Set in the early 1970's The Serpent's Tail by author and journalist Martin Dillon from Northern Ireland features teenagers Stephen Kirkpatrick and Michael McDonnell. Michael is adventurous, while Stephen just wants to start a family and an end to the political strife he grew up with and emigrate to the USA. Political and religious factions in a fight with each other during The Troubles were infiltrated from England's MI5, the SAS and the IRA for information gathering and counter-espionage. The political thriller has unnerving scenes of torture and interrogations, inmates struggling to stay alive, and normal people drawn into situations were fairness, honesty and love are nowhere to be found. No one's safe, no one worth your trust. Who placed bombs in Dublin? Is the serpent biting its own tail? And who's who in the battleground?

It's the bizarre breeding ground for Sinn Fein to enter the stage. The Serpent's tail has an epilogue set in 1994 and was originally published in 1995. Thistle Publishing republished this title. The reader's memory is refreshed - supposing you're old enough to remember some background of the Northern Ireland's situation by then. ( )