Shay Dunne is a poison pen.
Not that she wants to be one. But a recent tragedy in her life has left her hell-bent on dishing out some punishment to the two people she blames.
Sending them a letter containing a vague accusation will do the trick.
Only the letters set in motion a series of unintended consequences, and Shay soon discovers that in the close-knit Irish village she calls home, a community still reeling from Covid, there are sinister secrets everywhere.
Someone To Blame by J J Green was published on 28 October 2024 by The Book Guild. My thanks to the author who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour.
I am always drawn to books set in Ireland, and this one particularly resonated. My later Mother was from Donegal and we spent every summer in the small town that she grew up in. J J Green draws on her own personal experience of living in Donegal and has created a place that is realistic and feels so familiar.
She's also created a large cast of colourful characters. There are a lot of them, and all seem to be connected - such is the way in a small Irish town. The story revolves around Shay Dunne; a woman whose life so far has not really amounted to much. She's experienced the difficulties of being a single mother to son Ryan, and is now almost drowning in grief. When she receives a terrible diagnosis from the hospital, she doesn't know quite where to turn. Shay's sister Ciara and her husband Joe run the local pub; the heart of the community. The pub and the village shop is the place to learn all of the local news, some of it true, a lot of it is invented.
Shay is angry. She is angry about two people in particular. Local, wealthy businessman Peter Feeney, and wideboy Eoin Devine. Feeny just happens to be the grandfather of Shay's son, although he's never acknowledged him, and Eoin is the guy who made Ryan's life so difficult recently. What possesses her to write poison pen letters to them? She wants to hurt them. The letters are short and to the point. Shay posts them and then sits back.
What happens next is totally unexpected. More and more people in the town receive poison pen letters. Shay knows that she didn't send them. There's a copycat out there, but who is it?
What the letters do is to open a lot of previously sealed up boxes. They make people frightened, they make people look at their lives and things that they have done. The most unexpected people will have the most terrible of secrets to hide and slowly but surely, the whole town will learn just who lives amongst them.
This is a complex and multi layered tale that is written well. The sense of place is so well done and the different characters are all well rounded. There are some poignant and quite heart breaking scenes, there are also a few that made me chuckle. It's a well thought out mystery, with an ending that will really pull at the emotions.
She's also created a large cast of colourful characters. There are a lot of them, and all seem to be connected - such is the way in a small Irish town. The story revolves around Shay Dunne; a woman whose life so far has not really amounted to much. She's experienced the difficulties of being a single mother to son Ryan, and is now almost drowning in grief. When she receives a terrible diagnosis from the hospital, she doesn't know quite where to turn. Shay's sister Ciara and her husband Joe run the local pub; the heart of the community. The pub and the village shop is the place to learn all of the local news, some of it true, a lot of it is invented.
Shay is angry. She is angry about two people in particular. Local, wealthy businessman Peter Feeney, and wideboy Eoin Devine. Feeny just happens to be the grandfather of Shay's son, although he's never acknowledged him, and Eoin is the guy who made Ryan's life so difficult recently. What possesses her to write poison pen letters to them? She wants to hurt them. The letters are short and to the point. Shay posts them and then sits back.
What happens next is totally unexpected. More and more people in the town receive poison pen letters. Shay knows that she didn't send them. There's a copycat out there, but who is it?
What the letters do is to open a lot of previously sealed up boxes. They make people frightened, they make people look at their lives and things that they have done. The most unexpected people will have the most terrible of secrets to hide and slowly but surely, the whole town will learn just who lives amongst them.
This is a complex and multi layered tale that is written well. The sense of place is so well done and the different characters are all well rounded. There are some poignant and quite heart breaking scenes, there are also a few that made me chuckle. It's a well thought out mystery, with an ending that will really pull at the emotions.
fiction and non-fiction. Her non-fiction work is published as political essays focusing on economic and environmental injustice. Her first novel, The Last Good Summer, was published in February 2023. Someone To Blame is her second novel.
J. J. Green explains: “The inspiration for the book came from a story I was told when I was little about a woman who sent anonymous letters to people living in her village. I found the story fascinating and it always stayed with me. I thought it might make an intriguing story, writing about the consequences that anonymous letters would have on a tight-knit community where some people had carefully guarded secrets.”
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