The best books about Belfast

This book illuminates the neglected history of the Dublin Metropolitan Police – a history that has been long overshadowed by existing historiography, which has traditionally been preoccupied with the more radical aspects of Irish history.

It explores the origins of the institution and highlights the Dublin Metropolitan Police’s profound influence on the colonial forces, as its legacy reached some of the furthest outposts of the British Empire. In doing so Anastasia Dukova provides much-needed nuance and complexity to our understanding of Ireland as a whole, and Dublin in particular, demonstrating that it was far more than a lawless place ravaged by political and sectarian violence. Simultaneously, the book tells the story of the bobby on the beat, the policeman who made the organisation; his work and day, the conditions of service, and how they affected or bettered his lot at home and abroad.

Letters to Jude is my most experimental novel to date and the book that has most meaning for me. It plays with language, form, and style.

Ostensibly, it is about an ailing middle-aged librarian Leo Lambkin who after his mother’s premature and sudden death receives a letter of condolence from an old flame, Bernarda Rodríguez. A correspondence follows between them as she reveals he is the father of her child begot by violent circumstances years previously in the chief librarian’s house. Overwrought by what happened, Bernarda disappeared from Leo’s life and returned to Spain. Leo disguises Bernarda as a gender-neutral Jude so his childless wife Lil will not cotton on to what is happening. The experimental nature of this novel involves streams of consciousness, telepathy, and philosophical and mythological insights.

Present Tense is a police procedural set in present-day South Africa, in Cape Town. Schalk Lourens, a cop with a past he’s ashamed of, must investigate the murder of his ex-boss, an execution that recalls the bad old days of apartheid. His investigation is made more difficult by the tensions of post-apartheid society. Schalk must tread a line between the new regime and the old, between personal and professional, between justice and revenge.

Present Tense won the 2020 Ned Kelly Award for a debut novel and was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards. The Sydney Morning Herald called it "superbly structured" and with a "cast of engaging characters."

Miriam says her brain is intercepting random social media messages. Then she shoots her mother dead. Declared insane, the Belfast teenager gets locked in a psych ward. All she does there, all day, is murmur what she insists are the live, online exchanges running through her brain. Denis, Miriam’s migrant stepfather, was the only witness to the killing. He’s trying to develop his life coaching business yet can’t stop thinking about the murder. He is desperate to know if, in her last moment, his wife knew Miriam was about to kill her. During visits, he tries over and over to break through her noise with one question – Did She See You? And then another murder, but this one could not have been Miriam. 

Colour Coded is a secret organisation situated in the middle of the Cairngorms of Scotland, that work from the shadows to assist law enforcement while keeping everyone oblivious to their existence. Made up of people who drop their identities upon entry, that is their one absolute rule; no pasts allowed. So when Bullet’s previous boss Neon threatens to reveal her past along with the identities of everyone else, all of their missions grind to a halt, as she and the rest of the team must try to stay one step ahead of him, with the aim of stopping him once and for all.

With two ex-wives, a fifteen-year-old daughter who hates him, and a soon-to-be-fatal brain tumor nicknamed Bob, retired police detective Mike Garrity doesn’t have a lot to live for. However, when twenty-two-year-old TJ Sommerset, a millionaire member of the hit boy band Boyz Klub goes missing, Mike is offered the job of a lifetime to find him. It doesn’t hurt that Mike’s daughter is TJ’s biggest fan. So Mike is all too happy to make one last attempt to impress her. Yet, it isn’t long before Mike discovers that there are other people looking for TJ as well. And once a headless corpse shows up, it’s clear that they’re not just after him for his autograph.

It’s the story about what happened after the Titanic sank.  As the band played on deck, 1,500 men, women, and children were swept into the ice-cold water of the North Atlantic. More than 1,200 were never seen again. What happened to them? Ward uncovers the scandal of how the cable-laying ship Mackay-Bennett, which sailed from Halifax to recover bodies, enforced a class system that mirrored the Titanic’s own class structure on board.  He finds uncomfortable parallels with contemporary corporate life: the cover-ups, the failure of anyone at the top to take responsibility. 

Ward’s book, which became a Sunday Times bestseller, inspired a Discovery Channel documentary, Titanic: The Aftermath, which tells the story of Jock’s short but daring life, not unlike that of Jack Dawson in the film, Titanic. Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, described Ward’s book as ‘a heart-breaking story, wonderfully told’.

The second book in the Friendship Bread series, Madeline's Tea Salon is the cozy hub of the small river town of Avalon, IL, where local residents scrapbook their memories and make new ones. Under the guidance of Bettie Shelton, the irascible founder of the Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society, even the most reluctant of Avalon's residents come to terms with their past and make bold decisions about their future. When the group receives unexpected news about their steadfast leader, they must pull together to create something truly memorable.

Miriam says her brain is intercepting random social media messages. Then she shoots her mother dead. Declared insane, the Belfast teenager gets locked in a psych ward. All she does there, all day, is murmur what she insists are the live, online exchanges running through her brain. Denis, Miriam’s migrant stepfather, was the only witness to the killing. He’s trying to develop his life coaching business yet can’t stop thinking about the murder. He is desperate to know if, in her last moment, his wife knew Miriam was about to kill her. During visits, he tries over and over to break through her noise with one question – Did She See You? And then another murder, but this one could not have been Miriam.