No Alibis For The Lost

Sounds a little like a David Goodis spoof, doesn’t it? No? Okay, be like that …
  Claire McGowan (right) will be in Belfast this coming Saturday, April 6th, where she will be launching her latest tome, THE LOST, at the very fine book emporium No Alibis. The event kicks off at 3pm, and all the details – including how to book your free ticket – are here.
  I reviewed THE LOST in the Irish Times last month, with the gist running thusly:

“In a different setting, The Lost might well have been a straightforward tale of abduction and serial killing, but the Northern Ireland backdrop offers sub-plots incorporating sectarian bigotry, religious and political fundamentalism, and a heavy-handed sexual repression that manifests itself in a number of ugly ways … McGowan’s pacy, direct style ensures that the twists come thick and fast.”

  For the rest, clickety-click here …

Claire For Take-Off

I had a review of Claire McGowan’s THE LOST (Headline) published in the Irish Times last weekend, as part of a crime / mystery column, although I can’t seem to find the link. A pity, that. Anyway, the review ran a lot like this:

Religion and sex collide in The Lost by Claire McGowan (Headline, pb, €19.99), her second novel after 2012’s debut The Fall and the first of a series to feature forensic psychologist Paula Maguire. Opening in London, where the Northern Ireland-born Paula scores a notable success in locating a missing girl, the story moves to Ballyterrin in Northern Ireland, a small Border town that strongly resembles McGowan’s native Newry. Seconded to a newly formed Missing Persons unit, Paula is charged with discovering the whereabouts of two teenagers who have recently disappeared, and her investigation – very little of it officially sanctioned – leads her to suspect that the disappearances may be linked to similar, unsolved cases dating from 1985. In a different setting, The Lost might well have been a straightforward tale of abduction and serial killing, but the Northern Ireland backdrop offers sub-plots incorporating sectarian bigotry, religious and political fundamentalism, and a heavy-handed sexual repression that manifests itself in a number of ugly ways. Not all of the plot strands are resolved in a plausible fashion by the conclusion of the breathless climax, but McGowan’s pacy, direct style ensures that the twists come thick and fast. As for Paula Maguire, she makes for a satisfyingly complex heroine, a quietly determined professional determined to prove herself on her home turf but privately as vulnerable as any of the young women she seeks to find, and her investigation into ‘Ballyterrin’s’ recent history, and her own tortured past, should prove fascinating as the series evolves. – Declan Burke

  This review was first published in the Irish Times.

The Lost Girls

Claire McGowan’s debut THE FALL caused something of a stir when it was published earlier this year, prompting no less an authority than Peter James to declare that, ‘Claire McGowan will undoubtedly become a major name in crime fiction.’ Her follow-up novel, THE LOST (Headline), will be published in April of next year, with the blurb elves wibbling thusly:

Not everyone who’s missing is lost.
  When two teenage girls go missing along the Irish border, forensic psychologist Paula Maguire has to return to the hometown she left years before. Swirling with rumour and secrets, the town is gripped by fear of a serial killer. But the truth could be even darker.

Not everyone who’s lost wants to be found.
  Surrounded by people and places she tried to forget, Paula digs into the cases as the truth twists further away. What’s the link with two other disappearances from 1985? And why does everything lead back to the town’s dark past - including the reasons her own mother went missing years before?

Nothing is what it seems.
  As the shocking truth is revealed, Paula learns that sometimes, it’s better not to find what you’ve lost.

  THE FALL was set in London but THE LOST is set in Claire’s native Northern Ireland, making it another title to add to the growing list of post-Troubles narratives that are set in the present but keep one eye on the past. In unleashing a forensic psychologist on the pathologies of 1980’s Northern Ireland, Claire may well be akin to pointing Pandora towards a firmly sealed box - especially as, in Northern Ireland, the words ‘lost’, ‘missing’ and ‘disappeared’ are interchangeable to a chilling degree. All in all, it’s a tantalising prospect.