Echoland

Echoland #1

by Joe Joyce

June, 1940. France is teetering on the brink of collapse. British troops are desperately fleeing Dunkirk. Germany is winning the war. Its next target is Britain . . . and Ireland. In neutral Dublin opinions are divided. Some want Germany to win, others favour Britain, most want to stay out of the war altogether. In this atmosphere of edgy uncertainty, young lieutenant Paul Duggan is drafted into G2, the army’s intelligence division, and put on the German desk. He’s given a suspected German spy to investigate, one who doesn’t appear to do much, other than write ambiguous letters to a German intelligence post box in Copenhagen. Before Duggan can probe further, however, he is diverted by a request from his politician uncle to try and find his daughter, who’s gone missing, possibly kidnapped. Enlisting the help of witty Special Branch detective Peter Gifford, the two lines of inquiry take Duggan into the double-dealing worlds of spies and politics, and lead him back to a shocking secret that will challenge everything he has grown up believing. An addictive thriller that will keep you glued to the page, right through to its heart-pounding finale.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Ireland, Fiction, Thriller, Irish Literature, Historical, Espionage

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2013

About the author

Joe Joyce is the author of five thrillers: ECHOLAND, ECHOBEAT and ECHOWAVE (spy novels set during the Second World War in neutral Dublin), THE TRIGGER MAN (set during the Irish 'Troubles' in the late 1980s) and OFF THE RECORD (set in the 1970s world of Irish journalism), as well as a history/biography of THE GUINNESSES and a critically acclaimed play,THE TOWER, about James Joyce and Oliver St John Gogarty. He is co-author with Peter Murtagh of THE BOSS, the classic account of Irish politician Charles Haughey in power, and BLIND JUSTICE, about a celebrated miscarriage of justice. He has worked as a journalist for The Irish Times, The Guardian, and Reuters news agency.

Reviews

[Gram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent thriller set in World War 2 Ireland as the French Army surrenders and people in the Republic wonder whether Nazi Germany or Britain - which still holds sway in the North of the country - will invade their Republic. The book's hero is Paul Duggan - a brand new recruit to Irish military intelligence - who is given the task of investigating a suspected German spy who doesn't seem to do anything other than send and receive letters. Then Paul is dragged into a family matter by his uncle, Timmy, a member of the Irish Parliament and a staunch Irish nationalist who earned his rise to prominence during the Irish Civil War. Much of the book concerns Ireland's troubled history in the 1st few decades of the 20th Century and Paul is an unwilling participant in trying to find out what has happened to Timmy's daughter, Nualla, who has disappeared. Paul spends his time doing his official job, tracking German agents while also doing the job of detective for his dominating uncle. In both investigations he is aided and abetted by a young Irish Special Branch detective Peter Gifford. I found the continual banter between Duggan and Gifford a bit wearing after a while and Duggan's Uncle Timmy is a truly loathsome character. All in all it's a good read and I plan to buy the other books in this trilogy.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story begins in 1940 in Ireland, a period (Interwar & WWII) which is of great interest to me.
The story set around the city of Dublin features WWII politics from an Irish prospective, involving G men, Abwehr agents, IRA, a side story from the Irish Civil War along with a mystery in the form of a missing person to boot.

The detail/theories/history expanded through the plot were very believable as Ireland faced a period of uncertainty as the Nazis swept through Western Europe ignoring many a neutrality. There were also question marks as to how the British would react, would they occupy Ireland to prevent a Nazi invasion establishing a foothold? Could Ireland reclaim the North by signing up for the Allies OR for that matter the Axis? A few other theories are explored within the early story by the men of G2 & the politicians. It’s a very fluid period.

All good so far.... however, I found the writing quite matter of fact & straight, in fact a little flat-line on the whole, the characters having no real depth & the interactions quite banal for the most part, with jovial banter between the army/intelligence players, it’s like your watching one of those staid & straight-laced 1940/50’s films (with the addition of the f-word that is)..... though it’s authenticity for the period is sound.

Not sure I will continue with this series, if you like the period & an Irish-centric theme I would highly recommend Michael Russell’s “City” series which I much preferred with his main character Sergeant Steffen Gillespie.

A distinctly average 3 for me, rounded up from 2.75

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the current One City, One Book for Dublin, a novel about spies and spying set in neutral Ireland in 1940. It is a great book to pick for One City, One Book, as it is very Dublin. I particularly enjoyed how the protagonist (a junior officer in Ireland's military intelligence) seemed to keep travelling backwards and forwards between places I live, work or have lived in.

The narrative follows two strands, one dealing with a German spy ring (largely fictional though the real-life Goertz makes an appearance), another about the protagonist being roped into his shifty politician uncle's complicated family schemes. This all presents an appealing portrait of the era with its spies, IRA men, Blueshirts and sympathisers for each of the British and Germans. Through it all you get a sense of the terror people are living under that the war will come to Ireland: an unrealistic fear in retrospect, given how difficult it would have been for the Germans to land here, but one that must have seemed credibly terrifying at the time (and of course many would have feared more an invasion by Britain than by Germany).

The book is also interesting for breaking with a number of cliches of the spy-detective genre. The protagonist is not a wise-cracking alpha male but a newly recruited intelligence officer who spends a lot of the book feeling out of his depth. And because the book is set in 1940s Ireland we don't get him hopping into bed with a succession of sexy lady characters. There are women characters but in this blokey world of military intelligence they largely play second fiddle, while still being drawn in a way that suggests depths to their characters.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 1940, Echoland is set during a fascinating period of contemporary Irish history as it the country tries to negotiate its neutral role and its relationship to Britain and Germany. Joyce weaves an interesting plot involving G2 (military intelligence) and Special Branch as they keep tabs on the German legation, suspected German spies, and the IRA, who view the war as an opportunity to leverage a united Ireland. The plot is the strength of the novel, nicely intersecting two storylines – the hunt for a German spy and trying to trace the whereabouts of a politician’s missing daughter. Joyce’s storytelling is all tell and no show, detailing the action and dialogue of the main characters. Whilst this worked to a degree, the lack of reflection and historicisation rendered some of the story flat and lacking in atmosphere and tension and the characters one dimensional. For example, the reader is presented with lists of streets that the characters traverse, but very little description of them or the activities taking place, or the general mood of the populace or how the war was affecting them. Nor is there a wider sense of the lead up to Ireland’s political position at the time. There is practically no back story with respect to any character, with the lead character being curiously asexual, apolitical and naive, and at the end of the book I felt I knew as much about him as I did at the start. The result was a book carried by its plot, but one that lacked the atmosphere, depth and subtle tension evident in similar kinds of Second World War espionage tales such as those by Alan Furst, David Downing, Aly Monroe or Joseph Kanon. Nevertheless, an enjoyable and interesting tale and I'd read the next instalment if it Echoland is the first in a series.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Enjoyable spy novel set during the Second World War in neutral Ireland.

Most of the book is taken up with the main character Duggan pondering 'what is going on?' 'who is that?' 'what do I do?' 'is this a trap?' over and over again and answers are quite few and far between. And the ending was infuriating! I have never seen a book so shamelessly set up a sequel. I've always been of the mind that a book should stand on its own even when other books are planned. But Echoland set up multiple mysteries and basically said, 'well that's it, come back next time for actual answers!'

Good read and nice to read something set in Dublin at a time I've never seen it set before, but God it was quite annoying.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edgy, paranoid thriller set in Dublin in 1940, at a time when trust was scarce, suspicion ruled and attacks from the British, the Germans and the IRA were all considered imminent. Joyce creates an atmospheric but convincingly accurate portrait of Dublin and its residents, and keeps the reader gripped by the intriguing twists and turns of the plot.

[Jürgen]

Dieses Buch werde ich im Rahmen meines Rezensions-Marathons im September 2020 besprechen. Eine aktuelle Wertung erfolgt daher nicht.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the book chosen for the one city one book 2017. A thriller set in Ireland during the 1940s. France has just fallen to the Germans and the debate in Ireland is which side should they support...the British or the Germans. Paul is a newly recruited intelligence officer who is given the task of spying on a German man living in Dublin but suspected of being a spy. Letters are encoded and it's quite interesting how the plot unfolds. Unofficially, he is also searching for this cousin who has mysteriously disappeared. With involvement from the IRA, ministers of the government, police and spies it should be a good read. But the main character is very flat and we know nothing much about him by the end of the book. I wouldn't be interested in reading the next book which is a follow up.

[Claire O'Brien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Who chooses the one city one book books? Several references to Dublin and the naming of streets seem to be far more important than a good read. This could have been so much better, and was promising enough in places but somehow it just didn't pull it all together well enough. Some of the support characters were good, but the main character was too wooden and the number of times people fortuitously bumped into one another on the street would make you think that Dublin was a small town with 3 streets, not a city. I did enjoy learning about the different attitudes to the war in Ireland but I certainly won't be rushing to read the next installment even though many things were left annoyingly unresolved at the end of this one.

[Nooilforpacifists · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very credible thriller set in the Irish Free State at the start of the Second World War. The young country struggles with the question of whether neutrality is possible and, if not, would the Nazis or the British be the worst choice of allies. Simultaneously, a young Irish intelligence officer tries to bust a German spy ring and resolve an increasingly intertwined family mystery.

Way better than "Ratlines".

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Downloaded this when I saw it had been chosen as next year's 'One City, One Book' for Dublin - and I now wonder how it was chosen. I plodded through it to the bitter end, but the writing was absolutely turgid.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea was very interesting and I liked reading something set in Dublin but the story itself didn't work well for me. I found all the going back and forth to Merrion Square tiresome after a while.

[Annina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last July I was on holiday in Dublin and picked this up there, as a book that sounded interesting and also was set in Dublin. That might also have affected how much I liked this book, that I kept recognizing places (and mentioning them to my traveling companions: "hey now this street is mentioned were we walked several times, and here's that shopping street and that bridge we crossed" - must have been really fun to listen to), and with that sort of kept that excitement of that trip going as well. I also enjoyed connected it to the facts I had read about Ireland's history, though I remember that at some points I would have wanted maybe a bit more info, but that was probably just me getting curious to understand the whole situation better. As to the history parts, to me personally it was also very interesting in that it compares so much to my own country's history. There seems to be quite similar dynamics for Ireland and Finland between them and their powerful neighbours, even though different in some ways, like Ireland managed to stay neutral during WWII, which Finland could not.

Apart from the history and geography, I did enjoy the story as well. I was easily caught up in the mysteries and with the characters. Though maybe at points I wished that there was a bit more on the characters. Now I don't remember, writing months after I finished, if there was something specific I was missing at the end or if it was just the wish for the next book, and the sneak peak of it at the end showing that it didn't quite start where I had wished to continue with the character, that left me a bit missing something at the end. Overall though I really liked the book and the different sides of it, both historical and plot and I will at some point go and find me the sequels somewhere.

[Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thrilling story: Paul Duggan, a young man who had joined the Army in order to do his bit but was sent to G2 only weeks after his training was finished, finds his feet in Dublin. It is a little surprising how quickly he finds them, seeing that his boss Col McClure spots some sort of talent in him and gives him his own file to work on after just weeks at G2, namely that of a possible German spy, a certain Harbusch. Special branch already have an observation post on Merrion Square in order to watch him, and Duggan quickly becomes friends with Peter Gifford, the equally young Special Branch man spying on the spy. A second storyline begins when Duggan's uncle, the redoubtable and extremely irritating Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Monaghan asks him to help find his daughter Nuala. On the one hand, Duggan is quite successful at the Harbusch story – a connection with the historical Goertz is found – on the other he gets drawn into a murky affair which shows his uncle's worst sides: his dirty dealings as a fighting Republican during the Civil War, his current German sympathies, his only worry for his reputation as a strongman who can make things happen.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel that is probably 100 pages too long with an excess of descriptions of characters walking Dublin streets, but it is still an intriguing story set in Ireland in 1940 at the time of the German conquest of France and at a period of the War when Ireland is concerned as to whether their neutrality will hold. Paul Duggan is a somewhat naïve young man appointed to military intelligence by his dodgy, rather pro-German politician uncle tasked with investigating possible German spies, meanwhile establishing the truth about his “kidnapped” cousin. It has a good plot and setting but it needed more urgency and impact. The later novels in the series are better.

[Bill Sheridan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is unusual to find a novel set in Ireland during the ‘Emergency’, as the period of the Second World War was described at the time in neutral Ireland. It is basically a spy story employing a combination of fiction and historical fact. The central character, a lieutenant in the army intelligence bureau, finds himself in the middle of a developing situation involving not only his own intelligence Corps but also allied and axis representatives, meddling politicians and IRA sympathisers. Although character development is somewhat superficial (hence 4 rather than 5 stars), this does not detract from the enjoyment of this novel with its unusual storyline.

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting of Echoland—Dublin at the outset of World War II—is perhaps more interesting in theory than practice, because for all the characters’ angst over the precariousness of neutrality and the potential for invasion by the Germans or the British, the reader knows that it didn’t happen, which seriously blunts any suspense. Moreover, the two storylines of the novel knit together only awkwardly, and the protagonist, a young lieutenant in army intelligence with a conniving politico uncle, never quite comes together as a character.

52 Book Club’s 2023 Reading Challenge (unbound to year)
47. Set in the city of Dublin.

[Anindya Dutta · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the rare books which were so underwhelming that I put it down 3/4 of the way. The narrative is ridiculously long, meandering on without apparent purpose and adding nothing to the story. As an author myself I am acutely conscious that books need to rewritten a few times to make them engaging and keep readers turning pages. It’s unfortunate the editors of this book did not put their foot down. I am certainly not going to read any sequels.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Army intelligence officer shadows a German spy and also gets tangled up in the disappearance of his niece.

A good idea for a story with solid characters and when the action actually started it was quite interesting, but overall it was just too long winded (the pace was too slow) for me.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and enjoyable story set in Ireland during WWII. Fiction well married with fact and well researched. Good characters and plots and sub plots. Overall a bit long.

RIP Joe Joyce 06/06/'24

[Sinead Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written - lovely historic detail but prefer my "thrillers" a bit more tense. Not for me

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting if not particularly well written thriller, providing a little insight into Ireland's neutral status in WW2 and how things looked from inside the newly independent state.

[Mossy Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart details of 40s Dublin life patiently played out. Enjoyable.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Characterisation is a bit thin but stick with the series as it gets much better.

[Isabel Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enticing but never quite fulfills.

[Ken Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plenty to enjoy - and learn from - in the setting (Dublin, 1940), but the story doesn't always grip, and the main character, though likeable, doesn't develop enough to fully engage the reader.

[Gavin McGrath · Rating 3 out of 5]

A promising book but, curiously, never really took off in terms of character development and, for that matter, story line. Atmospheric Dublin 1940 as well as rural Ireland- but only just.

[Brian Kernahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good read

An excellent insight into the fear and reputation around the phoney war and the wheels within wheels of government departments.

[Pete Orsi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the 1st book of a three book series. No reason to read the other two. The story line is tedious and dull. There are much better spy novels to read .

[Alison Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot twists keep you guessing to the end! Really good.