The Coast of Death

Thomas McCarthy's The Coast of Death is a literary thriller of IRA tensions. In the edgy lull between the Good Friday Agreement and the formation of a power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly, there is frantic manoeuvring. The IRA leadership are concerned about a dissident group who oppose the GFA and seek to resume the conflict. Iggy Davin, the Army Council Chief of Staff, sends Eamon, long retired from the Council, with his wife Mary, to investigate the link between the dissidents and the drugs money suspected of funding them. During the search, they find evidence of an informer at the top of the IRA. Amidst the treachery, Eamon discovers a sinister plot to destabilise the GFA and resume the war. A deadly race develops to find the informer before he gets to them.