Andrew Hughes Libros

The gripping contemporary new novel from Dublin's One City, One Book author Andrew Hughes.

Set in Georgian Dublin, the narrative unfolds within sixty-nine houses that serve as a backdrop for a tapestry of remarkable tales and extraordinary lives. The stories explore a variety of themes, including intrigue, revelry, temperance, and romance, highlighting the tension between artistic expression and social convention. The vibrant setting of Fitzwilliam Square invites readers to delve into the rich lives and experiences of its inhabitants, promising a journey filled with captivating moments and complex characters.

On a cold December morning, a small boy is enticed away from his mother and his throat savagely cut. This could be just one more small, sad death in a city riven by poverty, inequality and political unrest, but this killing causes a public outcry. For it appears the culprit – a feckless student named John Delahunt – is also an informant and in the pay of the authorities at Dublin Castle. And strangely, this young man seems neither to regret what he did nor fear his punishment. Indeed, as he awaits the hangman in his cell in Kilmainham Gaol, John Delahunt decides to tell his story in this, his final, deeply unsettling statement . . . Set amidst Dublin’s taverns, tenements, courtrooms and alleyways and with a rich, Dickensian cast of characters – carousing students, unscrupulous lowlifes, dissectionists, phrenologists, blackmailers and the sinister agents of Dublin Castle – The Convictions of John Delahunt is based on true events that convulsed Victorian Ireland. Beautifully observed, seductive and laced with dark humour, this gripping historical thriller about a man who betrays his family, his friends and, ultimately, himself marks the debut of an exciting and assured new literary voice.