With our Blessing by Jo Spain

I have read a couple of Jo Spain’s books over the years and she, long with John Boyne, is probably responsible for me reading more novels these days. This is one of the Tom Reynolds series. He is the lead detective in the series and I have read one other, ‘The Boy who Fell’. This book is set against the terrible history of the mother and baby homes and the Magdalen laundries and is not for the faint hearted as the lead victim is a Mother Superior. Spain manages to keep up the suspense throughout the book and deals with the issues of those institutions well with great compassion for those who were caught up in the system and lived through it, without exonerating those who put girls in those places and society’s apparent ease at turning a blind eye. As with the ‘The Boy who Fell’ I wouldn’t recommend leaving too long between readings as there are many characters who need remembering and it would be easy to mix up a couple but of course, they add the extra dimension that any good story needs, people with baggage, love interests and the need to have a life while still doing the necessary police work. And there are still all the other nuns to consider.

It is still a novel but the background is of course a reality that this nation has had to face. I thought it an excellent read helped by a nice font size!

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