I didn't think I was going to like this book. It starts with young man and woman leaving Dun Laoghaire on the emigrant boat for England, which surely ranks pretty high up the list of great Irish literary cliche's. Jamie is returning to her job at a radio station in London and Frank is going to an interview for a position as manager of an Irish pub.
They meet and it quickly becomes clear that Frank is a likeable, daredevil type of a guy with a heart of gold, while Jamie is a good looking, no nonsense young woman with a healthy attitude towards sex (i.e., she likes it.) So far so good. Frank gets the job and soon turns the pub into one of the hottest tickets in London, populated by a weird collection of characters including an alcoholic priest who drinks neat whiskey and curses like a trooper and would leave Father Jack in the halfpenny place.
Frank quickly realises how much he misses Jamie, while Jamie is entertaining the same thoughts about Frank. Trouble is, they didn't swap phone numbers and have no way of contacting each other. Will they get together and fall in love? Is the Pope a Catholic?
To stir the plot a bit, we soon discover that Jamie's boyfriend, a London cop called Tommy Barret, is up to his neck in drug dealing and has murdered a colleague in the course of a police raid. Tommy is a psychopath and is so mean that he would have no hesitation in stealing a baby's soother while it was tied in its pram. When Jamie throws him over, we just know that he'll stop at nothing to get even with her.
A shadowy former IRA man who has escaped from prison keeps turning up at Frank's pub, as does a mysterious gangster who is running a protection racket. Add in Frank's best pal, another big, hulking Irishman called Ray, who would take the shirt off his back for a beggar, and Jamie's working class Dubbelin family who speak and behave like clones of the Barrytown Rabbittes, a kidnapping involving yachts, fast cars and a bomb at Howth Summit, and you have all the main ingredients for Gareth O'Callaghan's "thriller with attitude".
The novel works because O'Callaghan has the gift of never boring his audience. It has enough tension and suspense to keep even the most sceptical reader turning the pages. O'Callaghan writes in a nice easy style and has a fine sense of humour, while his ear for Dublin dialect is almost as finely tuned at Roddy Doyle's.
This is a big, sprawling novel which flits effortlessly between Dublin and London with some diversions along the way. It's got everything - sex, drugs, rock n' roll - and a happy ending. If the plot is a bit far fetched, this is something which most readers will take in their stride. Dare to Die has already been an Irish bestseller. It is easy to see why. It will bring much laughter and enjoyment to many readers for months to come.