Choice Publishing Book Store

Mike Crowley

 

 

Collins …

And the letter

 

A Novel

 

 

ISBN: 978-1-913275-78-5

 

Price: €10.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Book:

 

This novel about the mysterious letter Collins finds on the street takes the reader on a journey through a labyrinth of coincidences  from  Cork City over to Perugia, and from there down to Rome. The letter arouses in Collins all sorts of speculations and fantasies. Who is Mary Murphy? How come she gets a letter from Rome? What’s Finbar Barry doing in Rome? What is their relationship? While Collins goes from pub to pub talking about lost letters, trying to unravel the mystery, we learn about why Finbar went to Perugia and finally to Rome. We are given an insight to his life there with Silke up to when, years later, he meets a group of lads from Cork. From them he learns about some writer in Cork, and decides to write to his old girlfriend Mary. Collins thinks  it’s  stuff  for a novel, but first he must travel to Rome to meet Barry.

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author:

 

Born in Cork City, Mike Crowley now lives in Frankfurt.  For him writing fiction is an ideal form of brain jogging. While scribbling poetry ensures him a devilish companionship with the Muses. The blank page on the table and the pen in hand raring to go. 

“Collins… and the letter” is his third published novel after “What Colette Didn’t Know” and “Pledged in Green”.  Three  books of poetry: “Poems and Limericks”, “Wild Thoughts Trapped In Verse” and “Tinged Ideas”. He has no mobile, no iPhone, no smartphone.

 

 

 

*               *               *               *

 

 

Sample Excerpt:

 

It’s me all right.                                                                                                                                          

Still in his pyjamas, and a dressing-gown wrapped round him, he was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom brushing his teeth. About an hour earlier, when the alarm clock pulled him out of his sleep, he was right in the middle of a dream; something about a letter. He stretched out his arm and turned off the alarm. Christ’s sake, he cursed, have I nothing more entertaining to think about in my sleep?            
    On his way home the night before he happened to find a letter on the pavement.  At first he wanted to ignore it and walk on. But then, on second thoughts, he bent down, picked it up and read the address. Not far from here, he said to himself, putting the letter into his coat pocket. I can drop it into the letter-box in the morning on my way to the library. He gets out of bed, switches on the light in the hall, where he slips into a pair of sandals, and goes out to the letter-box to collect the morning paper. Bleak, he mutters, glancing at the sky. By the looks of it, it must have rained a lot in the night. The small birds were chattering in the nearby hedges. Ah, spring, he muses, spring at last, though the weather isn’t playing up to it. He pulls the newspaper from the letter-box, goes in and closes the door. Lovers still lying in the hay, he muses, having a rattle before getting ready for the day, and he smiles, thinking about the times when an odd girlfriend used to stay overnight.           

 

 

 

 

 

Previous Books by Mike Crowley:

 

What Colette Didn’t Know, A Novel

Wild thoughts trapped in Verse

Tinged Ideas, Poems & Rhymes