The Last Good Summer by J.J. Green was published by The Book Guild Ltd on January 24th 2023. It is a pleasure to welcome J.J. Green today with a guest post and short extract from The Last Good Summer so I do hope you enjoy.
[ About The Last Good Summer ]
In the summer of 1986, Belle McGee is thirteen. The arrival of Fionn Power at her family home sets in motion a tragic chain of events.
Now a forty-something investigative journalist living in Dublin, Belle returns home one night to find Fionn standing in the hallway before inexplicably vanishing. Unsettled, Belle immediately phones her sister, who tells her that Fionn was found dead that very morning.
In her journey to find answers, Belle exposes corruption and scandal and is forced to stop running from the shameful truth of 1986.
[ Guest Post by J.J. Green ]
“I’m very grateful to Mairead for allowing me to contribute a blog about my debut novel, a mystery thriller called The Last Good Summer.
Getting to this point, my first book about to be published, has been a long, hard journey full of disappointments and setbacks, not to mention multiple failed manuscripts. Often, I felt as though it was a doomed enterprise, and lately, before I managed to secure a publisher, I had all but given up on the notion of ever seeing a book in print. But I persevered, mainly because writing is so part of my DNA by now that not writing would be impossible. I was once told by a tutor on a writing course I did that the students who became authors weren’t necessarily the ones with the most dazzling ideas but the ones who didn’t give up. And then I read a quote somewhere that said “an author is just a writer who never gave up.” I’m living proof of that. Perseverance pays off, as does continuously honing your craft. I’m excited, and relieved, to finally be an author. At times, I can hardly believe it.
So, here’s a little bit about The Last Good Summer.“
In the summer of 1986, Belle McGee is thirteen. When Fionn Power arrives to stay at her family home, a tragic chain of events is set in motion. Now a forty-something investigative journalist living in Dublin, Belle returns home one night to find Fionn standing in the hallway before inexplicably vanishing. Unsettled, Belle immediately phones her sister who tells her that Fionn was found dead that very morning. Belle sets out on a quest to find out who murdered Fionn, and in the process discovers an industrial-scale illegal dumping operation that’s responsible for dire environmental and health consequences. But, her quest resurrects dormant memories from her past that she’s tried her whole life to forget, and she finds she can’t run from them any longer.
Extract from The Last Good Summer:
Here’s a short extract from the novel, taken from one of the early scenes when the heroine, Belle, comes home from a night out to find unexpected visitor:
“The keys scratched against the lock a few times before finally finding home. Belle unlocked the door and stepped inside, pushing it closed with her back. She rested against it as her eyes adjusted to the gloom.
Silence leaned in on her, the kind of silence special to a house with a sole occupant – the kind that wasn’t merely the absence of noise. She observed a patch of silver light growing out of the shadows, the moon seeping through the casement window at the end of the hallway.
It was then she saw him.
Right there, by the window, indistinct at first but developing form and shape as her vision sharpened through the darkness: arms and shoulders; standing tall; his hair grey and no longer like honey; his eyes, still that shimmering blue. They stared past her, fixed on something only he could see.
‘Fionn?’ she whispered. ‘Is that you?’ She tried to swallow but her throat was too dry. She wrestled with the implausibility of his being there. She was suddenly sober, the silliness from earlier gone like a trail of smoke on the wind.
He didn’t move.
She shivered as the air around her turned cold, and stood motionless, waiting, for what she didn’t know.
‘Yes, it is you.’ A salty bead of moisture splashed onto her cheek.
Still not a move from him. No glance, no word, no indication he was even aware of her presence.
‘I’m sorry, Fionn.’ An awful pressure bore down on her chest, making it hard to breathe. She groaned. ‘I’m sorry for how it all ended up.’ The pressure on her chest became suffocating. She couldn’t bear another second.
She flicked on the light, banishing the darkness.
Banishing Fionn right along with it.”
[ Bio ]
J. J. Green is an Irish writer who hails from Donegal and lives in Derry. She’s had a passion for writing fiction from childhood and has honed her creative writing skills throughout her adult life.
As a social and environmental activist, she also writes non-fiction for ZNetwork in the form of political essays that mainly focus on economic and environmental injustice.
The Last Good Summer is her debut novel.
