The Convictions of John Delahunt
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Dublin, 1841. On a cold December morning, a small boy is enticed away from his mother and his throat savagely cut. This could be just one more small, sad death in a city riven by poverty, inequality and political unrest, but this killing causes a public outcry. For it appears the culprit – a feckless student named John Delahunt – is also an informant for the authorities at Dublin Castle. And strangely, this young man seems neither to regret what he did nor fear his punishment. Indeed, as he awaits the hangman in his cell in Kilmainham Gaol, John Delahunt decides to tell his story in this, his final, deeply unsettling statement . . .
Based on true events that convulsed Victorian Ireland, The Convictions of John Delahunt is the tragic tale of a man who betrays his family, his friends, his society and, ultimately, himself. Set amidst Dublin’s taverns, tenements, courtrooms and alleyways and with its rich, Dickensian cast of characters, this compelling, at times darkly humorous, novel brilliantly evokes a time and a place, and introduces a remarkable new literary voice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Hughes (Lives Less Ordinary) puts his knowledge of mid-19th-century Ireland to masterly use in his chilling first novel. John Delahunt, who's in a Dublin prison awaiting execution for an unnamed crime, decides to write his story, beginning two years earlier, when he was a lackluster student at Trinity College. After seeing a friend injure a policeman, he receives a visit from shadowy police official Thomas Sibthorpe, who persuades him to testify against the wrong but to the authorities' minds, more convenient "offender." The Dublin police pay informants to report on illegalities both actual and potential; the worse the offense, the higher the fee. Before long, the impoverished Delahunt is seeking scapegoats for crimes he himself commits. As he slides into moral darkness, his battle of wits with his corrupt employers ends with a series of startling but entirely convincing plot twists. This beautifully written tale of cruelty and redemption is as unforgettable as it is harrowing.
