Off The Record

by Joe Joyce

Reporter Seamus Ryle follows a tip-off that a dog has been shot on Dun Laoghaire pier but misses an exclusive story about the drowning in the harbour of up and coming politician Maurice Clark.Determined to make sense of the politician's death - and to retrieve his flagging career - his pursuit of the story leads him to Clark's secret life, a suave American miner, the IRA, and the machinations of 1970s Irish politics and diplomacy.He finds himself chasing the story of his career but learns one of the hard lessons of journalism's illusions.

364 pages, Paperback

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.