In the Season of the Daisies

One night in 1921 an IRA action went wrong. A young boy, Willie Doolin, was violently murdered before his twin brother's eyes. The story of that night unfolds like a mystery, revealing the sins of the past and the legacy left for the surviving twin, Seanie Doolin - a man-child tortured and insane with grief - and the upstanding citizens involved: a butcher, a schoolteacher, a doctor, a shopkeeper, and a priest. With the passage of time, the buried past resurfaces. Seanie Doolin roams the shadowy streets serving as a constant reminder of that fateful night. Doctor McKenna slides into an alcoholic stupor; merchant Peetie Mahon, an ominous force, continues to torment the crazed Seanie. John Cashin hides his guilt behind a wall of sanctity; and Father Quinn remains oblivious to the town's unraveling and greedily hordes his parishioners' tithes to build a monument to the church and to himself.

TOM PHELAN, who was born in the Irish midlands in 1940, went to St. Patricks Seminary, Carlow, in the early 1960s, was ordained and worked in England for several years. He migrated to the U.S.A. in 1970, attended the University of Seattle, and left the priesthood. He now lives on Long Island, New York, is married and has two children.