The Last Good Summer by J.J. Green

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.

About the author

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 in the form of political essays that mainly focus on economic and environmental injustice. The Last Good Summer is her debut novel.

As part of the blog tour I have the pleasure of sharing an extract of the book with you!

Belle has returned home after hearing about Fionn’s murder, and she’s back in her old bedroom:

She stared up at the ceiling, same as she had done when she was a girl, and thought of how much had changed. In 1986, a family had lived in this house: Mr and Mrs McGee and their two daughters. And Fionn, too, for a while. Had that been the last happy time, the last truly happy time? That was the tragedy about life. You never knew when you were living your happiest time; you never knew to savour it and make the most of it.

She wondered if it were possible to be too broken to cry.

Her phone pinged, distracting her from her maudlin thoughts. A text from Shane. She’d answer that later. Probably.

‘Fuck this,’ she said, sitting up and reaching for her laptop bag.

There was only one thing she knew to do when her head was in such a scramble. She took out her Dictaphone. She switched it on and began talking.

‘Fionn had wanted to contact me. Why? Tomorrow, I’ll visit Chrissie. My plan is to stay until Fionn’s funeral and go back to Dublin soon after. Reminder: invite Maeveen and Cillian to come and stay for a weekend.’

She stopped recording and tapped the little device againsther forehead, deep in thought. She pressed the record button again.

‘What the fuck am I even doing?’