After The Rising & Before The Fall: Two-Books-In-One

by Orna Ross

The first two books in The Irish Trilogy by Orna Ross, a historical murder mystery series of love, revenge and redemption. After the Rising Twenty years ago, Jo Devereux fled Mucknamore, the small Irish village where she grew up, driven away by buried secrets and hatreds. Now she is back and wants to uncover the truth about what really went on between her family and their friends, the O’Donovans, during the Ireland’s bitter Civil War… The consequences of that bitter division in the 1920s carried down into Jo’s own life, shattering her relationship with Rory O’Donovan, the only man she ever loved, and driving her to leave Ireland, swearing she’d never return. Now, Jo’s estranged mother has died, leaving her a suitcase full of letters and diaries that seem answer some questions about the past. Was her great-uncle really murdered by Dan O’Donovan, his best friend? And what part did her beloved grandmother play in this conflict? Jo happy life in San Francisco has been unravelling since her friend Richard died last year. So now, much to her own surprise, she decides to stay on in Mucknamore and see if the letters and diaries bequeathed by her mother might provide the key to unlock the truth. Over the course of a long hot summer, Jo is astonished to read about her grandmother and great-aunt and their part in Ireland’s fight for freedom. She draws close again to Rory, who still lives in Mucknamore and is mired in an unhappy marriage. As she tells him about their shared family past, they realize their love affair was doomed long before they were born. Now that they know, can there be a second chance at happiness? Rory is urging her to rebel, to forget the past and start over again. The strength of her feelings frightens her. She has learned how the passion of rebellion sweeps people up but what happens after the rising? Before the Fall It's August in the long, hot summer of 1995 and Jo Devereux can't believe that she still hasn't returned home to San Francisco. Instead she remains in Mucknamore, a small village in County Wexford, a home she swore she would never return to. The time for her to have her baby draws near so why is she staying on in Ireland, in this crumbling shed at the edge of the ocean, reading the diaries and letters left to her by her estranged mother? Jo has spent months writing about the death of her great uncle Barney Parle at the hands of Dan O'Donovan during the bitter Irish Civil War. Now she must consider just who led Dan to his grisly death in the wake of Barney’s murder. Combing the words of her ancestors with what was left unsaid, Jo is unprepared for her own reaction, as she comes to realise the price she, and Ireland, had to pay for freedom. But what does it mean for her relationship with Rory, Dan’s great-nephew, her one great love, now again, drawing closer? Will her mission to redeem the past be the key to her future? Or is she about to lose everything, all over again? After The Rising & Before the Fall is a sweeping, multigenerational tale set in the 1920s and 1990s Ireland and 1980s San Francisco.

544 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2014

About the author

Orna Ross is an award-winning historical novelist, poet, and founder-director of the global non-profit for self-publishing writers, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

An international bestseller, she enjoys book sales in 120+ countries worldwide and her awards include the Goethe Historical Fiction Grand Prize Award for fiction, Gold Literary Titan award for poetry, the Romantic Novelists Association's Indie Champion Award, The Writers' Digest's Top Websites for Writers, and The Bookseller's Top 100 people in publishing.

In what she describes as “the best move of my writing life”, Orna took her book rights back from her publishers in 2011. The experience has made her a passionate advocate for the commercial and creative empowerment of authors through self-publishing and selective rights licensing.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are two big books, with real depth and understanding of people’s motives and situations. It tackles over those two books a woman’s situation as she returns to a place dominated by both her own memories and a complex family history in the context of a fractured community. These books are undoubtedly an achievement of the highest order, and they form the first two parts of the “Irish Trilogy”. The writing is incredibly detailed, moving its focus from the present in 1995, and 1925. It is mainly from Jo Devereux’s point of view, especially it is often directly through her eyes, and so we have memories from her childhood in 1966. It is thus a challenging read which moves backwards and forwards time. It is an immersive read in so many ways. The landscape of shifting sands, the bleak weather and the buildings in which people exist are all vividly described, as are the small details of life. There are letters which set out important messages, reveal truths long hidden, hint at secrets long held. The dialogue is also vivid, revealing much of the personalities involved, the time in which the action takes place and more. This is a book of fine writing, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this mixture of historical and more contemporary stories.

Jo Devereux returns to Ireland from San Francisco too late to see her mother alive once more, not having spoken for some twenty years. She almost misses her mother’s funeral, and her arrival sparks off gossip. She left a complicated family situation behind, and now her return creates much speculation. Her meeting with Rory O’Donovan evokes many memories of her childhood and more complicated emotions which may prove difficult in light of the surprises and secrets emerging while she has been away. Her own experiences while she has been away have not all been positive - they have included a tragedy which she only refers to in passing at first, and other brief relationships which have had their effect on her life. Success in writing a syndicated column has meant that she has more than survived, but the cost is not always obvious. She has brought back a secret that will fundamentally affect her life, a secret which will only take full effect in the second book.
There is an important surprise which is revealed after her mother’s death by an unexpected source; her inheritance from her mother. A trunkful of papers and diaries introduce vast swathes of family documents, and her mother had hoped that Jo’s skills at writing could be used to put together a family history. Instead of a sedate procession of family stories, the documents reveal years of division and hate that have poisoned relationships and left scars until the present day. With women and men who have fought and died as well as the trivia of more mundane events, the first book introduces many problems in Jo’s life; can love and purpose in the second novel begin to resolve some of the damage done over so many years?

This is a book written with an excellent ear for the voices of the past and the present , the shocks and pain inflicted by people, the suffering of loss and the pleasures of love. The explanations and anecdotes are beautifully rendered with the power of vivid imagination rooted in popular tales and legends. The characters are equally vivid, revealed with a sure hand, including the strong minded grandmother and her companion Auntie Norah, the sister who is shocked by Jo’s actions. This is a memorable book which has a wide sweep of emotions and a powerful range of descriptions of events which exceed any straightforward storytelling, all enacted by characters outside easy definition.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed both books very much - the Irish history, the slow unraveling of the mystery, the Irish environment.