The mood and atmosphere of Ireland during the Emergency in the early 1940s has been captured perfectly in the new novel by writer and political journalist Joe Joyce, guests at its launch in Dublin were told last night.

Echobeat is the second novel in a planned trilogy by Joyce. Launching it, Stephen Collins, Political Editor of The Irish Times, said it was "a subtle exploration of a time and place" that made it much more than a thriller.

It evoked the real air of uncertainty that existed in the 1940s and captured the politics of the time. Recalling Joyce's earlier books, he highlighted The Boss, the political biography of Charles Haughey co-written with Peter Murtagh, as a classic that had inspired a lot of journalists to cover politics. It had changed the way politics was covered in this country and had stood the test of time.

Joyce said there was a tendency to wrap the Emergency period in a nostalgic glow but it had been a time of great hardship, rising prices, falling wages, food shortages, brutally cold winters and other deprivations.

Echobeat is published by Liberties Press.

Pictured is author Joe Joyce (left) in Hodges Figgis with Stephen Collins, political editor of The Irish Times, and Catherine Joyce. Photograph:Aidan Crawley