Tooth & Nail

From the Desmond Elliot Prize-shortlisted writer of Iron Annie comes a story of found family, second chances and one man's slow descent into a dangerous criminal underworld.Before he was known as The Rat King, the infamous criminal kingpin of Dundalk, he was simply Paul – a clever but aimless man fresh out of university who, after falling in with his capricious girlfriend's crew of squatting anarchists, finds himself homeless and desperate. To get by, Paul strikes a deal with a shady man who offers him a roof over his head and a regular supply of drugs in return for ‘birdwatching’ – spying on the visitors to one particular house. Robin Redbreast (25, leather jacket, red hair and beard) is a regular to the place, but it’s the Night Bird – Blue Gattigan – that turns Paul’s stomach. Blue radiates violence and cruelty and, when he targets someone close to Paul, Paul sets out for payback.With the help of a who’s who of Dundalk’s underworld – a traveller with all the right connections, a genius metalworker with a heart of gold and a maté-drinking, ayahuasca-imbibing ex-NRA solider known locally as the Shaman – Paul hatches a plan that will send a deafening message to Blue. But when Blue strikes back, Paul is forced to ask himself the all-important question: how deep into this world of crime is he truly willing to go?

Luke Cassidy is a writer from the Irish border town of Dundalk. His debut novel, Iron Annie, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. He has been published in the Irish Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, Literary Hub, and LA Review of Books, amongst others. He has recently contributed a short story to the New Island Books anthology of writing from the Irish border region, The New Frontier, and adapted Iron Annie for the stage, which toured Ireland in late 2021 and will have more dates in Ireland in the UK in Summer 2022.