The Devil I Know

In The Devil I Know, award-winning writer Claire Kilroy delivers a delicious novel, a cautionary tale of financial excess set during the Irish property bubble.

Tristram St. Lawrence has not been home for years ever since he missed his mother s deathbed in favor of going on a bender, the thirteenth Earl of Howth is not welcome in the family castle. Now sober, he lives in self-imposed exile, and his main confidant is his sponsor, a mysterious businessman known only as M. Deauville.

One day, when his plane is unexpectedly diverted to Dublin, Tristram ends up where he started, and an old acquaintance, a bully from his school days who s now making a name in construction, pitches to Tristram an ambitious development project. The trouble is, M. Deauville thinks it s a good idea, and before Tristram knows it he s settled in Howth under his father s baleful gaze and is up to his neck in funding proposals, zoning approvals, and the personal life of his business partner.

A wry and timely skewering of a country, a man, and an entire international financial system descended into madness, The Devil I Know establishes Claire Kilroy as a vigorous and wonderful new talent.