The Ghost of '98

Joy McCracken has broken all ties with her life in New York and a well-paid job with a fashion magazine. She hasn't come to terms with the crib death of her four-month-old son and continues to hold herself responsible, despite the efforts of her psychiatrist to convince her otherwise.It's July 1998 and Joy is making a pilgrimage in Northern Ireland, the country of her ancestors. She's following in the footsteps of her namesake, Henry Joy McCracken, who led a revolt here two hundred years before.Her journey takes her along the eastern coastline and brings her into contact with a number of people, from the genuinely pleasant to the decidedly odd.Joy McCracken's goal seems at first glance a morbid one -- she plans suicide. She sees this as a release from the demons that pursue her. With death approaching, Joy has never felt so much alive.Against a backdrop of civil unrest -- events which touch Joy only marginally, if at all -- she discovers a world that lies between past and present. It's a twilight world peopled by restless ghosts -- many of her own making.

About the Author

David M. Kiely (b. 10 July 1949, Dublin) is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Having worked in advertising in several countries, he returned to Ireland in 1991, to take up writing full time. His first book was published in 1994. He currently lives in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland, with his wife and co-author Christina McKenna.

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