μιας υπόθεσης μυστηριώδους δο��οφονίας που συγκλόνισε, στις αρχές της δεκαετίας του '50, την επαρχιακή ζωή του Μπέλφαστ παρουσιάζει αρκετά υψηλή αξία ως συγγραφικό έργο και προσπάθεια.

Γενικά, πρόκειται για μια περίπτωση δικαστικής πλάνης που διχάζει, αλλά και προβληματίζει... με τα κοινωνικά της μηνύματα.

Βαθμολογία: 3,4/5 ή 6,8/10

[Sean Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more from this - I had always heard of this crime as my mother lived in the area at the time and was always told not to "play in the Glen" but it feels like the author can't decide whether he wants to write a non-fiction true crime text or historical fiction. It sits strangely between the two genres and doesn't gel as a cohesive text. That said, there are some beautiful pieces of writing here especially in describing setting and incisive character moments.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ένα βιβλίο που απαιτεί υπομονή, ακριβώς επειδή είναι διαφορετικό. Μια αφήγηση περισσότερο, πολλές φορές με αρκετά δημοσιογραφική πένα, για την ζωή της και το περιβάλλον της (Πατρίσια). Περίπου στις πρώτες 150 σελίδες όσο ήταν εν ζωή, και το υπόλοιπο, από την στιγμή που την βρίσκουν νεκρή. Δεν είναι εύκολο να κρατήσεις το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη, με 350 σελίδες σε αυτό το στυλ. Το βρήκα πολύ ενδιαφέρον!

[Vivian Valvano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A murder in Belfast in 1952. The novel draws from a real case and a serious miscarriage of justice. McNamee decimates much about the Northern Ireland of the time. Smug hypocrisy, an incompetent Constabulary, detectives easily led by the hints and desires of their superiors, blatant lack of proper procedure at the crime scene, an arrogant judge with a severe gambling problem (who is also the murder victim's father), dysfunctional families (plural), pitiful rushes to judgment, a provincial community steeped in corruption, secrets, bitterness, petty jealousies, gossip, and lack of charity ... And amidst all this is a young woman, murdered and gone. A rotten state of affairs, an enervated place, a miasma.

[Anthony Weir · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having lived in East Belfast at the time, I remember the Patricia Curran murder case very well. The framing of an RAF serviceman was condoned by the entire Protestant press and of course the BBC, which until the Troubles arrived, was highly partisan, albeit scorned for employing 'too many' Catholics.

What induced Faber & Faber* to publish this slight and sleazy, meretricious book, seemingly unedited ? Set in the early 1950s, it is badly-written, and the chronology is wrong. Venues that didn't exist in the 1950s are cited - for example, the Europa Hotel, the Culloden Hotel, Nutt's Corner secondhand-market which replaced Northern Ireland's only commercial airport some time after 1967... The Stormont Hotel wasn't much more than a bed-and-breakfast until 1966, definitely not a fashionable meeting-place.

Likewise, the geography of places and events is misleading or missing. Bishopscourt RAF station in the south of county Down would have taken well over an hour to get to in the 1950s, and its cold-war radar whirligigs were not moved there from England until the mid 1960s. Whiteabbey is in county Antrim, to the north of Belfast, and still served by the Belfast-Larne railway line.

Though there is frequent mention of Amelia street, there is none of its reputation for female prostitution. The Great Northern Railway station (trains to and from Dublin) on the other side of the road (much later replaced by the Europa Hotel) was a well-known cruising area for queer men...which passed to the 'Whip and Saddle' public bar of the Europa. But there is no mention of the famous Crown bar (now owned by the National Trust) which is between the two, and was something of a social and artistic hub.

The book occupies an uncomfortable - possibly untenable - space between truth and fiction. Most definitely not a novel, it can at best be described as poorly-novelistic.

*Faber's famous editor, director and poetry mandarin, Charles Monteith, came from Lisburn, county Antrim.

[Jim Laughren · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars would be the perfect rating. A fictional look into the thoughts, dialogue, actions and interactions of the principal characters involved in the lead-up to, and the investigation of, the 1952 murder in Northern Ireland of Patricia Curran, daughter of a well known jurist. The case was never solved and wisely the author merely presents what was and was not known and what was rumored, more by innuendo than gossip, rather than trying to present his hypothesis of the case. In so doing, McNamee paints a wonderful time piece of a place and era--for American reference, a kind of noirish Father Knows Best--that exposes the weaknesses, assumptions, and prejudices of many western post-war cultures. Women were to be prim and proper, males ran the world and kept things in order, the upper classes were "upper" for a reason, homosexuals were looked upon as secretive and slimy, and foreigners were suspect in almost all circumstances. The book, one feels, could have been juicier, livelier, had the author shown us more and told us less. Dialogue is minimal and the narrator's droning becomes tiresome. At points in the reading it felt like I was taking dictation. If you enjoy crime stories, either true crime or whodunits, or would like to wrap the early 1950s around you, you could certainly do worse than The Blue Tango. There's enough here that I'm now tempted to try another by this same writer, whether from the Blue Trilogy or his well-known Resurrection Man.

[Annie Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really interested in the true story that this book is based on and was sure it wouldn't disappoint.
I used to work quite close to where the action of the novel takes place and had heard about the case from my father. The facts of the case sounded so sensational that the book couldn't miss.. but unfortunately it came as a huge surprise to me to find that much of the writing is downright terrible. My goodness, the author is fond of obscure wordy sort of words and phrases - such as she "raged at him in the darkened house as though the night itself had been rendered violate"....
The murdered woman's body described as " a drained corpse, stabbed many times, her murderer unfound, to be brooded over in coming decades as an exemplar of morbid desire"...
..."his handwriting was tiny and detailed, and resembled the written manifestation of an arcane practice"....
And so it goes on, one verbose sentence after another, tagged on to otherwise quite normal passages.
I really tried to keep going with it but had to give up. It just reminded me of pulpy historical novels that I used to read as a teenager - Jean Plaidy and the like.
What a pity. It could have been a good read but the author just couldn't help himself.

[Serena Joly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Had to DNF this book after an admirable struggle. The writing is so awful. After 14 chapters it’s impossible to develop any relationship or interest in a single one of the characters. You can’t get close because the author merely doodles around the facts of the court case, and what is known to the public. To make a story of this sort work you HAVE to use a little artistic license to fictionalise where there are blanks, but this barely provides any padding out. Not to mention the fact every chapter ends with a glaring and embarrassingly heavy handed line of foreboding. The last line I read before having to give up ‘But as she draws on the cigarette so that the glow lights her face and exhales the smoke and leans against the wall in a worldly pose, it is equally easy to imagine that she herself is inviting death, beckoning to it like some death-haunted and artful coquette.’ I mean SERIOUSLY?? give me a break. After accidentally finding out that the case remains unsolved, I realised this book would bring me no satisfaction.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovers of True Crime will appreciate the mood music of the Blue Tango, which retells the story of the unsolved murder of Patricia Curran, only daughter of a prominent legal family, in the Northern Ireland of the early 1950s. The prose style is rhythmic and poetic but if the sexual slurs of the Orange patriarchy aren't your kind of poetry you might find it a bit nauseating, as did I. The plot progresses very slowly but builds a series of portraits of local characters including Patricia's highly unsavoury immediate relatives, local police and military personnel, a (non-demon) barber and a queer boy working the local fairground, who is one of only two characters with the integrity to stick their necks out as Patricia's own father coerces the constabulary with the enthusiastic co-operation of a bent career cop from East London into framing a young, innocent and naïve army conscript for the crime. McNamee is a master of the art but the subject matter is pretty revolting and the tendency of the town to falsely accuse women of promiscuity rather sickening albeit believable.

[Siobhán♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been a good and informative book if it actually acted as such but, instead, it read as a highly misogynistic story that focused more on a 19yr old’s sexual activities and her family rather than actually focusing on who Patricia Curran really was. Honestly it was written in a way that made me feel disgusted and the only reason I powered through it was because it was a college text.

[Margaret B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on the famous true Patricia Curran murder case from the 1950s. According to other sources I have read, the author has taken definite liberties with the facts of the case, but this is still a gripping read and doubly so if you are interested at all in the original case.

[Rachel Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this one. Beautifully written but crime isn’t a genre I gravitate towards & I found the range of characters that the narrative followed was hard to get a grasp on. The sections about Patricia’s sexuality were uncomfortable to read, although I imagine that was Mcnamee’s intent.

[Malou · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written book based on real life events. I just didn’t really get into reading it.

[Didi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great poetic read

[Eva Pearce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desperately wanted to finish this

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting subject, and McNamee writes very well - descriptions of people and places and the situations of the time were evocative and believable - and all in all this story of the death of the 19yr old daughter of a powerful judge in 1950's Ireland was involving and convincing. I could see why this had been Booker Prize nominated.

That said, I had a problem with the nature of the book - it felt neither fish nor fowl, falling between the stools of a non-fictional account of a notorious (unsolved) murder, and a fictional work set in that town at that time with those characters. Because no-one truly knows who killed Patricia Cullen, this felt like an anecdotal criticism of her and her family, and a hint at the miscarriage of justice which occurred - with little concrete to say on the matter.

[Sieglinde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on a real life crime, the novel is a fictionalised account of the events surrounding the murder of a young woman in Belfast in November 1952 and of the miscarriage of justice that resulted. It is well-written, engaging, thought-provoking, and a somewhat chilling insight into police procedures, society and the criminal justice system of the time. There are some minor errors, within the first 40 pages, relating to the horse racing industry (Racing Post did not exist until April 1986 so nobody could be reading it in 1952; there was no winter racing at Aintree or Goodwood, and the latter is a flat-only track where meetings take place from late spring to late autumn) but these irritations do not detract from the story.

[Abigail Rieley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elegant examination of the true story of 19-year - old judge's daughter Patricia Curran who was murdered in 1952 in County Antrim. Eoin McNamee paints a bleakly lyrical portrait of small town life full of secrets & sex surrounding a terrible miscarriage of justice. This is one story that will stay with you long after you've finished the book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The murder of Patricia Curran, the daughter of a High Court Judge, in Northern Ireland in 1952 has been a long story of death and a miscarriage of justice. Her killer has never been brought to justice and the murder has been a source of conjecture. Eoin McNamee gives us a fictional version that really does not add anything to the story.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A so exciting story - based on a true one, I think. The annoying thing is: I am not a lot smarter than at the beginning ...

[Mariya]

NO

[Rosalind]

Looking forward to starting this one, as the murder of Patricia Curran took place within a stones throw of where I used to live.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fictionalised account of a true story. Interesting exercise in creating characters and some beautiful descriptions, but for me I'd've preferred to not have known that before reading. I think.