Customer Reviews

How to Murder a Man

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Carlo Gebler, a popular Irish author who is virtually unknown in the US deserves a much wider audience. How to Murder a Man (a terrible title for such a great novel) is wonderfully written. Full is rich historical detail, strong characters and an interesting plot. The year is 1854, and newly appointed land agent Thomas French has the responsibility of collecting rents on an estate in Ireland that hasn't collected a cent in years. A local organization, the Ribbonmen, terrorize anyone who tries and promptly issue a death threat to French. This makes him even more determined to carry out his duties. A subplot involving two teenage lovers beautifully intertwines the dilemmas of all the characters.

I read this book after being introduced to Carlo Gebler by my dad, and was absolutely blown away by the immense quality of Gebler's penmanship. He is able to vividly evoke 19th Century Ireland and the narrative is as engrossing as it is disturbing. Gebler describes scenes of horrific brutality and violence matter-of-factly, carefully avoiding the sensationalism and good guy versus bad guy stuff that is endemic in other, poor, works of fiction. The stories of the various personalities in the novel are gripping, and, in the case of the heinous Ribbonmen, as appalling as they are fascinating.

For any lover of fiction, who is not queasy, and who loves a fantastically woven story, containing sympathetic and also atrocious characters, steeped in Irish history, this is a must-have for your library.