REVENGE
Review in ‘Books Ireland’ Autumn 1999
Revenge. K.T. McCaffrey. Marino. 400pp £5.99 pb 1-86023-083-0
A really good read, this thriller gripped my attention from page one and held it till the end. Susan Furlong is a woman totally obsessed with the desire for revenge on the man who raped her twelve years earlier. Her need for revenge extends way beyond her rapist and includes all those who stand in her way, from the most influential heads of church, state and business to those who try to silence her and keep her story from the public. Susan also wants her daughter back–the child conceived as a result of the rape and happily living with adoptive parents. The heroine of the story is a young journalist, Emma Boylan, who has the courage to carry her investigations into the very heart of the most powerful institutions in the country. This book will be a huge seller. It deals with many current issues, particularly those of child abuse and the way in which our society has, in the past, treated young single, pregnant girls.

It is a topical story which, although very extreme and dramatic, will appeal to those who avidely follow similar stories in the press. My only reservation is that I feel that we have experienced enough bashing of Irish priests and nuns in recent times. The clergy in particular in this story are portrayed as pompous, self-serving, manipulative and overly powerful. Bishop Treanor, central to the plot, in a sermon on the notion of women priests: “Why, the very idea is absurd. Like Saint Paul, like myself,we know that the woman’s place is in the family home, looking after the children and giving comfort to her man. To allow women to say Mass would be to degrade it.” At the climax of a most appalling tragedy this same portly cleric was considering his options and working out a damage limitation exercise to protect his career. Equally, the goings on in the Mother of Perpetual Succour Hospital, a psychiatric institution run by nuns, are amazing. We all know by now that a relatively small number of the clergy in the past have committed crime, some of it quite dreadful. We have also been told numerous and shocking accounts of the ill treatment of single mothers and those with psychiatric illness. Undeniably horrific.

Can’t we now begin to move on? Can’t we accept the fact that every profession or organisation attracts both good and bad and that the vast majority of our clergy and religious are decent, ordinary, law-abiding citizens? I felt that the author in this instance jumped on a popular clergy-bashing bandwagon. Overall though, the book is very enjoyable. The pace is fast and the tension is constant throughout.

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