The Convictions of John Delahunt by Andrew Hughes Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

Beautifully observed, seductive, and laced with dark humor, a gripping historical thriller — set in 1840s Dublin — about a man who betrays his family, his friends, his society and, ultimately, himself.

Dublin, 1841. On a cold December morning, a small boy is enticed away from his mother and his throat savagely cut. This could be just one more small, sad death in a city riven by poverty, inequality and political unrest, but this murder causes a public outcry. For it appears the culprit - a feckless student named John Delahunt - is also an informant in the pay of the authorities at Dublin Castle. And strangely, this young man seems neither to regret what he did, nor fear his punishment. Indeed, as he awaits the hangman in his cell in Kilmainham Gaol, John Delahunt decides to tell his story in this, his final, deeply unsettling statement...

Based on true events that convulsed Victorian Ireland, The Convictions of John Delahunt is the tragic tale of a man who betrays his family, his friends, his society and, ultimately, himself. Set amidst Dublin's taverns, tenements, courtrooms, and alleyways and with a rich, Dickensian cast of characters, this enthralling, at times darkly humorous novel brilliantly evokes a time and a place, and introduces a remarkable new literary voice.

One of the genres I've come around to lately are historical mysteries. Not necessarily those cheesy detective mysteries, but the atmospheric, dark historical thrillers, usually based on a true story, and following condemned men and women. I love reading them in the winter, and two of my favorite books from the last two years have been them- 2016's Burial Rites and last year's Wolf Winter.

I was recommended The Convictions of John Delahunt through Goodreads because I liked Wolf Winter, actually, and liked the summary. I figured I'd be getting a dark, atmospheric novel about Dublin in the 1840s and, of course, the murder of a young child. That's not really want I got. 

When I first started reading, I figured my inability to focus on it would go away soon, as I got more and more into the novel. In fact, I knew it would take me a little time to get acquainted with these books, as my experiences with Wolf Winter and Burial Rites attested to- Wolf Winter's writing style didn't immediately click with me and Burial Rites was just too slow for my tastes at the beginning. But as I got further and further along in The Convictions of John Delahunt, I found myself just taping the screen on my iPad listlessly, uninterested in anything that was going on. Even the sizable body count the characters in this book were racking up made it hard to care, because the writing style and the lack of depth behind the characters made it hard for me to care.

Not only that, there was none of that atmosphere I love in these types of historical mysteries. Hughes didn't take full advantage of the creepiness his chosen setting of Dublin in the 1840s could have provided us. In fact, Dublin felt like another generic Victorian city, like it could have been Edinburgh or London or any of the other major cities in that part of the world. One of the biggest things I look for in any of the books I read, but especially historical fiction, is strength of setting. I like feeling like I'm right there with the protagonists, like I can practically taste the whiskey or smell the smog. The Dublin Murder Squad series isn't a historical fiction series, but one of the biggest draws those books have is their Irishness. I was hoping for something along the same lines as those books in a Victorian-era setting and I was disappointing.

Which is a shame, because The Convictions of John Delahunt is a good story, but Hughes just didn't do a very good job at executing it. I understand that he was trying to go for a Crime and Punishment feel to it, with Delahunt acting as Raskolnikov, and Hughes is trying to show us how poverty drove him to committing the crimes he did. In that case, I wish the book opened up with the murder and followed Delahunt as he covered up the crime, and slowly goes more and more crazy due to hiding it, and also due to the horrific nature of the crime. That is, after all, the main appeal to Crime and Punishment, the psychological aspects. Perhaps if Hughes had amped up the psychological distress he would have created a more engrossing novel.

Andrew Hughes had a great idea with The Convictions of John Delahunt and a lackluster execution. This isn't the worst novel I've read this month, but it is one I was underwhelmed and disinterested by, and I don't really think I'd recommend it out much.

5 out of 10