Young people often leave Tullyanna in pursuit of adventure, so Sandra becomes no more than a puzzling memory. I’ve been a fan of Ardal’s , since his days in father Ted and his other roles in the BBC Comedy My Hero and the drama Death in Paradise.

I have been a fan of Ardal O’Hanlon since watching him as a kid in Father Ted, Death on paradise etc. But many people do not know the backdrop to Mike Herron's wonderful cannon of Slow Horses, and still manage to inveigle their way into that mysterious world and find the gold therein. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Ireland for the opportunity to review this book in my own way. This is a crime novel with twists, with the latter pertaining not just to “who did it” but to the genre itself - part humorous, part Irish history around the times of “The Troubles” and part true literary endeavour.These three intrepid individuals lead us through a myriad of scenarios, some very funny, some gruesome but all highly entertaining. At a smidge over three hundred and forty pages, it wavers slightly in places, but O’Hanlon keeps the reader engaged with bouts of hilarity scattered generously throughout the book. I was therefore over the moon when I started reading and I could actually hear him talking to me in his Irish tang, nuanced language and witty descriptions of real mundane issues in life. Joanne has a genuine passion for journalism which is appreciable, yet she was my least favourite of the three, causing rather than resolving trouble (even after having done it once for Dove and realising she was wrong, she does it all over again).

However a local journalist wrote an expose of life in the area and made conclusions about Sandra's disappearance. It won’t win the Nobel or the Booker, but it ought to have a fair run at the Bollinger Wodehouse prize.If there is a word or phrase which means the complete opposite of ‘page turner’, it would apply to this book. The actor and comedian Ardal O’Hanlon’s first novel, 1998’s The Talk of the Town , hinted at the emergence of a distinctive literary talent, equal parts Flann O’Brien and Irvine Welsh. His storytelling is punctuated with satirical references to Irish history, popular culture and mythology.