THE GIRL FROM THE KILLING STREETS
The Girl From The Killing Streets is a novel, yes, but
it is more than that. It is a lesson from history. The fiction elements of the story
are set against a real event in the Northern Irish troubles: a day in 1972 known
as Bloody Friday. Read this story as a thriller, yes, but let it also help you better
understand what happened that day, and the terrible effect the appalling
violence has had upon the people of Belfast. Even today, twenty two years after
the Good Friday Agreement, the after-effects have not gone away, far from it. Northern
Ireland has the highest suicide rate in the UK, and one of the highest suicide rates
in the world. The causes are not entirely limited to the so-called ‘troubles’,
but there is ample evidence that a legacy of thirty years of bombing, shooting
and hatred has left many Northern Irish people suffering from stress and PTSD. Read
the book and try to understand what it was like to live in Belfast at that time,
and try to understand why the after-effects live on.
Review:
Having read Mr Hough's previous
novels this one is his best yet. The writing has taken more than one step
upwards. Being interested in the Troubles I found the book fascinating, based
around the Belfast Bloody Friday bombings where the reader gets to follow
several different characters during that awful day on 21 of July 1972. This
novel is clearly centred around true facts of that day. The author places you
amongst the action with gritty reality. You receive a vivid insight into the
grim reality of life at that time: the burnt out houses, protestant and
catholic tensions, the dangers associated with taking a wrong turn and stumbling
into the wrong street, the senseless murders and retaliation murders, plus much
more. I can highly recommend the book to anyone that likes a novel based around
true events.
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