Excellent narrative that draws the reader into the turbulent times of "The Trouble" in Northern Ireland. Gripping historical context wrapped around the mystery of the 1972 Jean McConville murder, a crime not properly investigated until more than twenty years later.

I was 12 years old before I knew my paternal grandmother was Irish. My English-born and raised father loved his mother, but was so angry and disgusted by the IRA, he would not admit he had a drop of Irish blood in him. So, the Troubles and the struggle for Irish independence was something I learned everything I could about and I could see how the anger and hatred has built up on both sides of the conflict, but it took a story like this to bring home how personal, how painful and how devastating this crisis really was. In 1972, Jean McConville was dragged from her home in Ireland by a group of masked men, leaving her young children all alone. No one dared say anything, but everyone knew the IRA was behind the kidnapping. Meanwhile, Jean’s oldest children tried to care for their younger siblings as best they could, but it wasn’t long before the authorities were brought in to care for the children, splitting them up in different foster care homes. There is no happy ending in this story, only a confirmation, years later when Jean’s remains are found. Keefe draws readers into a world of darkness and hate, where children were indoctrinated as “soldiers” and the end always justified the means. A remarkable book and one you will never forget

This book resonated with me on so many levels; a meticulously-researched snapshot of a fascinating piece of Irish history; nuanced and charismatic individuals, and how they evolved over time; and how memories are “remembered” during traumatic times. The author weaves together an incredibly well documented picture of this tumultuous time with both empathy and truthfulness that I believe anyone interested in how to approach freedom fighting, as the IRA would term it, will enjoy. Underlying it all is a cautionary tale on how to approach and safeguard research that could cause participants the ultimate prices—freedom, and even possibly death. I had to put the book down numerous times to ponder the author’s points—and then pick it back up again to find out the rest of the story. I cannot wait to read it again, to see what I may have missed!

What a dark and compelling book! I am not usually big on true crime, but this story tucked me in from the start. The writing is taut and the research in depth and I feel I learned a lot. Recommended!

I’ve always been under-informed about the situation in Ireland and reading Say Nothing was a great way to cure that problem. It gives great history on the long-standing feud between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, and the problem with England getting involved in Ireland’s affairs for hundreds of years. It shares the story of the widowed 38-year-old mum of 10, Jean McConville, who is taken from her apartment one December night in 1972 by a threatening masked group, (IRA, but unsaid) and doesn’t come home. The kids try to carry on in her absence, with the oldest daughter in charge and the oldest boy working, but they are failing, hungry. The authorities eventually have to step in and put the younger ones into care, splitting some of them up.

The book also delves into the lives of several volunteer members of the IRA who have followed orders and done their jobs to an extreme. Some from a very young age, and almost to their deaths of starvation in prison on hunger strikes. There are the Price sisters, Dolours and Marian, and the man they call The Dark, Brendan Hughes. Bobby Sands, Gerry Adams, The IRA had split into 2 divisions, the Originals…more political, and the Provisionals who typically didn’t vote. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Patrick Radden Keefe, and the publisher for my fair review.

The horrific conflict known as The Troubles is introduced to us beginning in 1972, when Jean McConville, 38 and a mother of ten children was abducted from her home in front of her children and neighbors, never to be seen again, until years later when bones found on a beach turned out to be hers.

Everyone knew it was the IRA, but no one was speaking out. Fear and Paranoia were rampant and no one was safe. Family members turned on each other. Neighbors turned a blind eye and some, like Dolours Price, were carrying on the family tradition of violence and proud of it. 

This was a bitter conflict that I once thought was over Catholic vs. Protestants but that was only a small part of the story. Everyone wanted peace, but when it came, it was shaky at best. 

This is one of the best books I have read on the Irish Conflicts. Turning loved ones against each other and so many deaths and in the end, who was right? Was it all worth it?

I don't know but reading this account I fully intend to find out more.

Very Well Done!

Netgalley/ February 26th 2019 by Doubleday Books

There is cruel, bloodlust in Northern Ireland. Everyone knows the IRA is responsible. The people that are involved are not held accountable. It's a place of treacherous, violent warfare. No mercy is shown for anyone.
A mother of 10 children is ripped from their arms. Gone, never to he seen again. Until bones are swept onto the shore. Nothing to identify the person it could have been. Except there is found a blue safety pin. Her children know that the possibility of it being their mother is high.
People involved on either side will never forget the trauma, the terror the violence.
Extremely well written. If you want to know detailed facts, look no further. A wrenching true story!

To be honest, this book is WAY outside my comfort zone. I generally read mysterious thrillers, historical fiction or a good old fashioned novel that spans generations. I am really glad I read this book. I was a child of the 70's, a teenager in the 80's and a teacher in the 90's. I knew nothing of this conflict in the 70's, heard a news story here and there in the 80's about a car bombing in Ireland or England but that is it. Nothing was taught in school and I knew next to nothing about this subject before I read Say Nothing. Keefe does an excellent job explaining what The Troubles were, why it started and how some of the "main players" became involved. I hope a lot of people read this book because it is a subject that I feel very few people have a good understanding of and this book is a good step in educating us on this very serious problem that history, the media and our education systems too often overlook.

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe details the decades-long bloody conflict, known as The Troubles, in Northern Ireland between all factions involved.

Through the book, Keefe does an excellent job of bringing forward the history of the conflict in an understandable way for all readers. In his detailing of the violence, Keefe aptly provides the reader with enough explanation that shows this is not just a Catholic or Protestant conflict, or for that matter, a British or Irish conflict either (one very interesting aspect of The Troubles includes two sects of the Irish Republican Army were even at war with themselves).

The book opens with a fascinating telling of the serving of a subpoena on a university in Boston, Massachusetts over highly secret information locked away deep into the university's archives. This information is an accounting of who did what and to whom during The Troubles.

Keefe then takes the reader back to December 1972 where a mother of ten is abducted from her Belfast home by masked assailants, never to be seen again.

Keefe knits his recounting of these events by historical research on each topical spoke of this conflict, blending in a wide variety of people until the spokes intersect in the middle.

Say Nothing keeps the reader engaged and Keefe breathes life into the people involved with a story that never bores.

This book reads like a broad, historical crime novel involving conspiracies, governments, a wide range of people and fascinating layers to the tale.

This book is highly recommended to people who would like to develop a deeper understanding of The Troubles that is explained in a highly accessible manner.

Shortly after beginning Say Nothing, I realized how little I knew of The Troubles. Although Keefe would be the first to admit his book isn’t a comprehensive history, I found it an intriguing segway into this difficult time in Northern Ireland’s history.

Say Nothing centers on four figures: Jean McConville, a thirty-eight year old mother of ten who was taken from her home by a group of intruders in December 1972 as her children hung from her limbs; Dolours Price, a young, glamorous IRA volunteer who lead the team that perpetrated the March 1973 London bombings and subsequently became infamous, with her sister Marian, for a prolonged hunger strike; Brendan Hughes, master IRA tactician, head of the D Company, the feared “Dirty Dozen”; and Gerry Adams, a leading figure in the peace talks and the Sinn Féin party who disavowed his IRA past.

The book, which reads like a novel, traces the history of these figures as they navigate life in a city divided by sectarian conflict, where bombs and shootings are commonplace. Although Dolours, Gerry, and Brendan chose to live as revolutionaries, Jean, a Protestant living in a Catholic stronghold, was caught up in forces beyond her control.

While intimately personal, the book also chronicles the persecution of Catholics in Northern Ireland, the uncompromising ideals of the IRA volunteers, and life in prison and internment camps. I had not fully understood the process or psychological consequences of force feeding prisoners on hunger strike until reading this book, and I’ll never see the process the same way again.

Attention is also paid to the British Army and its use of “touts” or informants, a practice Keefe attributes to Brigadier Frank Kitson who became a master of counterinsurgency techniques while stationed at sites of colonial uprisings and later assigned to Northern Ireland.

As Reefe unspools the trajectory of the IRA volunteers, he traces the painful lives of the McConville orphans who were put into state custody and institutionalized. Their family was irrevocably shattered when Jean was “disappeared.” In 1999, the IRA admitted responsibility, and in 2003, her body was uncovered.

Jean McConville and her family were only one of many who were uprooted by the Troubles. But a culture of silence permeates Northern Ireland. Part of this developed before the Troubles, but because the peace settlement did not include a truth and reconciliation process, anyone who talks about their activities risks arrest and prison. Keefe wonders who should be responsible for a shared history of violence. Only the truth can answer that question, and Say Nothing is a remarkable contribution to that history.

This is such a readable book, it will appeal to true crime aficionados, mystery lovers, and history buffs, not to mentions anyone wanting to know more about the history of Northern Ireland or the IRA. In fact, one of the few flaws is that the book is so readable, sometimes it’s easy to forget that the events depict real people and real pain that deserve empathy and witness. The book is also more thematic than chronological, which makes the flow more logical and the narrative more coherent. However, at times, I got a bit murky on the timeline and had to reorient myself. These very minor issues should not keep you from picking up this book; in fact, I encourage you to read it as soon as possible.

This work set to be published February 2019 and is already getting stunning reviews from the likes of David Grann and Gillian Flynn. I feel it a privilege to add my two cents. This is an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions? The book starts with a bang! December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, is dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious events of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress. This was the practice of Jean, with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes.

This is a mesmerizing book about the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath. The author uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with even today. I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland. This caused them to wonder whether the killings they committed were justified acts of war, or brutal murders.

You will meet I.R.A. terrorists such as Dolours Price, who, when she was barely out of her teens, was already planting bombs in London and targeting informers for execution, and the ferocious I.R.A. mastermind known as The Dark. Then there were the spy games and dirty schemes of the British Army. Also Gerry Adams, who negotiated the peace but betrayed his hardcore comrades by denying his I.R.A. past.
This is a raw read, filled with passion, betrayal, vengeance, and anguish.

Breathtakingly haunting and good.

Patrick Radden Keefe tells the story of the conflict in Northern Ireland between the Irish nationalists, the Catholics, and the unionists, the Protestants, in a time described as The Troubles.

This book is very well researched, it is harrowing and it focuses largely on the human cost.

I believed myself to be relatively well-informed on this topic before I read this book. I wasn't.

I cannot recommend highly enough!

Thank you to Doubleday, Patrick Radden Keefe and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a gripping and disturbing nonfiction account of the war between the Protestants and Catholics, the Royalists and Nationals, leading up to the peace that finally settled over Northern Ireland. Keefe portrays the impossibilities of day to day life during the height of the troubles, and makes the scene all the more vivid by delving into the lives of some of the soldiers and victims. By beginning with the disappearance of a mother and the affects her loss had on her family, Keefe adds a mystery to the narrative, and brings the story full circle at the end. Readers will get a sense of the motivations behind some terrible acts of violence, and the accompanying photographs make the story all the more powerful.

From the description of this book, I thought it was mostly about Jean McConville, the woman who disappeared during the Troubles. And I thought that the history of the Troubles would come second, but I was much mistaken. Jean is barely mentioned in the first half of the book and instead we are treated to an in depth discussion of what the Troubles were and what led to them, with introductions to far too many characters for me to keep track of. The more I read, the more I wished the author would finally start telling us about Jean, as that is what drew me to this book in the first place. It's not until 40% that we start to find out more about Jean, and since the notes section starts at 60% of the total book, this is 2/3 of the way through.

The book itself is well-written and filled with interesting information. My main issues lies with the way it is marketed, or more accurately, what I perceived the book to be about. It is not a true crime book where we follow around detectives or amateur sleuths. More than anything, it is a modern history book about the Troubles, their legacy, and a few key players during this time. The McConvilles as a whole have a rather small part, despite what the description and the introduction would have you believe. Every time a new chapter started that introduced a new character and pushed the actual solving of the crime farther off, I found myself wanting to skim since I knew there was no way I was going to remember yet another name.

2.5 stars rounded up since it was more of a perception issue than an issue with the book itself.

I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Patrick Radden Keefe has written a sprawling and lengthy account of a time in Ireland known as the Troubles. In “Say Nothing,” he tells of the late 20th century conflict in Northern Ireland between Irish nationalists, mostly Catholic, and unionists/loyalists, mostly Protestants. At issue was the desire to remain within the United Kingdom by the loyalists and the demands by the nationalists to secede and form a united Ireland. Eventually there were riots, bombings, and killings, prompting the deployment of British troops and provoking even more violent dissension.

Keefe chronicles decades of hatred, bloodshed, guerrilla campaigns, and bombings that eventually killed more than 3,500 people and caused widespread destruction of property. Claims of collusion on both sides in many of the murders and kidnappings were never adjudicated to either side’s satisfaction even after an uneasy peace was established by the Belfast Agreement (commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement) that included ceasefire agreements, decommissioning of weapons, police reforms and withdrawal of troops from streets and borders.

The details are confusing, the names and affiliations are difficult to decipher. The violent and unreasonable stances of all sides seem almost naïve to an outsider. But Keefe’s extensive research and dedication in accurately portraying the tragic events are gripping and meticulous. Particularly engrossing is his examination of the individuals from both sides of the conflict and his outlining of their fanatical devotion to their causes. Knowledge that traitors lurk in every enclave, death awaits each betrayal, and prison is in the offing for violators of unclear policies, seem to be no damper to radical behavior, even from the most unlikely of participants.

I was engrossed by the book, by the writer’s skill, and the sheer fanaticism that prevailed. This is a must read, if for nothing else except to expose human frailty and fanatical behavior in search of freedom, although that liberty is defined in radically different terms by those who seek it. Great book.