Killing at its Very Extreme
By Derek Molyneux and Darren Kelly
Mercier, €19.99
This chronological treatment of the War of Independence details the reorganisation of the Irish Volunteers, the impact of the 1918 conscription crisis, the post-war election and the establishment of Dáil Éireann, leading to the setting up of the "counter-state". But the book, as its title suggests, concentrates on the physical-force campaign: the killings and counterkillings, the intelligence war, the arrival of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries and so on. How does this approach differ from others on the same subject? By its concentration on Dublin and also by how it seeks to convey the immediacy of the action: it wants us to sense the atmosphere of fear that pervaded Dublin's smoggy streets, to smell the cordite, to hear the spent rounds tinkling on the cobblestones and sense the elation and despair of the combatants – and it succeeds. – Brian Maye
Every Seventh Wave
By Tom Vowler
Salt Publishing, £9.99
A lonely older man rescues a drowning young Romanian woman from the sea. She is escaping her abductors. I could describe Vowler's latest book as a literary thriller about people trafficking. But the plot is merely a backdrop to the themes explored in the book. This is a book about the precariousness of life. About the legacy of trauma. About what is fated for us or what we believe to be fated. How easily this can all change. The story takes place on the "sea-battered north Cornish coast". The sea – whose waves come in cycles of seven, the seventh being the most powerful – is a consistent companion when loneliness pervades. But even the sea is guilty of hurting us. Vowler's book is a diverting read, compact and eloquently written. – Brigid O'Dea
We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption
By Justin Fenton
Faber, £14.99
If you want a better understanding of policing problems in the United States, read this book. Fenton has created a work of first-class reportage. He guides us through a city already bubbling with increased violence and drug dealing, as people occupied the streets of Baltimore demanding justice for Freddie Gray who died in police custody in 2015. At the same time, corruption had taken hold in the esteemed Gun Trace Task Force of local police, whose modus operandi was to work these same streets, taking down drugs and guns. Fenton pulls all the pieces together to produce a damning indictment of the "war" on drugs and policing the police in an engrossing account for anyone who enjoys crime and corruption procedurals like The Wire and Serpico. – NJ McGarrigle
