With our Blessing is the stunning debut thriller from former journalist and political advisor Jo Spain, and it is easy to understand why this book has been shortlisted for the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition. Her debut is both atmospheric and compelling while picking at an open sore in Irish history that is casting along shadow over the church and state. With our Blessing introduces us to Detective Inspector Tom Reynolds and his team based in Dublin, when a body is discovered in a local cruising area, a body of a female, has been crucified and a message adorns her body, and her tongue has been cut out. When they discover the murdered female is a nun they are shaken to the core, especially as Christmas is approaching upon them. Things start turning dark for Reynolds and his team when they realise that the victim was a member of an order and lived in what was a Magdalene Laundry which also had a mother and baby home. As they have to travel out to the convent which is out in the Irish countryside and need help from the local Kilcross garda station. It is not helped that they have to stay in the convent and the winter is turning bad all around them, it enforces the eerie desolation of the former Magdalene Laundry as there are so few nuns left living there. All the detectives while out in Kilcross and staying at the Laundry have to face some of their own inner demons. While Reynolds is investigating Father Seamus also is found murdered which adds to the complexity of the investigation. It also calls in the behaviour of the Catholic Church and the role of the state, as they dig deeper, as they know it is only by looking back they will be able to find the truth and the killer. This is a wonderfully dark noir thriller that casts light on some parts of Irish history that both Church and State would rather remain hidden. This is a wonderfully vivid thriller that explores those dark depths and shows the more you try to hide the truth the more likely it is to come out in to the light. This is a brilliantly researched and written debut novel, that has a complex twisted plot, not afraid to use misdirection in her story, Jo Spain shows us she has the potential to be one of the top Irish crime writers. Jo Spain manages to get under your skin and gives you a kick when she thinks as a reader you are getting too complacent and think you know who the killer is. A truly superb debut, promising a bright future for Irish writing.

Thank you to the publishers for this review copy! I've read and loved Jo Spain books before this one....so I did have high expectations... But let me tell you this was her DEBUT book - I challenge you to read it and not rate it as high if not higher than many of the big names we also love in the world of crime fiction! A fantastic plot in everyway! I cannot wait to meet this very talented lady on 20th Feb 2019 in Waterstones Durham! Buy it! Read it! Love it! TRUST ME!

With our Blessing by Jo Spain is the first in the Inspector Tom Reynolds police series and I listened to this story on Audible. The storyline concerns the murder and crucifixion of an elderly woman found in Phoenix Park. The woman was a nun of a religious order who had a Magdalene Laundry within the covent grounds and she was responsible for delivering the babies. The second death concerned a priest who was associated with the covent and the elderly priest was also associated with the young girls of the Magdalene laundry at the same time as the nun. A fascinating story of a grim time in Irish history concerning women and the birth of their babies in these institutions. The narration was excellent and brought the story to life. Highly recommended

An elderly woman is found murdered in a Dublin park. Tom Reynolds and his team head over to Limerick and an isolated convent where the finger of suspician is pointing. The murdered woman was universally hated; but was it one of her colleagues who murdered her, or does the crime involve revenge dating back 35 years? I really enjoyed the lead detective, Tom Reynolds, he is a likeable man and in a genre that is packed with troubled detectives battling their inner demons, Tom is a refreshing change. He reminded me of his namesake in Midsomer Murders, happily married with one daughter and with normal everyday family worries. Tom worked well with his team and there was a good mix of humour and gravitas. All the characters were well-developed and their relationships with each other felt natural. I am looking forward to meeting them again in future books and watching them grow. At the heart of the story is the Magdalene Laundries, which were rife in Ireland in quite recent times, and Jo Spain does a quite brilliant job of exposing the sheer cruelty of the people that ran these institutions and the devastating effects that they had on the young women that were sent there. But she does this in a fair and balanced way; acknowledging that there were some nuns who did not agree with what was going on and tried their best to protect the girls. But the overwhelming power that those in charge wielded meant most of their efforts were futile. The setting of the book in a convent in rural Ireland is extremely atmospheric and gives an Agatha Christie style closed room mystery. I have to say that I did guess the culprit quite early on but this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book at all. After all you can never be sure you’re right and this book is much more than the sum of its parts. The narrative drive was excellent, the plot racing along feverishly, taking twists and turns aplenty. This really is a cracking good new detective series with a lot of depth and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. Many thanks to the author for providing me with a copy.