I'll be perfectly honest. I got this book because I'm obsessed with Jamie Fraser and Outlander. With that said, this book is nothing like that'. So I completely own tht the reason I didn't like this book is my own fault. I did give it a try though. And I probably would have liked it without the dead people. I just have never been a fan of the gruesome.

An interesting tale of long buried secrets set in Ireland.  The writing has a special quality that lyrical begins to describe, but not quite does justice.  As a baby, Mahoney was given to a Dublin orphanage.  At 21 he discovers that he was left with a letter on the back of a photo with his mother and him as a baby- his mother loved him, but the small town she came from took her away from him.  Its the mid 70s, he is a hippy with a record of minor infractions so he sets off to discover what this means.  On arriving, he is welcomed as a stranger.  We also learn he sees and hears dead people.  They are more friendly background than paranormal, but sometimes take a role in showing us character traits.  He goes to stay at a local bed and breakfast where he teams up with an aged stage actress who briefly knew his mother.  Together they work to shake out the truth from the town.  Really engaging and touching, but the ending left me a little at loose ends.  Found the time slips to his mother's young life and that of his little dead friend added a lot.

Oh, how I loved the first of Himself.  The writing, the quirky characters, the Brigadoon-ish Irish town which was definitely NOT Brigadoon.  I've mentioned before that I'm ambivalent about magical realism--loving some, but mostly not enthralled.  The ones I've loved, however, have been marvelous with the perfect balance of magic and real life.

For me, the lyrical prose that makes the acceptance of magic in the real world possible--is the key to whether or not I can slip into the story.  Jess Kidd's prose is lyrical and poetic, a  mixture of images, humor, and story telling that flows almost like music.

Raised in a Catholic orphanage, Mahoney is 26 when he receives a letter and a photgraph that upends his previous assumptions that he was abandoned by his mother.  He leaves Dublin and travels to the small village of Mulderrig to find out more.  

His arrival disturbs the village in various ways.  The entire village "almost" recognizes him from the first, but his personal charm carries the day... until the villagers realize that Mahoney is Orla's Sweeney's son.  Then the secrets that have been long hidden cause a dilemma of emotions.  

Almost everyone insists that Orla left the village with her infant 26 years ago, but old Mrs. Cauley becomes Mahoney's ally and abettor, and the two of them--the handsome young man and the fragile, bald old actress--investigate what they believe to be a murder.

Although a little ambivalent about Mahoney, I loved Mrs. Cauley and Bridget.  I had several quibbles as the book progressed, but the first half of the book makes everything worth it, and I am eager to hear more from Jess Kidd.  

Read in Dec.; blog post scheduled for Feb. 27, 2017

NetGalley/Atria Books

Literary Fiction.  March 15, 2017.  Print length:  384 pages.

I gave up on this after only a few pages--just too weird.

Wonderful debut novel, lyrical, funny, sad, haunting with a very good mystery and great characters thrown in to boot. I look forward to the authors next book.