Books by Thomas O'Malley

A heart-breaking, staggering, soaring novel about war, music, loneliness and the redemptive power of the imagination

In 1950s Boston, the best way to survive is keep your head down and your mouth shut. But Cal and Dante prefer to do the right thing, not the sensible one. When a body is discovered tarred, feathered and shot, it is dismissed as a gangland killing. But Cal O'Brien's cousin, detective Owen Lackey, recognises the murder as the typical retribution for IRA informers.Owen knows that no one in the tight-knit Boston Irish community will talk. He turns to Cal and Dante for help, sending them into the city's shadowy underbelly. But there's a war on its way - and they're walking straight into the middle of it.

They found her on the beach, frozen, like a statue carved in ice...Post-war Boston is down on its luck, and desperate to reinvent itself. But promises of a brighter future sound ever more hollow as the worst winter in recent memory tightens its grip. No one is interested in a string of murdered women - everyone would much rather pretend they don't exist. But the latest victim was loved...Old friends Cal and Dante are both struggling to find a way to live in a city that seems to be leaving them behind. The hunt for a killer gives them new purpose, as well as making them powerful enemies. But they believe in justice and second chances, and they will see this thing through - whatever the cost.

An unforgettable first novel that packs a punch about a young boy growing up in rural Ireland in the shadow of a dark secret.