Lisa McInerney

"He wondered, as he walked, about the turns that made a man a murderer."

This novels starts when Maureen, a middle aged woman living alone, kills an intruder in her home by hitting him on the head with a religious knick knack. She calls her son, Jimmy Phelan, a man who gets things done. The man who cleans up the mess at Jimmy Phelan's behest is Tony Cusack, an alcoholic father of six, a widow who truly loves his kids. His oldest kid, Ryan, is a good soul who, at age fifteen gets involved in show more small-time, and then big-time drug dealing as he also falls in love with Karina, a young woman who has dreams of her own. And those dreams involve Ryan. In addition to these colorful characters, the novel is peopled with prostitutes, drifters, hit men, and drug dealers but this is not a dark or desperate tale. Neither is it a whitewashed treatment of violence and graft. It's a balanced novel in which both good and lousy luck, and both wise and stupid choices, determine each character's fate. And it's the almost unbelievable manner in which all these characters are interconnected that provides the novel's momentum. The characters, flawed and (most of them) richly wrought, are memorable and multidimensional. Her ability to create such characters has to be McInerney's greatest strength as a novelist although her wry humor and ironic storytelling voice are notable as well. I didn't quite buy the ending but the journey to get there was delightful and worthwhile. show less

Lisa McInerney’s violent, noirish second novel (a sequel to her award-winning debut, The Glorious Heresies) is the story of Ryan Cusack, a 20-year-old gangster-in-training with musical leanings who is deeply conflicted about the business in which he finds himself involved. The story, set in contemporary Cork, in Southern Ireland, pivots around Ryan’s relationship with mentor (of sorts) Dan Kane—whose criminal enterprise deals in cocaine and ecstasy—and a shipment of pills that goes show more missing. Dan fancies himself a top-drawer player, importer of the finest stuff, and has learned of a superior product being exported by a supplier located in Naples, Italy. Ryan is crucial to the plan. Ryan, the son of an Italian mother and Irish father (Tony, also a criminal) who spent childhood summers with relatives in Naples, conveniently serves as translator for Dan’s negotiations with the Italian suppliers. Ryan, therefore, is intimate with Dan’s business. So when the pills shipped from Italy are hijacked immediately upon delivery by a crew that evidently knew the delivery schedule and location, Ryan, along with everyone in Dan’s circle, falls under suspicion. Another thing about Dan: he’s been sampling the product, and the drugs have left him volatile, paranoid and unpredictable. Outside of his involvement with drugs, Ryan’s life is becoming increasingly complex. His girlfriend, Karine, who’s training to be a nurse, loathes Dan and what he stands for, and wants Ryan to give up selling (and doing) drugs. But when Ryan responds with the unpleasant truth that Dan won’t simply let him walk away, she breaks up with him. Then, soon afterward, outside a club, Ryan meets a young woman, Natalie, and the two embark on a drug and booze-fueled liaison that quickly turns physical, though everything changes when Ryan learns of Natalie’s connection with Dan. The Blood Miracles centres squarely on Ryan; the entire story is told from his troubled perspective. Ryan’s drinking and drug use make him erratic and despairing, even suicidal. Add in the fact that he’s still mourning his dead mother, and there are many occasions when he seems to be his own worst enemy. As Ryan finds himself subject to increasing pressures, both professional and personal, and as the threats to his well-being mount, he’s forced to rely on his wits and seeks an ally in Dan’s chief rival in the Cork illegal drug scene, a thug named Jimmy Phalen. McInerney dials up the tension (and the violence) to an excruciating level as the dangers close in, and the denouement when it comes is quick and nasty. The Blood Miracles is a gripping sprint through a dark, treacherous, chaotic landscape. It’s a place where matters of morality and responsibility have been grossly distorted and where survival is never assured. A place where loyalties clash and bodies drop with alarming frequency. But in her first two novels, with a sure hand and uncompromising vision, Lisa McInerney has made this landscape her own. show less

Author Lisa McInerney shows off virtuoso skills in a first novel set in the seamy side of Cork. Events are set in motion when the mother of a local hoodlum comes across an intruder in her kitchen and brains him with a souvenir stone decorated with a garish portrait of the Virgin Mary. What follows is a dark story, with characters facing day-to-day struggles just to survive, and not all of them succeeding. The style is gritty, perhaps overly so. I had the sense that the depiction of life in show more the drug and sex trade is spot-on. I hope, though, that the author’s next novel might find a setting less filled with doom. There are occasional flashes of humor here. It would be great to let them shine through a little more. show less

This is beautifully written. Its themes are: the sins of the fathers..., How religion f*cks people up, how religion f*cks Ireland up, how alcohol and cocaine f*ck people up, how Humans hurt and kill each other, how "love" f*cks people up....these are the main themes.

Tony meets an Italian woman in London, they fall in lust and get a baby, and then five more, and they're drinking all the time, so when they have a huge fight (bigger than the other huge fights), she gets in her car and drives show more it into a ditch--boom, she's dead. Now Tony and his kids are left alone with his drinking. Ryan, his oldest, gets Tony's fists in his face to pay for Tony's guilt.

Ryan is a drug dealer, and is connected with Georgie the sex worker, Ms Duane, his nextdoor neighbor, who is also connected to Cork's biggest gangster, and Ryan's dad. There're are more connections, and violence, tears, jail, hospitals, churches, religious cults...read it for yourself. McInery is a writer who knows how ugly the human soul can be, but the redemption that is possible therein. show less