A River of Bodies by Kevin Doyle

This is in reality a review of two books, A River of Bodies being the second in a projected trilogy, and a sequel to the author’s first novel, To Keep a Bird Singing. When I was invited to review this title by the publisher, they were kind enough to send the first title as well and I read both back to back. 

Ireland is a country with a turbulent recent history and as someone of Irish descent (my father was from the north, my mother from the south) I have a great interest in its affairs. There was The Troubles in the north, which dominated much of the latter half of the last century, and which impacted the Republic in the south as well. The south is an independent country but the north remains a part of the UK and the IRA ran a deadly campaign of independence which only ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1999. Then there is the Republic’s relationship with the Catholic Church. Until recently, the Republic was a deeply conservative country. The Catholic Church was not to be questioned and sin was something to be punished. There were many abuses which have only recently been revealed. For example, unmarried mothers were forced into Magdalene Laundries (as famously exposed in the 2002 film by Peter Mullen, The Magdalene Sisters) which in reality were little better than prisons or asylums, where they were forced to work and where abuse was rife. More recently, the worldwide child abuse scandal to hit the Catholic Church has impacted Ireland, with child abuse found to be rife in some Irish Church institutions. All this tragic history forms the backdrop to Kevin Doyle’s Solidarity Books trilogy. 

Noelie Sullivan is an aged, unemployed ex-punk. he’s something of a community activist, having been involved in many campaigns down the years. In the first book of the trilogy, To Keep a Bird Singing, while perusing a charity shop he happens upon a rare collection of punk records. Its his own, he having lost them in a burglary years before. Amazed by this discovery, he buys the collection and asks the woman serving at the till where they came from. After finding out, he tracks down the seller and confronts him. This is where Noelie’s troubles begin, for hidden in the collection is notes on the identity of a high level informant in Sinn Fein (the political wing of the IRA), a man who throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s was feeding information to Garda Special Branch. The plot takes off from here and soon the IRA/Sinn Fein angle is tied up intricately with child abuse in the Catholic Church, and even touches on fascism in Spain. Book 1 ends on a cliff-hanger and book 2, A River of Bodies picks up from where it left off and continues on. 

Some books in a series can be read as a standalone and some can’t. This is a trilogy of the latter kind, and A River of Bodies really shouldn’t be read without reading its previous title. The second book is a slightly slower moving instalment, as Noellie and the friends helping him in his investigation (all introduced in the first title, bar one newcomer introduced in the second book) consolidate their findings and press on unearthing the truth. That said, A River of Bodies is still a tense and enthralling read and it sets the stage for what I imagine will be an explosive finale.

One thing that should be said is that the characters are under real threat and one never knows who is likely to survive. Without giving away spoilers, major characters are killed off in both titles and I really liked that about these books. In some novels you know that however much peril a character is under they will be ok in the end, but like the fantasy television series Game of Thrones (which regularly shocked fans and kept them on their toes by killing off a major character) this trilogy does the same. It’s a very effective technique and keeps one guessing.

I really enjoyed both these books. The characters are engaging and have real pluck, they’re ordinary people who dare to take on the might of the state (Garda Special Branch) and the dangerous child abuse ring which has tentacles into the Catholic Church establishment. While the plot is convoluted and labyrinthine, the author handles it well and the reader never gets lost. This is an entertaining and engaging thriller series, but one with real punch and one not afraid to shine a light on real social issues. I’m very much looking forward to the third title in the series and can’t recommend these books enough.

5 out of 5 stars