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Bottom of the pile
10
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
3/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Claire McGowan
Publisher:
Little A
Date:
May 1, 2022
Ireland in the 1990s seemed a safe place for women. With the news dominated by the Troubles, it was easy to ignore non-political murders and sexual violence, to trust that you weren't going to be dragged into the shadows and killed. But beneath the surface, a far darker reality had taken hold. Through questioning the society and circumstances that allowed eight young women to vanish without a traceâno conclusion or conviction, no resolution for their loved onesâbestselling crime novelist Claire McGowan delivers a candid investigation into the culture of secrecy, victim-blaming and shame that left these women's bodies unfound, their fates unknown, their assailants unpunished.
What The Reviewers Say
McGowan’s perspective as a crime novelist and Irish native is unique. Throughout the book, she considers the narrative of safety in Ireland that was perpetuated in her youth. She also reconciles the coordinated resolutions of the crimes in her novels with the realistic complexities of criminal investigations. This book will appeal to fans of true crime and gender studies for McGowan’s empathetic distillation of these crimes.
McGowan feels a connection to this part of her country’s history. She dives deep into the political, police, and social constructs that could have contributed to the lack of guilty parties.
Readable and thought-provoking, this book reveals that despite efforts at modernization and liberalization, Irish systems of justice and power remain as patriarchal as they are complicit in maintaining a centuries-old culture of silence, suppression, and misogyny.
