Little Cruelties

June 1, 2020

In this latest from the author of the LJ-starred Lying in Wait, three Irish brothers born successively a year apart compete frantically for their conniving mother's attention. And the little cruelties to which children are prone get nastier and nastier and finally end in blood. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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August 24, 2020
This artfully constructed but coal-black psychological suspense novel from Irish author Nugent (Skin Deep) opens at the funeral of one of the often-estranged, sociopathic Drumm brothers: William, Brian, and Luke. Which brother is in the coffin and how he got there isn’t revealed until much later. The long, strange trip before then emerges in sections narrated in turn by the trio, starting with the entitled eldest, William, a sexist film producer, and ending with baby Luke, a former pop star, much of whose bad behavior can be attributed to lifelong mental illness and addiction issues. In between there’s money-mad Brian, who, as Luke’s manager, stole Luke’s mansion and peddled his brother’s secrets to the press. The cruel way their supremely narcissistic mother, a fading Dublin dance band singer, treated her sons accounts for how they developed into such fatally flawed individuals. (Their innocuous father died in their teens.) Though the author’s skillful telling of this multigenerational tragedy has the riveting power of an imminent car crash, its despicable characters and unremitting darkness may put off many. Readers who don’t like it intensely grim are advised to start with one of Nugent’s earlier, not quite so dark books. Agent: Marianne Gunn O’Connor, Marianne Gunn O’Connor Literary.

September 1, 2020
Three Irish brothers spend their lives battling each other and competing for their mother's attention--and then one ends up dead. At the start of Irish novelist Nugent's latest book, the three Drumm brothers are attending a funeral. But while two are standing with the mourners, one of them is lying in the coffin--and the other two have helped him land there. Which brother is dead? Is it the oldest, William, an arrogant, womanizing film producer who's his mother's favorite despite his misogyny? Is it hapless, awkward Brian, the middle son, who can't quite keep up a successful career or romance? Or is it fragile Luke, the emotionally unstable youngest, who finds success as a pop star but pays a huge personal price? Nugent travels to the past to reveal her answer, winding back through the Drumms' troubled childhoods and their fraught relationships with each other and their mother, an actress and singer whose careless attention they competed for their entire lives. Each brother takes a turn at narration to justify his perspective, but their voices aren't distinct in any way, and the flat similarity of the characters makes it hard to stay invested in who survives and who doesn't. The book doesn't raise enough tension to be a thriller, and its lack of depth prevents it from becoming an absorbing family drama. Instead it occupies an awkward middle ground that turns out to be less satisfying than it should be. A story of three brothers and a murder that lacks tension and well-defined characters.

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