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Dead Reckoning
Ian Murphy buries his life-long friend Kieran Fitzpatrick. As a result his life is adrift, Ian is incapable of overcoming dependence on whiskey. Every day, he battles the eternal dark night. Ian reluctantly accepts his friend’s last wish, to mentor Kieran’s twenty-two-year-old nephew, William Butler Boyle.
Five years after approving the Good Friday Peace Agreement, Northern Ireland struggles to break Britain’s shackles. Sinn Fein recruits Ian Murphy to convince Catholics to vote in the 2003 national election because the party is on the brink of huge gains. Murphy naively believes if he works on the election, he will finally be able overcome the guilt and remorse he bears for his days as an IRA volunteer. Following the successful election for Sinn Fein, Ian returns to Cork exhausted and still burdened by guilt.
His new friend, Oisin O’Leary, convinces Ian he can fulfill has obligation to mentor William and make an act of contrition to the Irish people by writing a memoir stage play. Ian’s play is presented and at the closing curtain, he offers it as his act of contrition to the Irish people.
DEAD RECKONING is the third and final book in the Ian Murphy Irish Troubles series.
Five years after approving the Good Friday Peace Agreement, Northern Ireland struggles to break Britain’s shackles. Sinn Fein recruits Ian Murphy to convince Catholics to vote in the 2003 national election because the party is on the brink of huge gains. Murphy naively believes if he works on the election, he will finally be able overcome the guilt and remorse he bears for his days as an IRA volunteer. Following the successful election for Sinn Fein, Ian returns to Cork exhausted and still burdened by guilt.
His new friend, Oisin O’Leary, convinces Ian he can fulfill has obligation to mentor William and make an act of contrition to the Irish people by writing a memoir stage play. Ian’s play is presented and at the closing curtain, he offers it as his act of contrition to the Irish people.
DEAD RECKONING is the third and final book in the Ian Murphy Irish Troubles series.
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 6, 2018
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About the author
Rex Owens
5 books11 followersMy work explores our motives to make life changing decisions and searches for common themes in our journey to create ourselves.
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February 21, 2022
Rex does an amazing job on his storytelling. I wasn't sure I would like this one, the first two were so dynamic and high action, how can he follow that up when all is said and done? He does it expertly in capturing the emotional intensity of how to fix a grievous mistake made early in life by Ian and atone for a suffering country while finding his own way out of the drug induced darkness of alcoholism and facing his demons to come into a light by honestly bearing his sins for all of Ireland to witness. The best piece was casting a narcissist to portray a narcissist and have the character explode at the wrongness of it, to the betterment of the play's success. The author gives us contemplative pause when he poses the issue of how much Ian's life is the product of Ireland's history and how much control there is in determining one's own self-determination or path. It suggests it might be helpful for each person to take time for self-reflection and gain perspective on our own life's path. Accept ourselves and forgive our human failings. Brilliantly written as historically appealing then as it now here in the U.S. as well as Ireland. I am hard put to think of a historical novelist who tells a story so engagingly, enthralling and with characters so strong and appealing to the core. Thank you for a beautiful trilogy inspiring a lesson on how to live a beautiful, satisfying life despite the challenges put in ones path.
Displaying 1 of 1 review