The Boy

'A very fine debut novel from a future star of Irish crime writing' John Connolly

The Boy is a powerful novel of wasted talent, loss, greed and revenge – but also of discovered genius and life-affirming friendship.

By turns terrifying, taut, humane and tender it tells the origin story of Ireland’s organised-crime epidemic with a skill and grace which belies a debut novel, and is the calling-card of a ringing new voice in Irish fiction.

When the Guards knock on the door The Boy already knows his mother is dead. His father flees to the pub, leaving him to wait alone. Soon his brother Fallon, half-protector and half-outlaw, draws him into a world where grief and crime are rarely separated. At the same time, a wealthy landowner harbours grotesque secrets in the countryside - a hidden “family” of abducted boys, a nightmare lurking beneath respectability.

As The Boy moves through these fractured worlds - his father’s guilt, his uncle’s paramilitary past, his brother’s violent death - he becomes both witness and inheritor of a brutal legacy.

Think of a space where the layered complexity of Tana French meets the whip-smart dialogue and brutal beauty of Colin Barrett and the sharp tenderness and humour of Graeme Armstrong’s The Young Team – and you’re somewhere near where this novel will take you.

The Boy is a dark, lyrical crime debut. It is unflinching, propulsive, and unforgettable.

• Colin Barrett meets Tana French. A Tender and Powerful New Voice & Prize Contender in Irish Fiction.

• Intergenerational portrait of violence capturing how crime and political legacies infect family life, exploring Ireland’s underbelly with rare lyricism and psychological insight.

"The Boy" was written by Mark Gyves.

Mark Gyves is an Irish crime fi ction writer. He has lived and worked in the UK and Ireland and now resides in his hometown on the outskirts of Cork.

"The Boy" is perfect for readers who enjoy books about crime & mystery and modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945).