Dismas Hardy is an ex-cop and bartender at the Little Shamrock, owned by his friend Moses McGuire. When Moses asks him to investigate the alleged suicide of his brother-in-law, Eddie Cochran, Dismas obliges. Though Dismas's probing suggests that Eddie was involved in a drug deal, he begins to uncover a dangerous entanglement much closer to home.
The Wild Geese : The Irish brigades of France and Spain
In the early years of the English Civil War, a French traveller in England remarked that the Irish 'are better soldiers abroad than at home'. Between 1585 and 1818, over half a million Irish were lured from their homeland by promises of glory, money and honour in a constant emigration romantically styled 'The Flight of the Wild Geese'. Throughout this period, the Irish brigades in France and Spain participated in conflicts ranging from the wars of the Spanish and Austrian Succession to the Napoleonic Wars. Spanning over two centuries of history, this book examines the uniforms and organization of the Wild Geese in France and Spain.
Possessed of a singular writer's instinct, Lescroart drapes a bare-bones plot in psychological window dressing and produces a full-bodied, substantive, and stylistic effort of the first order. San Francisco ex-cop and current bartender Dismas "Diz" Hardy cannot believe his friend Eddie would commit suicide, so he decides to investigate. The progress of his search into Eddie's last days coincides with changes in his own emotional make-up, as he faces the reasons for his divorce and his feelings of guilt over the death of his infant son. Full attention to character, then, a sympathetic protagonist, and a satisfying conclusion.
From the mid-1860s to 1914 the Irish problem was frequently the prime issue in British politics. Quantatively it absorbed more time and energy than any other question. There was little about Ireland which was not aired at length in the press, in Parliament and at the dinner tables of the British political elite. Fenianism obsessed British minds at the beginning of the period while at the end it seemed all too possible that Irish home rule would spark off the largest civil disruption in the British Isles since the seventeenth century. Throughout the late Victorian and Edwardian eras Ireland never drifted far from political consciousness.
Covers the history of dogs from their wild origins to their role as house pets and working dogs. Features specially commissioned photography and information on identifying breeds, from toy poodles to Irish wolfhounds, plus expert guidance on behavior, training, health, and grooming.
