Our Little Cruelties: A dark exploration of sibling jealousy, conflict and betrayal

Thriller: Our Little Cruelties

Liz Nugent

Penguin, paperback, 384 pages, €13.99

Series of chilling twists: Our Little Cruelties is Liz Nugent's fourth novel

Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

Series of chilling twists: Our Little Cruelties is Liz Nugent's fourth novel

March 28 2020 02:30 AM

'All three of the Drumm brothers were at the funeral, although one of us was in a coffin."

This first line of Our Little Cruelties provides the dramatic and compelling opening to Liz Nugent's latest novel. A clever psychological thriller, this is a whodunnit and a Greek tragedy all in one.

The bestselling author has previously garnered recognition from other writers. Donal Ryan sees Nugent "among the very best storytellers in the world", Sophie Hannah calls her "a stunningly talented writer" while Marian Keyes says she is "incredibly brilliant" and Val McDermid sums it up with her assertion that Liz Nugent "has a gift for filling us with a terrible fascination for truly horrible people".

McDermid's conclusion is perfect. The storyline plays out like a Greek tragedy, where internecine conflicts evoke both pity and fear in the reader. Blood relatives do not always love each other but are tied by familial links and fratricide is de rigueur. The story is also a whodunnit. There is a suggestion of murder on the first page which lurks throughout the book, sometimes almost forgotten but always at the back of the reader's mind.

The international bestselling author's fourth novel raises sibling rivalry to another level. It features the three Drumm brothers, Will, Brian and Luke, all products of a dysfunctional family. Their mother is a self-obsessed fading stage star and showband singer. Their ineffectual and emasculated father dies young, leaving them to compete for their mother's love. As a result, the brothers can never be happy for one another. Instead they spend their time knocking each other and these "little cruelties" mean they are condemned to betray each other into adult life, causing lifelong emotional impacts which ripple through the generations.

Each character gets a chance to speak in his own voice, describing events as he sees them, leading the reader to alternately dislike one and feel sympathy for another until we hear the next voice. It's a clever device, so that as readers we are constantly changing our opinions. Luke, the youngest brother, becomes a rich and successful pop star at an early age, provoking jealousy among his siblings. Will is an up-and-coming film director and producer, married to Susan with a daughter Daisy. He is also a self-serving, manipulative, chauvinist womaniser. Brian, the middle brother is a teacher and is devoted to his niece, Daisy. He appears to be the most caring of the brothers.

However, nothing is as it seems and as the story evolves, so do our sympathies. Luke descends into a drug and drink-fuelled spiral, Will becomes successful and famous and even Brian does well leaving teaching behind and becoming Luke's manager. But there is always competition between the brothers, each wanting what the other has, whether it is fame, money or women in Nugent's complicated family web.

There is plenty of nostalgia and humour, too. The boys attend the Pope's Mass in the Phoenix Park, where their mother sings. The Archbishop is overheard referring to her as "that showgirl". They attend the Bob Dylan concert at Slane in 1984 and Will's behaviour leads to him missing out on all the autographs that Brian gathers. Luke's first big gig is at Midnight at the Olympia in 1989. With their usual derision, his family complain about the late hour and leave before seeing the great audience response. Although, Brian has the night of his life.

The brothers are hell-bent on ruining each others lives. This callousness extends to the women they love, with a catastrophic outcome for Susan. Their careers are not safe from each other either and even the beloved Daisy, caught up in the maelstrom for years, takes her revenge.

Slowly, the results of their competitiveness and the grudges they hold for years, catches up on them until one of them is dead. Throughout the book, the brothers show a complete lack of perception or awareness of one another, so misunderstandings are rife.

In a series of twists, as the novel nears its ending, these misunderstandings are exposed and all the family secrets come out, including the reason their mother developed into such an uncaring, self-serving adult. We finally find out which brother was murdered and who did it but there is still one last chilling twist for the grand finale.

Liz Nugent came on to the scene in 2014 with her first psychological thriller, Unravelling Oliver. She immediately built up a huge fanbase and her first success was followed in 2016 with Lying in Wait. Two years later Skin Deep went straight to number one and stayed there for two months, winning two awards. All three novels have been bestsellers in Ireland and so far Nugent has won four Irish Book Awards. In her early career, she worked as a stage manager in Irish theatres and has also written for television and radio, including RTÉ's Fair City.

Our Little Cruelties is a carefully nuanced dark exploration of the old adage "blood is thicker than water". Absolutely riveting, the book proves once again that Nugent deserves her fellow authors' opinions of her as a truly outstanding writer.