The Abandoned by Sharon Thompson, Book Review

Who would have thought that 1950s Ireland could be so hard for women?  I’ve been there on holiday - beautiful place, lovely people. Had a great time. But Abandoned showed me a hitherto unknown aspect, a darkness that shocked me. I knew, in theory, that women had to give up their jobs when they got married and that the Catholic Church ruled with an iron fist, but until I read this book I didn’t realize what it actually meant to the lives of women. 

Sharon Thompson’s lively dialogue transports you in an instant to the Emerald Isle, where you follow the turbulent life journey of a woman trying to survive a patriarchy so nasty, it makes you want to shout with rage one moment and cry the next. This is not a ‘crime detection’ novel in the traditional sense, but an exploration of motives and instinct, and a tragic set of circumstances which gives birth to violence and death. You will be desperate to find out what happens to her finely-drawn heroine, Peggy Bowden. 

Sharon Thompson is a retired primary school head teacher who lives in Donegal, Ireland. Her debut crime novel, The Abandoned, was published by Blood Hound Books in January 2018.

reviewed by Toria Forsyth-Moser