Shadow Across the Liffey by Cathy Mansell
SYNOPSIS
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Shadow Across the Liffey is a romantic novel set in 1960s Dublin and explores themes of courage in the face of loss, learning to love again and the havoc that well kept family secrets can wreak.
Dark haired OONA QUINN, 26, is devastated when Sergeant McNally delivers the news that a drunken driver kills her husband and their five-year-old daughter.
‘Where’s Jacqueline, my little girl? She’ll be frightened. I must go to her.’She strives to rebuild her life and that of her willful son, SEAN, 11, threatened with expulsion from school. She finally returns to the shipping office in a rundown tenement block in the city where she works for her eccentric employers, the KOVACS. Mr Kovac has a stroke and his wife struggles with the business until JACK WALSH, attractive, charismatic, and at first a man of mystery, arrives to take over.
A menacing letter from VINNIE KELLY, Sean’s biological father just out of prison, infuriates Oona. Worried for her son, she agrees to meet him, only to be appalled by his arrogance and scruffy appearance. His proposal that they get back together disgusts her and she flees the pub. Keeping it secret from her parents, she confides in her sister CONNIE and brother-in-law DESSIE. Dessie is angry accusing her of encouraging him. Connie defends her sister. (The close relationship between the two sisters is a thread throughout the book).
Oona is reassured when Dessie tells her that Vinnie has gone back to Leicester and she hears nothing more from him. At the office, Jack makes changes that clash with Mrs Kovac but Oona admires him for making a stand against the woman’s bullying tactics. When it is realized that Mr Kovac will not recover, the Kovacs return to Czechoslovakia and Jack finally becomes the new manager of World Wide shipping.
Just when she is beginning to get her life back on track, Vinnie returns to Dublin, planning to charm his way back into her life. His stalking unnerves her and she fears his hidden agenda. When she rejects him, he threatens to take Sean away from her.
Jack inspired by Oona’s courage and determination, falls in love with her. Returning home after a romantic evening together, Vinnie sees them, and later forces his way into her home. When she tries to protect herself against him, the situation becomes violent. Oona is left with injuries and no option but to report the incident to the Gardaí, involve her parents and reluctantly confides her past to Jack.
The police question Vinnie, but he is later released. Sean returns home and finds him in the house threatening his mother. Coming to her aid, he lashes out with his fists.
‘Now then, that’s no way to treat to your old dad?’
Vinnie’s words leave a stunned silence and, Oona has no choice but to explain the situation to her bewildered son. The revelation severely damages their relationship.
When Sean fails to return home from school, Sergeant McNally becomes involved in the search. Distraught, she is convinced Vinnie has kidnapped him. She blames herself. Connie, and Dessie, whose own fertility problems form a sub-plot in the novel, cancels their appointment with the adoption agency to support her.
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Extensive questioning and searches by McNally reveal nothing. With no sightings at the ferry ports, McNally believes they are still in Dublin, but Oona, frustrated and impatient by the drawn out procedure believes Vinnie has taken Sean to England.
Desperate to get justice for the woman he loves, Jack arranges for them to go to England and look for Sean. They stay in Liverpool overnight at Jack’s parents before driving to Leicester. The police in Leicester issue a picture of Sean and when Oona sees him staring up at her from the newspaper, a cheeky grin on his face, she is heartbroken and determined to find him.
At first Vinnie shows Sean a good time but soon tires of him, taking him from place to place to cover his tracks and avoid the police. They find lodgings in a grubby room in Manchester where he finally abandons him. Sean spends a night locked in the grounds of Old Trafford. On his return to the bedsit, the property owner evicts him. Lonely and frightened he wanders the streets where he stumbles across Duffy, a street orphan who shows him where to sleep for the night and gives him a mars bar. The following morning his bag is missing and so is Duffy. Tired and hungry Sean makes his way back to Old Trafford where he collapses from hunger and exhaustion.
Despondent with McNally’s efforts, she leans on Jack for support. During their time away when she feels all is lost, Jack’s love uplifts her and she comes to accept that it all right to love again.
With no positive sightings of Sean, she is on the verge of returning home but Jack persuades her otherwise and she regains her fighting spirit. However, when a call comes through for her at the B & B in Leicester, she is tentative and later elated. McNally informs her that Sean is safe, and been cared for in a Manchester hospital.
United again with her son, she finds him changed by his experience.
‘Now I know who’s good and who’s not. I’m so sorry, Mam. Can I come home? You’re the best.’ Before they leave Manchester, they search for Duffy and Sean invites him to visit him in Dublin. Jack proposes to Oona on the ship and she accepts.
‘I never expected to find this level of happiness again.’
They return home to a joyful family reunion with news that Connie is pregnant. When Oona announces that she and Jack are to be married, he is welcomed wholeheartedly into the family.
Targeted Age Group:
ADULT
How is Writing In Your Genre Different from Others?
I have found my own style. I write about what I know and set my characters there. I write stories
about real people with real problems.
I love to write romantic suspense and feel that it helps to make page turners.
I put my character up a tree and throw stones at her. She won’t have a easy time.
What Advice Would You Give Aspiring Writers?
Persevere and don’t give up. Above all believe in yourself because if you don’t, who else will.
Join a writing group and read your work aloud. You can be too close to your own manuscript and
another pair of eyes can help you see what you’ve overlooked.
Keep going and take criticism. It is the only way to hone your craft.
Author Bio:
Cathy Mansell
Author
Member of
Leicester Writers’ Club, Just Write workshop, Life President of Lutterworth Writers’ Group, Member NAWG, Member Romantic Novelist Association and past president of Riverside Speakers club.
Cathy is an experienced writer of romantic fiction. Her early work was competition short stories and articles published in national magazines. She was Editor in Chief of the Leicestershire Anthology, ‘Taking Off’, a book promoted and supported by Arts Council UK.
In recent times, Cathy has turned to writing full-length novels that are set in Ireland/England in 20c with references to the Irish Civil War and America’s Wall Street Crash. Having lived her childhood years in Ireland all of her work has that touch of authenticity. They depict the lifestyle and hardship of Irish families in those days, with the passions and emotions of her characters, who are wound up in intricate criminal plots, mixed with illegitimacy and the desperate and tragic loneliness of widowhood contrasting with the happiness when love comes calling once more.
Readers of Cathy’s novels are transported to a distant time, with page turning tension, having tears and laughter in equal measure.
All of this is borne out of Cathy’s own early experience of widowhood, alongside the trials of bringing up a family as a lone parent in the 70’s. And finding love again with Dennis, her husband of 34 years and most ardent supporter.
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I was born in Dublin, Ireland and then emigrated to Leicester. Both cities have special meaning for me so I decided to use them both in my book Shadow Across the Liffey. It worked quite well; mainly because it was set in the 60s, a time I grew up in and knew well. The story is centered around the young heroine, Oona Quinn who struggles to bring up a child as a single parent, after a drunk driver takes the lives of her husband and young daughter.
Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Buy Book On Amazon
Social Media:
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