And In the Beginning There Was Belfast

This is a tense, dark novel posing the question whether an ordinary man, from an ordinary background, can in fact be a serial killer. The story is told from different perspectives and on different time-lines, and the ordinariness of the main character is chilling and captivating. Told in a restrained, third-person voice, this multi-layered story weaves deftly back and forth to hold the reader's attention throughout. The first-person point-of-view of the psychiatric interviews and Maisie/Margaret’s opening witness statement, the clear characterisation and the nicely paced evocation of Martin’s increasing sense of his own “apartness” are all brilliantly captured and make this a novel that cannot be ignored.