THE IRISH RETRIBUTION
By Bruce Cooke
Publisher: Swimming Kangaroo Books
Genre: Mainstream
ISBN: Paper: 978-1-934041-26-0
Pages: Paper: 381
Price: Paper: $17.99
Revenge is a dish best served at the hands of an estranged daughter.
This is what Carrie’s Irish IRA Uncle thinks and what he hopes Carrie will do – kill her journalist father.
Tully Sanderson is a hard drinking, women-lover, war correspondent whose daughter believes killed her mother. Faced with his daughter and her gun, Tully takes his child back through his life, his errors; his lost dreams and lost loves. Will they survive the telling?
“The Irish Retribution” is, yet again, a very different read for me. It is, at times, jumpy in its telling; however, Tully’s journey is memorizing. Mr. Cooke’s writing places you in Tully’s shoes.
Tully’s travels start in his homeland of Australia and leads to the Emerald Isle where he finds love with the sister of a major IRA player. When she dies, during a blotched IRA attack, her brother waits years for his revenge.
Left with a small child, Tully strikes out earning their living the only way he knows how – as a war correspondent. Leaving Carrie with his sister and the long years away does not make Carrie’s heart grow fonder. She feels abandoned, and even though she follows in her father’s footsteps, the unkind years are enough for her to believe an unknown uncle over her father.
Mr. Cooke takes Tully through the tropical heat of Vietnam to the battle weary lands of Sarajevo. Through Mr. Cooke’s writing you will feel the powerlessness of these areas and learn to like Tully as he struggles with his life.
But, Mr. Cooke doesn’t stop with just a father/daughter tale. He incorporates those Tully have left behind or who have left him. Each character’s life is weaved throughout Tully and Carrie’s own existence. Whomever said what you don’t know can’t hurt you should ask the children of “The Irish Retribution” they might disagree.
Thank you, Mr. Cooke for restoring my faith in mainstream fiction. You gave me a tale that held my interest and has me wondering what happened after I closed the book.