A Good Confession

Whelan's morose debut begins with the 1959 death of Mick Brogan, who leaves behind a lovely young wife and two small children. Cathleen and the girls' dreary London existence improves when Mick's cousin, Jerry, a handsome priest, joins a church in the city. Jerry gives Cathleen the courage to take better care of her daughters, and, sure enough, Cathleen soon begins to have romantic feelings for Jerry. But the love story's muted by the depiction of what it's like to scrape by in 1960s London and in the small Irish village where Mick grew up. Whelan nicely handles the forbidden love between Cathleen and Jerry, but loses her footing as the novel nears its almost-unexpected conclusion. For a romance, it's awfully gloomy. (Feb.)