This is the seventh outing for fictional psychotherapist-cum-detective, Frieda Klein, and I’ve been with her for every one so far.  Now that the series has reached Sunday, I wondered whether the authors (Sean French and Nicci Gerard, aka Nicci French) would bring it to a devastating climax, but they seem to be having too much fun or making too much money.  The final words of the novel (“Make me disappear”) might suggest we’re at the end of the road, but I don’t think so.  Surely we have to have the long-anticipated confrontation between Klein and her nemesis, Dean Reeve?

Like all the earlier titles, Sunday Morning Coming Down is a wonderfully compulsive read.  Of course, the plot is implausible and occasionally downright silly, but who cares?  Frieda and her friends, not to mention the unseen, menacing presence of Dean Reeve, are as entertaining as ever.  I’m already anticipating the next one, but there’s one thing that puzzles me.  Now that they’ve run out of days, what will the title be?

Whatever image first pops into your mind when you think of Ireland, I’m quite sure it isn’t the squalid underworld of pimps, addicts, and crazies that’s the setting of Lisa McInerney’s award-winning debut novel.  This isn’t the Ireland peddled to tourists – the Blarney Stone, Burren, and Book of Kells.  It’s the other Ireland: the one blighted by homelessness, poverty, petty and not-so-petty crime.

Although first published more than two years ago, I was completely unaware of the novel until I spotted it in a bookshop recently.  It’s had its fair share of accolades and attracted some criticism for its searing exposure of a slice of Ireland some would prefer was kept under wraps.

It’s a familiar enough story: murder, prostitution, drug abuse, and much more in a decayed urban setting.  What sets this novel apart is not the plot or the setting.  It’s the black comedy that infuses every line, the vitality, and the author’s unmistakable affection for her grim characters that make it so memorable.  I’ve heard there’s a sequel in the works and I’m looking forward to it already.