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Requiems for the Departed
Irish Crime. Irish Myths.
Requiems for the Departed contains seventeen short stories, inspired by Irish mythology, from some of the finest contemporary writers in the business.
Watch the children of Conchobar return to their mischievous ways, meet ancient Celtic royalty, and follow druids and banshees as they are set loose in the new Irish underbelly, murder and mayhem on their minds.
Featuring top shelf tales by Ken Bruen, Maxim Jakubowski, Stuart Neville, Brian McGilloway, Adrian McKinty, Sam Millar, John Grant, Garry Kilworth, T.A. Moore and many more.
Requiems for the Departed contains seventeen short stories, inspired by Irish mythology, from some of the finest contemporary writers in the business.
Watch the children of Conchobar return to their mischievous ways, meet ancient Celtic royalty, and follow druids and banshees as they are set loose in the new Irish underbelly, murder and mayhem on their minds.
Featuring top shelf tales by Ken Bruen, Maxim Jakubowski, Stuart Neville, Brian McGilloway, Adrian McKinty, Sam Millar, John Grant, Garry Kilworth, T.A. Moore and many more.
338 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 10, 2010
20 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Gerard Brennan
36 books43 followersGerard Brennan's latest novel is Disorder, Published by No Alibis Press. His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies; including three volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime and Belfast Noir. He co-edited Requiems for the Departed, a collection of crime fiction based on Irish myths which won the 2011 Spinetingler Award for best anthology. His novella, The Point, was published by Pulp Press in October 2011 and won the 2012 Spinetingler Award for best novella. His novels, Wee Rockets and Fireproof, were published as ebooks by Blasted Heath in 2012. He graduated from the MA in creative writing at Queen's University Belfast in 2012 and is currently working on a PhD.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 28, 2016
A collection of short stories on crime, based on some type of Irish mythology - 17 in all, I think. I was not familiar with most of the myths, so I am not a good judge in that respect. There is a good variety, however, as well as the chance to get to know a new author.
Ken Bruen's contribution, She Wails Through the Fair, was faithful to crime aspect wrapped around the myth of the banshee. The story was short and structured simply with a predictable outcome based on the well drawn characters. I liked its simple delivery.
Sliabh Ban by Arlene Hunt, drawn on the story of Queen Maeve, Queen of Connacht is a tragic tale full of fury and horses.
Diarmaid and Grainne by Adrian McKinty almost requires a second reading to understand the opening, but I am not familiar with the Irish story. This one is starts in fog, literally and figuratively, and as the mists clear and the story unfolds it leads to a distressing end.
The final story in the collection, The Life Business by John Grant, was most enjoyable. The lavatory building that plays a part in the events is truly memorable. The possible nod to Dickens was not missed as the young boy in the middle of the night is doing what nature called him to do away from the dreaded lavatory building when a couple of murderers entangle him into a body disposal scheme. This was the only story that made me laugh even though I was dreading the possible appearance of snakes since that was the Irish myth being called on in this contribution.
Ken Bruen's contribution, She Wails Through the Fair, was faithful to crime aspect wrapped around the myth of the banshee. The story was short and structured simply with a predictable outcome based on the well drawn characters. I liked its simple delivery.
Sliabh Ban by Arlene Hunt, drawn on the story of Queen Maeve, Queen of Connacht is a tragic tale full of fury and horses.
Diarmaid and Grainne by Adrian McKinty almost requires a second reading to understand the opening, but I am not familiar with the Irish story. This one is starts in fog, literally and figuratively, and as the mists clear and the story unfolds it leads to a distressing end.
The final story in the collection, The Life Business by John Grant, was most enjoyable. The lavatory building that plays a part in the events is truly memorable. The possible nod to Dickens was not missed as the young boy in the middle of the night is doing what nature called him to do away from the dreaded lavatory building when a couple of murderers entangle him into a body disposal scheme. This was the only story that made me laugh even though I was dreading the possible appearance of snakes since that was the Irish myth being called on in this contribution.
January 6, 2011
From my blog:
"The premise of asking writers for crime fiction that had some connection to the world of Irish mythology was a brilliant one. Readers from other lands such as myself get a kind of double or triple introduction to the myths, the culture and the crime scene all in one. It gives the authors enough scope to do pretty much whatever they want, and it was interesting to see what tales drew which writers. The writing level was consistently high, and I was impressed that although the stories drew on the Troubles at times, there was a decidedly unsectarian cast to the collection."
"The premise of asking writers for crime fiction that had some connection to the world of Irish mythology was a brilliant one. Readers from other lands such as myself get a kind of double or triple introduction to the myths, the culture and the crime scene all in one. It gives the authors enough scope to do pretty much whatever they want, and it was interesting to see what tales drew which writers. The writing level was consistently high, and I was impressed that although the stories drew on the Troubles at times, there was a decidedly unsectarian cast to the collection."
July 21, 2014
In my opinion, it is difficult to rate a book of short stories. There is a mix of ratings that I would give to the stories in this anthology.
The concept of using Irish mythology with a modern twist piqued my interest from the get-go. Most of the stories had a great dark vibe to them, but not all of the stories delivered the satisfying dénouement that short stories should have. The biggest surprise for me was the fact that the Ken Bruen story was a bit lacking (I would imagine he is the most recognizable of the names from the anthology). Most of the other authors did a great job helping the book reach its potential. Some of my favorites were:
Stuart Neville's Queen of the Hill: Opening story to the collection and he did a great job of establishing the mood and tone of the book. Dark, dreary, and moody.....my type of story.
Arlene Hunt's Sliabh Ban: When I think of the plots to the stories contained in the book, I think this would have created the least amount of buzz in my mind, yet it was one of the stories that I enjoyed most. Not dark or dreary like most of the other stories, but a satisfying read nonetheless.
Maxim Jakubowski"s A Price to Pay: This story was right up my alley. This is the type of story that makes you hunt out an author's entire collection of work to see what else he has written. I was familiar with Jakubowski before I read this story, but I will be doing my best to get a hold of more stories by him. Dark...dark...dark.
Sam Millar's Red Hand of Ulster: I have reviewed a few of Millar's books, so truth be told, his story was the story I was most interested in reading and I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. One of the best parts of his story was it involved his main protagonist Karl Kane. He also mixes in characters from The Redemption Factory and allows the two sets of characters to interact in a well-written and interesting story. Even those unfamiliar with Millar's works will enjoy this despite not being familiar with the characters. For those few who aren't familiar with his works, this story will show you why he is becoming a must-read author in the noir field of writing. While it was hard for Millar to reach the expectations I had for this story (since I anticipated reading it since I heard the anthology was being published), he didn't disappoint me. It was thrilling to read the liner notes and see that he is working on a new Karl Kane novel and it can't come soon enough. If there is one author in the noir field who deserves more recognition and word of mouth praise it is Millar. I can't say enough about his writing and he takes time to correspond with fans of his work and seem to be a class act that appreciates his fan base.
There were other good stories in the book, but these were the ones I would label as the best. This book is a great way to pass some time with authors you have already enjoyed, but an even better means to find some new authors to seek out.
The concept of using Irish mythology with a modern twist piqued my interest from the get-go. Most of the stories had a great dark vibe to them, but not all of the stories delivered the satisfying dénouement that short stories should have. The biggest surprise for me was the fact that the Ken Bruen story was a bit lacking (I would imagine he is the most recognizable of the names from the anthology). Most of the other authors did a great job helping the book reach its potential. Some of my favorites were:
Stuart Neville's Queen of the Hill: Opening story to the collection and he did a great job of establishing the mood and tone of the book. Dark, dreary, and moody.....my type of story.
Arlene Hunt's Sliabh Ban: When I think of the plots to the stories contained in the book, I think this would have created the least amount of buzz in my mind, yet it was one of the stories that I enjoyed most. Not dark or dreary like most of the other stories, but a satisfying read nonetheless.
Maxim Jakubowski"s A Price to Pay: This story was right up my alley. This is the type of story that makes you hunt out an author's entire collection of work to see what else he has written. I was familiar with Jakubowski before I read this story, but I will be doing my best to get a hold of more stories by him. Dark...dark...dark.
Sam Millar's Red Hand of Ulster: I have reviewed a few of Millar's books, so truth be told, his story was the story I was most interested in reading and I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. One of the best parts of his story was it involved his main protagonist Karl Kane. He also mixes in characters from The Redemption Factory and allows the two sets of characters to interact in a well-written and interesting story. Even those unfamiliar with Millar's works will enjoy this despite not being familiar with the characters. For those few who aren't familiar with his works, this story will show you why he is becoming a must-read author in the noir field of writing. While it was hard for Millar to reach the expectations I had for this story (since I anticipated reading it since I heard the anthology was being published), he didn't disappoint me. It was thrilling to read the liner notes and see that he is working on a new Karl Kane novel and it can't come soon enough. If there is one author in the noir field who deserves more recognition and word of mouth praise it is Millar. I can't say enough about his writing and he takes time to correspond with fans of his work and seem to be a class act that appreciates his fan base.
There were other good stories in the book, but these were the ones I would label as the best. This book is a great way to pass some time with authors you have already enjoyed, but an even better means to find some new authors to seek out.
May 2, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. It was fun seeing someone else--a number of very talented someone elses, in fact--take on the concept of the old Irish stories set in modern Ireland and Northern Ireland and mixed with the Irish crime genre. This anthology recently won the SpineTingler Award for anthologies and for very good reasons. If you enjoy crime stories with a fantastic edge to them, you'll like this story collection.
Read
July 27, 2011Collection of short stories, crime/noir, taking as their inspiration tales from Irish mythology. An interesting concept, and generally carried off well although inevitably a little patchy. The first story by Stuart Neville gets things off to a highpoint start, and there are a number of other notable successes. Ideal for when you want to read something quick and complete, as most of the stories are relatively brief.
June 6, 2015
Outstanding collection of crime and mystery stories set in Ireland and inspired by Irish myths and legends. Some of the tales are bawdy, others comic and others venture out into the realm of the speculative. Doesn't require man a vast knowledge of Irish geography, but it helps, especially with the stories set in the North. More to come...
July 12, 2010
Requiems for the Departed: Irish Crime, Irish Myths showcases magnificent stories of Ireland immemorial and unforgettable. May a perpetual light shine upon this legendary collection.
Full review: http://www.criticalmick.com/criticalm...
Full review: http://www.criticalmick.com/criticalm...
May 19, 2013
I really enjoyed this take on Irish myths and legends. Some of the stories are much better than others but most have something that grabs your attention. Some are gripping. Well written by the different authors and nicely edited, giving it a good flow and pace.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews