Dermot O'Hanlon

The Witch of Kilmara is a collection of Irish tales, varying from humor to horror. Many of the stories are told from a first-person perspective, usually from that of a young boy.

Some of the stories were delightful - "Jimmy the Hammer" was spine-tinglingly good, and the follow-up, "The Hollow", just as good a mix of boyish adventure and horror. Others weren't as thrilling - "Red Wheels" was rather pointless, and "The Sharpshooter" seemed to be a repeat of "After the Races"; I thought that the second story in the book, "The Sharpshooter", would resolve the mystery in "After the Races", but it ended on the exact same note. I don't mind a little mystery in my life, but repeating the mystery seems a bit much.

O'Hanlon has a story-teller's ear and has a grasp of how to use dialect so that it's not incomprehensible, but still offers some flavor. He also employs some turns of phrases that are appropriately pithy, such as my favorite, "In fact, they were wearing everything but smiles and lacked nothing but talent" (77). In other places, however, his style could be distressingly baroque, as in the meandering sentence: "It got its name, no one knows when, because it is, and always has been, as far as people can remember, the special preserve of the town's little womenfolk" (63).

Additionally, the Kindle edition is not kind to formatting, and it took a bit to work through the errant commas that ended up on the following sentence, rather than with their natural mate one sentence prior.

With a bit of polishing and the help of another eye, these stories would be three stars. As they stand, they are full of local flavor and have a special charm that I couldn't help but enjoy, so I would say 2.5 stars.

Disclaimer: This book was received for free as part of the GoodReads Giveaway program.… (altro)