Bookseller Reviews
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Character driven and pacy, with a tender heart
I raced through Wild Houses, and as soon as I finished it I wanted to read it over again.
Wild Houses is led by a character driven and pacy plot, but is... READ MORE
Darkly witty, with fully captured characters...
A spiralling debut fiction set in small town Ireland, in which 2 dealers kidnap the brother of a man who owes them money.
Darkly witty in parts, a simpl... READ MORE
Deft, dark, vivid
Following a half-baked kidnapping over one weekend in County Mayo. Barrett never wastes a word; deft, dark and amazingly vivid with such real character por... READ MORE
Witty and dark
A simmering feud between rival gangs in County Mayo culminates in a feverish ultimatum. Witty and sharp in its dark comedy, Barrett's dialogue holds you ca... READ MORE
Synopsis
It’s the biggest weekend of the year and everything is about to change – the thrilling debut novel from the prize-winning author.
In Ballina, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer Cillian English and County Mayo’s enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. Soon the reclusive Dev and Cillian’s teenage brother Doll are drawn headlong into the Ferdias’ revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, Doll’s girlfriend Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save him.
Life in this ordinary town will never be the same again…
Publisher information
- Publisher: Vintage Publishing
- ISBN: 9781529932430
- Number of pages: 272
- Dimensions: 197 x 128 x 16 mm
- Weight: 196g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allBarrett's Mayo is not Biden's
BARRETT’S MAYO IS NOT BIDEN'S
WILD HOUSES by Colin Barrett
The first time I saw a Mayo landscape was in the 1960’s, through the window of a rosary-praying ... READ MORE
Kidnap in the Wild West (of Ireland)
Brothers Gabe and Sketch work for local drug dealer Mulrooney; so does Dev but he just sits on the drugs for a while in his out of the way house. Colin Bar... READ MORE
A great story, but lacks depth.
Really enjoyed this, but I would not have expected it to be on the Booker Long List. For Booker stories I suppose that I expect more, maybe a little comple... READ MORE
Real Small Town Irish People
Elmore Leonard is dead. He certainly is not creating full-blooded criminals in a small rural town in western Ireland. The maestro of crime drama left us in... READ MORE
Novel set in BALLINA, County Mayo
Wild Houses by Colin Barrett is highly recommended and should be a big hit, if there’s any justice in the world. It’s an involving drama, beautifully writt... READ MORE
Bleak and wild
What I expected to be something bordering more on thriller/mystery (still has many ‘exciting’ moments) turned into a character study about trauma and relat... READ MORE