Brouhaha

Product Information

I was therefore over the moon when I started reading and I could actually hear him talking to me in his Irish tang, nuanced language and witty descriptions of real mundane issues in life. He played Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted (1995–1998), George Sunday/Thermoman in My Hero (2000–2006), and DI Jack Mooney in Death in Paradise (2017–2020). Although its widely accepted that our ability to gabble on is inherent in our genes, without even setting foot near the fabled county Cork castle. The trio of an unhappily retired Gardai, an unpopular journalist, and a not so prodigal friend, make a fun group of flawed characters on the hunt for answers. Over the past few days, Kevin, no flies on him, had sensed a tension in the town thanks to Dove Connolly’s poor decision to blow his own head off.

I found it interesting to have three main characters and to see the story from each of their pint of views, however I thought this made the book a little too long and my attention was lost. The wonderful town that is Tullyanna, fictional but I would imagine to have been made up of maybe one or two real places. Sandra disappeared and no body was ever found so there is a question over whether she is alive or dead. Back in town, he finds Dove left him a graphic novel he wrote and illustrated, and while initially he is puzzled and disinterested, he begins to realise that the book, about the adventures of a hero named Brouhaha is actually Dove’s way of leaving him clues to what he discovered (as also chastising him for his own actions). I read Ben Elton’s Stark which was like an inoculation, but tried Dead Famous as a kind of booster dose.

I’ve been a fan of Ardal’s , since his days in father Ted and his other roles in the BBC Comedy My Hero and the drama Death in Paradise. The whole Irish vibe came through strongly and there’s no shortage of killer lines but, truth be told, I was relieved to get to the end. Sharkey finds himself joining forces with retired Garda Kevin Healy, who is haunted by the fact that he was unable to find out what happened to Sandra, and a local journalist Joanne McCollum who is obsessed with the case. In so doing, poor Dove had spread panic amongst the townspeople, raising all sorts of ugly questions, reviving all sorts of rumours, and inviting all sorts of unwelcome attention upon them. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Ireland for the opportunity to review this book in my own way.

These three intrepid individuals lead us through a myriad of scenarios, some very funny, some gruesome but all highly entertaining. Dove's funeral brings this unlikely trio together as they strive to finally discover what happened to Dove and Sandra. It is that kind of thinking that brought us works such as Stephen Fry’s Moab Is My Washpot and The Hippopotamus, which I read and cannot remember a single thing about. The dialogue is enhanced by utilising some local dialect, which I do admit to taking a wee while to get to grips with.I got about 140 pages into it, and then jumped to the last 5 chapters to find out what happened, but all in all just felt disappointing and kind of lack the oomph or the excitement for me to really get stuck in. If you're up for something a little different that challenges your idea of what a dark comedy can achieve in terms of literary weight, then I bring you Brouhaha! I think it's fair to say that this is not an easy book to pigeonhole, and O'Hanlon's writing style does take a little getting used to, but once you get into the rhythm of it then a curious brilliance starts to reveal itself. This was a struggle from the beginning up to the point where I collapsed from exhaustion and skipped to the end.

e. that the Cause is greater than the Organization and the Organization is greater than the Leadership… the original Cause was more or less forgotten in the mists of time”.While the mystery at the heart of story holds you till the end, aided by clues guiding our three unlikely heroes, borne out of a graphic novel which comes across as something akin to the marriage of the Book of Kells and piece of Japanese Manga. The quotations and references - Springsteen to Yeats - add a lovely depth to this fine piece of work. With Dove’s death, Joanne who by now realises she may have been mistaken in blaming Dove is also back in Tullyanna, with more or less the same objectives. But Dove has left a graphic novel – derivative it seems of Pat Mills Sláine – that with all its casual misogyny might have secret clues as to the crime. The plotting was noticeably first rate, with droplets of information into proceedings and then tidied up efficiently later on in the story.