Shambles Corner. Edward Toman

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Shambles Corner - Edward  Toman


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      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      Fourth Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Flamingo 1993

      Copyright © Edward Toman 1993

      Edward Toman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780006545736

      Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008226916

      Version: 2016-11-08

      For Siobhán and Declan

      ÓM SCEOL AR ARDMHAGH FÁIL NÍ CHODLAIM OÍCHE

      I hear news from the high plains of Ireland and I cannot sleep at night

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Five

       Six

       Seven

       Eight

       Nine

       Ten

       Two

       Eleven

       Twelve

       Thirteen

       Fourteen

       Fifteen

       Sixteen

       Seventeen

       Eighteen

       Nineteen

       Twenty

       Epilogue

       Keep Reading

       About the Author

       Other Books By

       About the Publisher

      Alphonsus McLoughlin’s Spanish wasn’t all that hot, so it took him a minute or two to appreciate what the guide was telling him. The only way the mule could be persuaded to climb any higher, it seemed, was to offer it a shot of his tequila. ‘I can see its point,’ Alphonsus said, handing the bottle over without demur. He’d had quite a few shots himself that morning. He intended having quite a few more if God spared him. Only his faith and the cactus juice were keeping him going as, perched precariously on the swaying back of the bad-tempered beast and sweating like a proverbial pig under his dog collar, he stumbled upwards on a precipitous bridleway towards the lost city in the mountains.

      On either side of the narrow trail the thorny cacti sprouted promiscuously. When Alphonsus was a boy, he had taken a brief interest in cacti. His aunt had kept a small one in the window of their house on the Falls Road, issuing orders to all who darkened her door that it was never to be watered. One Saint Patrick’s Day it flowered, to the amazement of the neighbours. They sent for the Irish News. In those days there was less trouble on the Falls, and the Irish News was grateful for any story with


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