Critical Mick

1.

Helen Rafferty, the central figure in The Same Cloth lives in a palatial country estate called Cillindara where all Irish society's snooty bright lights come to soirée.

That's actually Helen's mother, Katherine Royston, a widow who married into money when Helen was a small child. Helen was shipped off to a series of boarding schools in England. Aspiring to be an artist- or perhaps just free of her mother and step-father- she left for college in Dublin as soon as she could and has never looked back.
 

2.

As the novel opens, Helen arrives at Cillindara for the first time in many years. "Helen, pet! A serial killer is stalking Counties Cork and Kerry, leaving on the bodies of his victims a series of novelty fridge magnets which cleverly allude to where he will strike next! What do you say that we form an unlikely amateur crime-fighting team, O estranged daughter of mine, and shoot this cold-hearted scofflaw down?"

Helen is summoned to the estate because her mother is dying. Though the old woman's final, mysterious conversation with Helen in the summer-house initially makes as little sense as the lie above, The Same Cloth is not the type of crime novel built upon hokey villains and gimmicks. The story unfolds is a realistic fashion where well-developed characters experience true feeling. It's convincing and plausible throughout (except the typo about a rifle being able to fire with two bullets in the chamber!)
 

3.

Helen's art-dealer husband rushes to her side as soon as he hears that her mother has died. "Allow me to be the rugged shoulder that you lean upon for support in this hour of crisis," he begs on the train platform, sweeping her into his big manly arms and kissing away the tears. Suddenly a steamy breeze lifts and mingles their long flowing hair, violins swell, lips meet.... Helen's world is rocked.

Helen's world is rocked by her husband Karl, but not in a romantic sense. He calls Cillindara with the horrific news that their son, Jack, has been abducted.

(Romance fans, fear not! The Same Cloth has its "kissy bits," involving someone far more inspiring than that lying wet noodle, Karl.)
 

4.

Karl Rafferty- an ex-con with an unspoken history of shady connections- hired an irritating solicitor named Hayes Cunningham to abduct fifteen-year-old Jack!

Over 223 pages, the truth behind the kidnapping (and much, much more) is revealed. Few of the relationships in Helen's life, or in the painful past which formed her, turn out to be what she had believed.
 

5.

The Same Cloth will please readers who enjoy Touching the Monkey and The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse.

Fans of fast-paced, high-tension programs like 24 will enjoy Geraldine McMenamin's work. Irish crime novelists who are similar in style, content and approach are Tana French and (fellow Dun Laoghaire based writer) Julie Parsons.
 

6.

The Same Cloth will shock and amaze you! Prepare to never sleep again!

Though several of the twists were telegraphed, The Same Cloth is a debut worth staying up past one in the morning to finish. There is plenty within to mull over in the days that follow. Different ways in which the title was truly appropriate kept occurring, and there were parts I picked the hardback up again to re-read. Them's some nice curves, filling out that cloth.
 

7.

Geraldine McMenamin- whose hobby is conning her way past the Irish Gardai- wrote her first draft of this novel on a shroud that had been buried in Oscar Wilde's grave! The second draft was edited on the same cloth in an abandoned house on Calary Bog in Wicklow!

Critical Mick says: For the true story of how this novel was inspired and completed, read Critical Mick's December 2008 interview with Geraldine McMenamin!