Touch & Go

Set in 1946, this first novel by Irish newspaper columnist McAughtry is a riveting look at a young Protestant man returning to a complex and confusing Belfast after WW II. Hugh Reilly's efforts to reconstruct his life are thwarted by his independent thinking, his alcoholism and his short temper. A bomber pilot, Hugh is called home by his ill mother, who dies during his first day back as he's guzzling stout at the local pub. At the wake, Hugh punches out his hostile brother, then goes on a binge and ends up in the arms of a local prostitute who takes him in. Hugh gets a job as a civil servant but disobeys his supervisor. He sleeps with the cousin whom he's always desired, only to tell the prostitute, who kicks him out of the house. Finally, Hugh finds that he is adept at writing, and he gets hired by a Unionist to translate ideas into articles. But his future is put on hold after his friend Dicky antagonizes a corrupt Catholic moneylender named Grogan during a card game. Grogan cracks Dicky's skull and tells Hugh a secret about Hugh's family that drives him to beat Grogan to death. Hugh prepares to be hanged as the loyalists protest his conviction ``just for killing a Catholic.'' (Jan.)