Cross

Duffy (The Night Interns) impresses with a stunning story of political intrigue in 1994 Northern Ireland. Francie, an elder IRA middleman, is respected for his grasp of the goings-on around his town, making him the ideal handler for a chaotic group of teenage boys tasked with murder. Authorized to kill a British policeman, they complete the mission and show up at the local pub, gloating. Francie quiets them, then gets called to visit his boss, Nailer, a farmer on the edge of town. Nailer wants to discuss the Widow Donnelly, who’s become a nuisance after staging a hunger strike following the disappearance of her son, a suspected informant. What follows is a slow unraveling of the motivations and aims of IRA soldiers, their families, local politicians, and other supporters of the Republican cause, with surprising revelations and dire consequences for those involved. Duffy’s expert plotting is topped only by his atmospheric prose, which is often freighted with a sense of foreboding (“a wild near gale of a night but no rain surprisingly and the air itself was as warm as fumes”). This dazzles. Agent: Faith O’Grady, Lisa Richards Agency. (Nov.)