Brendan Gerad O’Brien was born in Tralee, on the west coast of Ireland and now lives in Newport, South Wales with his wife Jennifer and daughters Shelly and Sarah.
As a child he spent his summer holidays in Listowel, Co Kerry, where his uncle Moss Scanlon had a Harness Maker’s shop, now long gone.
The shop was a magnet for all sorts of colourful characters. It was there that his love of words was kindled by the stories of John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon, who often wandered into the shop for a chat and bit of jovial banter.
After serving nine years in the Royal Navy, Brendan progressed to retail management, working as a Department manager with the UK’s second largest Supermarket.
Now retired, his hobby is writing short stories, twenty of which have already been published individually over the years, and also as a collection called Dreamin Dreams
Dark September is his first full novel, and Gallows Field is the first time we meet Eamon Foley in a murder mystery set in Ireland in 1941
A Pale Moon Was Rising is the next story to feature Eamon Foley, now with the Gardai investigating another murder in Tralee, Co Kerry.
Beware of those you love. They could be the death of you.
Ireland 1945.
When Florence Kite finds letters and a newspaper cutting in her late mother’s handbag, her whole world crumbles.
Ireland during WW2. A young man’s body is pulled from the River Lee. He’s wearing a distinctive silver ring that belonged to Paudy Daly, the eldest son of the notorious Mixer Daly. Paudy has been missing for over nine months. Guard Eamon Foley discovers Paudy was last seen on his way to rob the house of pig breeder Jacob Butts. So who is the dead man? And why is he wearing Paudy’s ring?
Gallows Field is a murder thriller set in Ireland in 1941. A crowded pub. The music is loud. The singing is louder. Joe McCarthy is shot dead. And no one sees a thing.
When Germany invades mainland Britain, Irishman Danny O’Shea must get his son, Adam, to neutral Ireland. They witness an attack on a German convoy carrying the blueprints for a new weapon, and when Danny goes to the aid of a dying woman, both the Germans and the insurgents believe she’s told Danny where the blueprints are. He's catapulted into a world of betrayal and brutal double-cross.
A thriller set in 1967 Ireland - the summer of love. Or was it?
A young American hitchhiker wanders into a brutal and terrifying situation when visiting a beautiful seaside town in 1960s Ireland. Who are the sinister men in the dark car? Are they the shadows that are stalking her on the beach? And who is the dark, mysterious figure hovering by the water's edge?
Capture the mood of Ireland with a wonderful collection of short stories that take you from humour to romance, from sad to sinister, from downright scary to laughing out loud
The Royal Navy & Me
on March 24, 2010
(no rating)
What a lovely story! This is a trip down memory lane for anyone who served in the Royal Navy - or any other Navy, for that matter.
I have to admire Fredrick for his ability to conjur up events from all those years ago and then relay them so colourfully, thus triggering memories of our own - sheer nostalga ...and I'm sure if he put his mind to it he could write much more about his time in the Senior Service.
Brendan O'Brien