The Abbot

David Moore is a natural storyteller who draws from his own professional experience as a police officer during that turbulent period known as the Troubles. His own novel approach is not to plough over the old bloodied ground of tribal conflict but rather to represent a new landscape of post conflict Ireland, populated with redundant terrorists and their unlikely new bedfellows from British MI5 and secret service spooks. Moore introduces into his mix a character driven by blood and an older history. The Abbot is a creation and the resurrection of a dark elemental, at once familiar and terrifying. He hovers above the narrative invulnerable and driven. Moore engages the reader from the first sentence and has an intuitive sense of pace and purpose. His description of action and the hardware of destruction should satisfy the discerning fan of the political thriller genre.An ingenious and plausibly structured plot allows Moore to open the rural town lands of East Antrim and effortlessly move into the larger world of international terrorism. No mean feat for a first time writer and a most encouraging debut for a natural talent. Michael McCurley Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing Stranmillis University College, Belfast