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Originally published in 1998, SHADOW DANCER has been reissued by Corgi to coincide with the release date of the Paramount film earlier this year. The book, which received excellent reviews when it first came out, is concerned with Northern Ireland in the early nineties when the peace initiative was first getting started. It describes the attitudes of the hard-line Provos who are incapable of trusting the 'treacherous Brits' and have no desire for peace. The family at the centre of the novel is a very well known one in IRA circles, the eldest son, Gerry, being the commander of the Belfast Brigade. One of the effects of the peace talks has been to increase tension within the Provos and to create a situation where nobody trusts anybody else. Colette McVeigh, a member of the Provos and a widow with two small children, is arrested whilst trying to set off a bomb in a London station and is told she must either serve a long sentence and not see her children again or turn informer. Her MI5 handler, who is relatively inexperienced, becomes increasingly sympathetic as he realizes how dangerous her position is and begins to doubt whether he has done the right thing by putting her in this situation. At the same time, Colette, who still feels loyalty to a cause she had embraced years before, agonizes over the decision she took to put her children before everything else. Whilst there is clearly some attraction between the two, the circumstances in which it exists are such as virtually to rule out any possibility of a romantic attachment. They do, however, command interest, as do the other main characters – Ma, Paddy and Gerry. Bradby's keen eye for telling detail brings them alive, despite how alien their lives might seem. The plot is skilfully constructed with one glaring exception which, unfortunately, is crucial to the final outcome. If you have to tell someone something in absolute secrecy it ought not to be too difficult to choose an appropriate time and place. It certainly ought not to be in a house occupied by others with a door left open so that the conversation can be overheard. That apart, everything else is believable and there is a kind of inevitability about it. The setting in which the action takes place can hardly be faulted and it is clear that the author is very familiar with the Belfast geography. Far too much is made, however, of the smoke-filled rooms and no conversation can take place without the parties concerned lighting up a cigarette – a common failing amongst writers seeking verisimilitude in books set prior to the non-smoking revolution. For an older generation who lived through the horrors of the conflict this is a piece of history involving people who had lost all semblance of humanity in pursuit of they knew not what. But despite the grimness, this is a book that holds much of interest. § Arnold Taylor is a retired Examinations Board Officer, amateur writer and even more amateur bridge player.
Reviewed by Arnold Taylor, November 2012
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