It’s been a long and winding road. That overused phrase is a good fit for the journey to the publication of my second novel. Nothing is agreed yet so the road can disappear over the horizon.
While looking for a publisher and agent for Under The Bridge I took the online advice to start another novel. Things go so slowly in publishing that I now have first drafts of two other novels The Morning After, and Burning Down ythe House. Book four in the Liverpool Mystery Series was always meant to be The Wicklow Boys.
The Wicklow Boys has morphed into Across The Water
Across The Water follows Patrick who goes on the run to Ireland in 1974 after a killing in Garston Liverpool. Working for a Wicklow based gangster Patrick is playing a very dangerous game having made a deal with Special Branch in Liverpool.
As a child, Vinny was told his father died in a motorcycle accident in Ireland. A University history professor Vinny and his partner Anne a reporter for the Liverpool Chronicle visit Wicklow to find out more.
What follows is a glimpse into a murderous decade that turned Patrick’s life upside down. The dark arts of the security services play with peoples lives in a campaign to defend Empire. While the consequences of Ireland’s independence struggle play out in the everyday battle to put food on the table.
Two narratives forty years apart examine the close relationship between English and Irish people despite the political manoeuvres of governments on both sides of the Irish sea.
Vinny is shocked to find out his father was murdered, with Anne sets out to find out exactly what happened. Powerful individuals in Wicklow are determined to stop them. As one character explains, ‘ Here, history is part of the present, not the past.’
I am working through the final stages of the novel and will find out if the publisher accepts it in the next few weeks. I will let you know first!
The Wicklow Boys? Or Across the Water as the title?
Which title appeals to you? Why?
*An update 2022 The novel was accepted the cover is below is the second edition.
Jack Byrne 
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