Lost and the Blind, The

An Irish American billionaire has just gotten the go ahead to prospect for gold on tiny Delphi Island, right off the Donegal coast. It could mean a lot of money for the local villages and there is excitement in the air. So why in ancient Gerhard Uxkull spouting nonsense about some sort of Nazi atrocity that occurred on the island during the War? When a body is found floating in the sea, reporter Tom Noone decides to investigate those claims. Maybe they aren’t nonsense after all. Maybe someone is willing to kill to keep a secret.

A thrilling story of lost gold, Nazi spies and cold blooded murder.

Classic (and classy) spy thriller/WW2 mystery with a couple of great modern twists and a superbly realised Irish setting. Loved it.

A twisting unpredictable tale of Nazis, U-Boats and politics set in financial crisis stricken Ireland

Declan Burke has put together a convincing labyrinthine plot with believable characters. With a background of the financial crisis in Ireland of 2008, the main character Noone uncovers a story that could send Ireland into a further downward spiral and endanger the life of himself and his young daughter.

In a pacy style the author delivers a skilful portrayal of skulduggery and subterfuge keeps you guessing to the end.

Millionaire Shay Govern asks journalist Tom Noone to ghost write his autobiography.  It seems like a simple enough job and surprisingly well paid - enough for Noone to be financially secure and have money that helps him keep contact with his young daughter that lives with his ex wife.  As Noone delves into Govern’s background a strange tale emerges of a Nazi atrocity on the island of Delphi.  The tale bears surprising similarities to the debut thriller by novelist Sebastian Devereaux, a reclusive English author who’s spent the past fifty years on Delphi Island.  When Noone tries to check the details, his source is found drowned in suspicious circumstances and other dirty deeds follow.   Noone and his daughter are soon on the run, although it’s not clear who their friends really are and who is looking to harm them.  This book has great elements of crime, thriller and mystery, with an intricate plot that keeps you on your toes up to the final pages.  This is the first Declan Burke book I’ve read and it won’t be the last.

The Lost and the blind, Declan Burke, Severn Hours 2014      When Tom Noone is offered a fortune to write the story of a massacre that occurred during World War Ii in a small Irish town he can’t afford to turn it down. In the middle of a court case with his ex-wife over his young daughter, he could use the money. But it gets much more complicated after one person he talked to turns up dead. When he gets to the island things get much more dangerous. He quickly realizes the story he was told is not accurate.
Great detective story set in Donegal, Ireland. Look forward to reading more books by this author.

Fast paced without leaving out important aspects of the plot. Smooth flow with no plot thread dropouts. Interesting concept and characters. Well worth the read!

This is a very well written, pacy thriller.  The plot draws the reader in, and doesn't fail to deliver an engrossing storyline with colourful characters.  

I've read two other Irish "Noir" novels by this author, and while this one isn't quite the same genre, it is undoubtably a more rounded novel.

I look forward to the sequel.

It’s the financial crisis of 2008, and Ireland’s economy is “wobbling on a foundation of sand, spit and next year’s hopes.” Irish-American billionaire Shay Govern has just received the green light to prospect for gold on Delphi Island just off the Donegal coast, a venture that could pump millions of dollars into the economy.  

Freelance journalist Tom Noone is facing a financial crisis of his own.  Faced with a custody fight from his ex-wife Rachel, he must prove to the courts that he earns a stable income.  When Shay Govern offers him a handsome sum to ghostwrite a book about long-forgotten thriller writer Sebastian Devereaux, he sees it as the monetary solution he needs to keep seeing his young daughter Emily on a frequent basis. 

However, a story is rarely as simple as it seems, and the truth isn’t always the version of the story that people want told.  For Tom, what was supposed to be a story about one man takes him to Delphi Island and the site of a Nazi atrocity that took the lives of six children in 1940.  But what does that have to do with Sebastian Devereaux – or Shay Govern?  What really happened on Delphi Island over sixty years ago?   Why is it important that the story is told now, and who is willing to kill to keep the truth from coming out?

In The Lost and the Blind, Declan Burke weaves plot twist after plot twist together to create a thriller full of mystery and intrigue.   If you think you can predict endings, you won’t this time.  The first few chapters keep you dizzy with questions as the story starts to unfold.  If not for Burke’s ability to create a spellbinding tale, you might be tempted to put the book down.   You are never quite sure what happened, who to trust, or what’s truly going on in Delphi Island until the end.  The only promise is that Burke keeps you turning the page with his style of writing, deft dialogue, and cast of characters.  Not many authors are capable of successfully pulling off such a complex plot, but Burke does and makes it seem effortless.

Publication Date: Available Now from Severn House.

Source: Netgalley

A dying man, if he is any kind of man, will live beyond the law. The elderly German, Karl Uxkull, was senile or desperate for attention. Why else would he concoct a tale of Nazi atrocity on the remote island of Delphi, off the coast of Donegal? And why now, 60 years after the event, just when Irish-American billionaire Shay Govern has tendered for a prospecting licence for gold in Lough Swilly?

A cleverly done and absorbing thriller come crime mystery here, highly engaging with some great characters and a fascinating premise.

I do like a book with an historical flavour, especially one that has elements of lost treasure and one that has a purely addictive quality that keeps you on your toes. There are some political shenanigans, often convoluted but believable plot developments and an intriguing backdrop and sense of time. Tom Noone is a compelling character who gets mixed up in a dangerous game and the whole thing is beautifully done.

The scene setting is terrific, you get a real feel for the area, the characters have great depth and are highly appealing, the story twists and turns its way to a super conclusion, so really really a great reading experience.

Overall it is an eclectic and often unexpected tale, intricately constructed and with a very authentic feel to it that just adds to the ambience and makes it difficult to put down. I very much enjoyed it and can certainly recommend it unequivocably for fans of the genre.

Happy Reading Folks!

This twisting, turning tale of WWII era mystery being resurrected in contemporary Ireland was a real page turner -- something I'm always looking for. Tom Noone has been offered a hefty commission to ghostwrite the biography of an Irishman who emigrated to the U.S. many years before and created a corporate empire. The question is -- what did he leave behind and why did he leave? And who is the elderly Irish/German gentleman with WWII tales to tell of killings and deception. And who are these people who seem to be following him? And Nazis in Ireland during WWII?

So many questions to be answered and this book answers them all and many more you will never even imagine. The setting is spread around Ireland but the center of the mystery is the small island if Delphi, off the Donegal coast. The writing is engaging on many levels, whether describing the many characters involved or the important landscape.

Iggy Patton was a priest and a boxer, and not always in that order....He had eyes the colour of prunes which were prone to melancholy. (loc 184)

And describing Gerard Smyth,

He had that look, the one a boxer gets when he's been hit so hard he doesn't even know he's been hit. Eyes like the sky in the wake of a storm, watery blue and wild,
his gaze intense but far away and lost, vaguely startled.
(loc 489)

And a coda to time:

Time heals, of course, even if it can't cure.
Memories fade, generations come through, and World War II was as long buried on Delphi as it was everywhere else, an event as remote in time, as half-glimpsed in the lengthening shadows, as the Battle of Clontarf or the Flight of the Earls. You make your peace with history or you fight a pointless rearguard action, a losing battle, forever. (loc 3289)

It will take a while to heal all that happens here. Yes there may be a few leaps of faith in the narrative but I found them very easy to make in this headlong tale.

Definitely recommended to the mystery readers among you.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Lost and the Blind                            Declan Burke                         4 stars

                                                      Better an honest coward than a hero?
Tom Noone is a writer, worrying about how the courts will view him when he enters a custody battle with his wife Rachel, over his six year old daughter, Emily.  His income isn’t exactly secure and he fears this will count against him.
Then he is contacted by Shay Govern, an eighty-one year old American millionaire who wants Tom to ghost write the life of an obscure and reclusive Irish novelist.  For this he will be paid 40,000 Euros, but there is a catch; Shay Govern expects him to drop everything and to work exclusively on the project.  Without committing to accept the job, Tom and his daughter Emily set off to travel to the remote Island of Delphi off the coast of Eire.  They are soon embroiled in a 70 year old secret; a secret so terrible, so horribly credible that Tom feels an obligation to find the truth.  Then, an elderly man who has carried this secret is murdered, and Tom and Emily are themselves threatened.
Having sent Emily to safety with a friend, Tom travels on to Delphi where the atrocity took place, hoping to get some answers.  He gets answers alright, answers which turn everything he has learned so far on its head.  I can’t tell anymore without spoiling the surprises, but they come thick and fast and include murder, deception, avarice and chilling cruelty.   This is an easy read and a real page turner.  It is a stylish and intelligent thriller which keeps on delivering right up to, what I felt, was an unresolved ending.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it and will be looking out for more from Declan Burke.
Pashtpaws

Declan Burke has made his name with comic crime novels that have a sense of fun, even zaniness amongst the murder and mayhem. His latest effort is quite a departure - more of a classic dramatic mystery with its roots far in the past. But Burke shows he has a deft hand for the change in pace and crafts a page-turning thriller that intrigues as it unfolds. 

Journalist Tom Noone is scraping together a living but needs money to keep his daughter in his life. As the financial crisis looms, he's offered a strange ghostwriting commission by elderly mining magnate Shay Govern. Shay's looking to return home after making his fortune abroad, and wants Tom to research and write the life story of Sebastien Devereaux, a forgotten English thriller writer who lived a reclusive life on the island of Delphi. Which just so happens to be where Shay is looking to invest big money to prospect for gold.  

Tom can feel that there's much more going on, but he's desperate for the money. But when witness accounts of a long-hidden Nazi atrocity on the island emerge, and then a body is discovered in the canal, Tom realises his actions might not only have threatened his own integrity, but put his and his daughter's lives in grave danger from very dangerous people. 

Burke creates a great sense of 'I want to know what happens' right from the start, which powers the early part of the story as Tom - an intriguing more than gripping character - investigates what is going on. The pages whir easily, even though a lot of what happens is discussion and accounts of events, rather than action or the events themselves. I found myself wondering how everything would fit together - there's almost an old-fashioned puzzle-esque murder mystery vibe or feel to this thriller. 

As Tom heads to Delphi the action picks up, as does the revelations from the past. Burke nicely balances red herrings and clues, twisting things around in surprising ways at times. There are layers upon layers to the deceptions in the story - the characters deceiving each others, and in some cases themselves. There are also some interesting themes about the ways in which people take advantage of tragedies, and justify their own actions and choices to themselves - however monstrous they may seem to others. A novel about the past, about stories, and about how some people search for redemption while others never think they need it. 

Intriguing and interesting. A very good read.