It seems I’m in the minority with my feelings of this book.
I had such high hopes as many book friends enjoyed this, I love quirky family drama with comedy and Marian Keyes, whom it was liken too.
But…..it just didn’t work for me.
Molly has gone missing and John has summoned the family to find out where she is.
I can understand this may be a close family and each chapter is told how Molly affected the lives of each character but for me it was quite difficult to follow as there were many family members. Some preface of chapters were txt messages between Molly and the said chapter character but it really didn’t draw me in.
I love to feel part of my characters and their lives but this didn't work for me in at all. I DNF at about 50%.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

Molly Black has disappeared. She's been a bit flighty since her parents died (sure hadn't she run off with a tree surgeon that time?) but this time, or so her hastily written note, she's gone for good. That's why the whole Black clan - from Granny perched on the printer all the way through to Killian on zoom from Sydney - is huddled together on the back room of Uncle John's semi-D in the Dublin suburbs, arguing over what to do. cousin Bobby is having a hard enough time of it as it is, convincing his family he's happy single and childless. Lady V reckons this is all too much fuss over a thirty-yea-old. And Uncle Danny knows all too well how it feels to be lost with no one trying to find you.

This is a story that's based around a family's grief and loss, but it's also quite funny too. It's also been beautifully written and shows how unconditional love can revolve around in an extended family. we could learn a lot from some of the characters in this book. Each character has their own storyline. Some characters were more likeable than others. I did struggle at first trying to remember the vast number of characters, but I soon got to grips with them all. Molly was not the only woman who disappeared that evening. The Black clan are quite a dysfunctional family, but I liked them. This is an intriguing read and I will look out for the authors future books.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HeadofZeus and the author #AliceRyan for my ARC of #TheresBeenALittleIncident in exchange for an honest review.

After initially struggling to get into this book, due to the combination of being written in the third narrative and its various characters, I kept at it and as I got to know each characters background, I thoroughly enjoyed it

Initially I struggled with the wide cast of characters in the Black family and the numerous jumps between timelines in the first section of this debut novel. I believe that in the finished version of the novel there will be a family tree which will be a great help. However, I did eventually get to grips with everyone and thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Molly , a wild child is approaching her 30’s but has never reconciled herself to the death of her parents and when it all gets too much for her she runs away only to be ‘rescued’ by the rest of her extended family. The Black family are a diverse cast of characters all with their personnel back story. Molly is not the only woman to disappear that evening and the parallel story of Sheena was gripping with quite a twist. I warmed to this dysfunctional family and it’s myriad characters over the course of the novel. A book of love and loss, grief and acceptance but above all of family. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review.

An interesting story following the disappearance of Molly Black and her family’s efforts to find her. I did find this book a little hard to follow and felt there were just too many story lines in here. That said I did enjoy some of the stories about the family and it had a good ending.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. The title and blurb had interested me, but unfortunately I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it. Molly had disappeared and all the family came together to find her. long the way they found themselves and came to understand their own assumptions about life, each other, grief and relationships. Each character was interesting in their own way and the author wrote about them well, but somehow for me the story lacked pace and was far to slow.

Heart-breaking and hilarious, warm and witty, with a cast of eccentric characters - I adored this. It took a little while for me to be hooked but hooked I was. I loved how we see more of the big picture than the family and the brilliant way that the penny finally drops for them. People have to find their own way to deal with loss but this extended family cares and supports and, despite being very quick to label, can grow and change. Pure delight.

A family who cares and looks out for each other when one of them goes missing.
A lot of characters so be prepared but oh such a delightful read.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

A delight to read.
An insightful novel that makes you want to read it quickly, but not too quickly as you don’t want it to end.
A thoroughly enjoyable book to read.

Molly Black has gone missing. The Black family are all assembled at Uncle John’s house for a briefing of how they are going to find Molly and bring her home.
When did each member last speak to her? How was she? And more importantly, where is she?

When the book started all the characters came to life at once. It was a little bit confusing at first who was who in the extended Black family, but I picked it up sharp.
The characters were easy to get to know as the book progressed, with different characters writing different chapters.
Mainly dealing with grief, and how we as individuals deal with grief in our own ways in life, this book portrays how the various members of the family were trying to do so in their own unique ways, with their own loss and grief.
Sad in places, laugh out loud in others, it touches on family bonding and ties, love, loss, grief, and what people go through in life.
Hope runs through the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for an e-book copy. Opinions are my own.

A delightfully humorous story evolving around a close knit Irish family. Full of quirky characters involved in all sorts of exploits. Despite all this family, hit by grief and events come together as an incredibly strong unit looking out for each other. Led by patriarchal John who gets everyone behind him in a somewhat chaotic manner, but has everyone's best interests at heart. A book that accepts people for who they are whilst working through personal problems. Many of the characters we can identify with even if they are not all in the same family! A thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable first book from Alice Ryan, I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

“She was used to being wild Molly, exasperating Molly, cheeky Molly, but still after all these years she hadn’t found the words to be sad Molly. She would have felt more comfortable calling her family to say she’d been arrested than that she was lonely.”

There’s Been A Little Incident is the first novel by Irish author Alice Ryan. When Molly Black’s Uncle John gathers the family together, some think it’s a bit premature. Molly has disappeared before, often requiring a dramatic extraction, and maybe she just wants to escape for a while. If so, who could blame her?

Crammed into John’s suburban Dublin house, in person or by Zoom, are Molly’s four uncles, her four aunts (not necessarily spouses of said uncles), her granny (mother of five of those present) and four cousins. John reports that B., Molly’s best friend since they were four, was left a note that “didn’t say where she was going, just that she loved us, but she had to run”.

When John stresses the urgency to find her, several remind him of earlier false alarms, but he is insistent, and assigns them tasks. While Molly has always been impulsive, B. is inclined to believe that his decision to move in with his new boyfriend has precipitated this. And he’d be right: fatherless since she was nine, motherless at nineteen, without B. as her constant companion, she feels there’s no one to whom she now belongs.

As the family searches for clues to her destination, some at first believing the whole exercise to be unnecessary, irritating and inconvenient, they begin to recall what Molly has been in their lives. “Molly had a special connection to each of us” For John, “it seemed like Molly was the daughter he’d never had” and “Molly Black was like electricity – sometimes she lit up the world. Sometimes she electrocuted you.”

They remember how Molly had tried to talk to each of them over the last few weeks, but they didn’t spare her the time, so now they feel a little guilty about that. They also remember just how much Annabelle, of whom Molly reminds them so much, did for them when she was still alive.

Thinking back, they realise that, actually, they have always needed Molly just as much as she has needed them. Even if some of them think she is more a contagious mess than a lovable rogue to be humoured, they agree that Molly has to be found.

The Black family aren’t the only ones who want to know where Molly is: the Guards want to ask her what she might have seen when she was near where a young nurse, now missing, was last seen alive.

So when they get word, they put together an extraction team “of nothing but liabilities. The line-up was an irate aunt with a broken ankle, a vacuous vlogger who Bobby had actively avoided for twenty years, a heavily sedated uncle on the verge of a pro-terrorism diatribe, a nervous wreck who could only grasp concepts which existed as functions in Excel, and at the last minute –and the absolute pièce de résistance –they’d had to replace Mike, the one reliable member of the team, with a long-term alcoholic.”

Ryan’s cast of characters is a crazy family, made up of “new-aged hippies, religious nuts, alcoholics, former shoe salesmen, delinquent youths and Sudoku enthusiasts” who manage to endear themselves to the reader. Are they “nosy, judgemental and eccentric but ultimately great”? or “suffocating, overbearing people who pigeon-holed you”? Either way, quite a few of them are dealing with grief. And doing it the best way they can.

Ryan gives them wise words and insightful observations: “People who give out that much good energy, who are breezy and jovial and try their best to be happy and positive all the time, have a far greater capacity for getting hurt than those who put up a defence.” She often has a marvellous turn of phrase: “Mike called them the Botox Bettys. But Liam said they were more like the Schadenfreude Sheilas”. Funny, heart-warming and uplifting, this is a brilliant debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Head of Zeus Apollo

It’s hard to believe that this is a debut novel. What a talent this author has.

There is so much to love about this book. It’s set in Dublin, always a winner for a Dub like me, and the typical Dublin sense of humour is sprinkled throughout the book. But regardless of where you are from, you cannot fail to love the Black family, and find someone to relate to. The characters are so authentic, and really make this book the special novel that it is.

At first it seems that there are a lot of characters in this rather large extended family, but it doesn’t take long to get to know them all, and they are as funny as they are diverse.

This is a book that will make you laugh and smile, but it’s so much more than that. It’s also very thought-provoking and poignant and is as likely to produce tears of sorrow and empathy as it is tears of laughter.

Warm and witty, this skilfully crafted novel makes for a magnificent debut and I will be eagerly awaiting more from this very talented author.

Molly is a runner, trying to stay ahead of her grief. When her only best friend and flat mate decides to move out and live with his boyfriend, Molly panics. She does what she always has done, runs.
Her family, which is huge, gathers from all over the world, through zoom and is determined to find her. That is what they do. The author introduces the family members, and we learn about them.
It is a story of grief, love, and the family that is always there.
I received an ARC from Apollo through NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alice Ryan and the publisher for providing me with an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

This warm and funny story is based on grief, loss and family. When Mollie goes missing it's clear how close her family is, and I love how each of them drops everything to help as much as they can. However, it was a bit hard to keep track of the characters as there were so many of them.

Molly has disappeared leaving a note.
Her disjointed Irsih family have no idea where she has gone but each one is affected by the disappearance and each have their own theory.
Only Uncle John remembers when Molly's mother disappeared!

Molly is 30 and lives in London when she disappears, not unusual for her, her quirky extended family in Dublin try to track her down.
I really enjoyed this tale of family healing, loss, acceptance, and unwavering love. However, be advised that there is a sizeable list of characters, which occasionally confused me. I recommend making a list to refer back to. That said, It's a really good read after you figure out who is who in Molly's extended family.

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read and review this Arc of Theres Been a Little Incident.

A wonderful story of family, grief, acceptance and unconditional love. We can learn a lot from the characters in this book. Written in the third person, we see deeply into their personalities and struggles, and how they eventually deal with things that are thrown their way. Uncle John is a great character with hidden depths. A little confusing early on in the book to keep track of everyone, but a very rewarding read. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book; more than once it reminded me of something Marian Keyes would write. I found it extremely funny but also incredibly poignant in places, with the characters’ back stories and the ups and downs of their lives making them the people they were. I found the characters believable and liked all of them which is unusual for me. I totally disagree with some other reviewers who said there were too many characters to be able to follow them all. My only criticism was the sub-plot which I don’t feel was needed and detracted from the main story as it felt like an afterthought. Thoroughly recommended.

A quick and easy read that I found myself picking up after a long day to unwind. The characters are beautifully written and I came to love them within the first few pages and was rooting for them all the way to the end. At times I wanted to stop reading because I just wanted the experience to go on for longer.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for a copy of this book.

Thirty year old Molly Black has disappeared. She's been flighty since she was orphaned at 19.

Uncle John, determined to find he, calls a family meeting.

in this debut novel, we're slowly introduced to her various family members and her best friend, B is this non-linear narrative. This story isn't about really Molly, but about her whole family and the whole left by her parents.

While this was a very enjoyable and entertaining read; the large amount of characters and plots did leave to some of the plots feeling rushed and unfinished.