Killarney Blues

Available now on Amazon and BookDepository.com (free worldwide delivery)

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9926552-4-2 / E-book ASIN: B00HFQCTPG

WINNER OF THE PRIX MYSTERE DE LA CRITIQUE (2018, FRANCE)

NOMINATED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS’ AWARD “RIVAGES DES LIBRAIRES” (2019, FRANCE)

Picturesque Killarney might seem the perfect place to enjoy the rare gift of sun but the town has got the blues.

Bernard Dunphy, eccentric jarvey and guitarist, is pining for his unrequited love and has to contend with an ailing mother and an ailing horse. His troubled friend Jack gets embroiled in a violent crime. A trio of girlfriends becomes entangled in the terrible webs of their own making. The novel fluctuates between darkness and light as the protagonists struggle with their inner demons.

Can friendship, love and music save their sinking souls?

Read an excerpt

About Colin O’Sullivan

“Colin O’Sullivan writes with a style and a swagger all his own. His voice – unique, strong, startlingly expressive – both comes from and adds to Ireland’s long and lovely literary lineage. Like many of that island’s sons and daughters, O’Sullivan sends language out on a gleeful spree, exuberant, defiant, ever-ready for a party. Only a soul of stone could resist joining in.” —Niall Griffiths

“His words swagger with purpose, never meandering too long on a scene, always moving the story forward, even when it goes back in time, like a faded photograph coming into view. Lyrical to a point, one word flowing to the next, hardly stopping.“ —LoveSexAndOtherDirtyWords.com

“Carried by a genuine writing talent, Killarney Blues is a Noir novel full of melancholy and unfulfilled dreams with a surprising glimmer of hope at the end. Without the slightest naivety. A revelation.”  —Le Soir (Belgium)

“Killarney Blues is a Noir novel – but not only – at the farthest reaches of love, desire and loss.” —Lettres d’Irlande et d’Ailleurs

“In a style that is sometimes luminous, sometimes direct, sometimes poetic, Colin O’Sullivan traces his narrative path, creates incredibly vivid and appealing characters and brings the reader, to the 12-bar beat of the blues, towards a heart-breaking denouement.” —Le blog du Polar de Velda

“A hard, poignant novel of great humanity… remarkably well written…” —Rolling Stone (France)

“A cathartic novel that ultimately creates positive emotions, like the blues can do. Poignant.” —BookNode

“This first Noir novel from Colin O’Sullivan is magnificent, very finely written, and profoundly sad. To be savoured while drinking a Guinness and listening to some old blues, by Muddy Waters or Bessie Smith. And if rain knocks on the window glass, like in Killarney, it’s even better.”  —RTL (Radio Télévision Luxembourg)