A Stone's Throw: A Novel of the Troubles Paperback - 2015

From the publisher

In 1969 Roy Ferguson and Marty McKenna are teenagers growing up at different ends of the same street; they live a stone's throw and a world away from each other. When Belfast erupts into sectarian violence their street becomes a battleground, and they come of age on opposite sides amidst gun battles and bombings that impact directly on their lives. By 1982 Marty is a seasoned and dangerous IRA man, but disillusioned as he watches another generation growing up amidst the violence, and disgusted by the sadistic antics of a psychopathic colleague. After joining an elite undercover unit Roy is also increasingly concerned about the methods used to obtain results. His ruthless commanding officer will stop at nothing to achieve his aims, his icy machinations putting Roy into a terrible moral dilemma. In a shifting world where trust can lead to the cemetery, both men will have to make some hard choices. Spanning forty years, 'A Stone's Throw' follows the lives of two men caught up in circumstances beyond their control, their gradual involvement, alienation and descent into violence, the loss of innocence and eventually morality as their paths cross through the years. Their entwined odyssey sometimes pushes them in very different directions, as far apart as the Falklands and a besieged Beirut, but ultimately both must return for a dramatic showdown back on the streets where it all began.