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Iron Annie

A Novel

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DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE NOMINEE • An uncompromising, darkly humorous look at life in the criminal underworld of the Irish border from a major new Irish literary voice.

Dundalk—The Town, to locals—took Aoife in when she left home at eighteen. Now she’s gone from a small-time slinger of hash to a bona fide player in Dundalk’s criminal underworld. Aoife’s smart, savvy, and cool under pressure. Except, that is, when it comes to Annie. Annie is mysterious and compelling, and Aoife is desperate to impress her and keep her close. Unfortunately, not everyone in The Town shares Aoife’s opinion of Annie. So much so that when Aoife’s friend and associate, the Rat King, approaches her about off-loading ten kilos of stolen coke, he specifically tells her to keep Annie out of it. Aoife doesn’t want to do the job without Annie, though, so she lands on an idea. Annie has contacts in the UK, and sure it’d be better to get the coke as far away from Dundalk as possible. At first, everything goes to plan. But when Annie decides she'd like to stay in the UK, Aoife makes a decision that changes everything, and finds her whole world turned upside down.
 
Gritty yet tender, tragic yet hopeful, Iron Annie crackles with energy, warmth, and heart.

 
A VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD ORIGINAL.

Wait Til I Tell Ye

 

The Swell’a the Night

 

Bakin deep in the swell’a the night she was, sat there sittin through the barrels’a shite comin spewin out’a yon lad’s mouth. Tryinta impress her he was. T’impress her. Can y’imagine yon? Ar Annie n’all? The fuckin Iron Ann.

 

See, she’d been in the Town three months by then—­chompin at the bit, rarinta do a job by herself. I wantedta give her somethin simpleta start with. Easy prey, the teeth on her sure.

 

Yon buck. So sure’a his own charm he didn see it comin, the slap on the side’a the head. Ach no, she didn hit him like. Much smarter than that, ar Annie, much smoother. As if. An her out collectin pennies for the poor an marchin agin the war, an it not even happenin round here anymore.

 

Naw, she juss lifted his bag an him in the toilet. Had his fancy computer an a bunch’a other kit, his wallet n’all. Sure the bag was near worth more than anythin he had in it.

 

Yon fuckin peacock prick, down from Dublin, big fuckin smoke. I caught up with him down by Defenders’, me an big Shamey Hughes. We were only watchin out for her, see. Said I wouldn interfere, I promised her. But it was her first solo flight, I wasn gonna leave her all on her own either.

 

“I hear you’ve still got the accent,” he saysta me when I call him out, an him only two years out’a the Town, but now he’s talkin like a proper D4 dub. Cunt.

 

See, this lad thought himself the big man now that he’d gone an made a name for himself below in the big smoke. Out makin a big noise in all the street an givin people grief, askin after Annie.

 

She shouldn’a tauld him her real name. The fuck was she thinkin? Anythin would’a done. Calypso. The fuck. Whatever.

 

After that Annie disappeared for a while, went on one’a her wee turns. She’d wantedta handle it soft she said, to talk her way out’a it. An with her it might’a worked haigh.

 

But fuck it sure. We don’t pardon pigs round here, we cut their throats.

 

This’ll Sound Funny, But

 

Jelena

 

That was deadly that time when Annie’s pal Jelena cameta visit. Polish. Cept I don’t think she was Polish, cause she was from Serbia an that might be someplace else. But sure it’s all the same anyway. Usedta be the same fuckin country a few years back didn it?

 

That was some craic I’ll tell ye, the three’a us in bed together. Now, it wasn like that, not exactly, juss like . . . Almost that, cause we all wanted it, but Annie kinda didn want it. She wanted it too but she said it’d be weird an yer wan Jelena bein an auld friend an that. Still n’all, she didn do nathin when ar Jelena reached her hand acrossta me, which wasn even hard, cause the bed’s not big. An I knew Annie was only pretendinta be asleep, cause her breathin changed cause she liked it too, she liked that it was happenin, an she liked that she was there. I liked that she was there too. Some craic. That Jelena had some way with her hands. Juss dove in an wriggled bowt like her fingers were a spoon lookinta worry out the best bit’a the tub’a ice cream, juss that one special bit y’know, all fudge or somethin tasty. Fuckin deadly.

 

 

 

The mornin after, she brought us up a pot’a coffee, Jelena did. Well, it wasn a pot actually, it was somethin called a džezva, a funny-­shaped yoke that was wide at the bottom an narrow at the top, made’a copper, with all designs an that on the side. She got it in Bosnia, she said. Brought it as a present for Annie. Looked dead nice. Annie seemedta really like it too, reminded her’a th’auld times. Džezva. Took me all morninta learn that one. The coffee was shite n’all, cause it had the bits still in it, an they got caught in yer teeth. She could’a juss used instant sure, but naw, she wanted t’use this special coffee. Shite. She said that’s how people drank it in Serbia, an Bosnia too, an I didn say nathin cause I thought if I did she wouldn do that thing again, th’ice-­cream thing. Cause I know Polish people are pretty poor, I mean why else would they come to a shithole like this an do shite jobs, an why would they drink shite coffee? So I didn tell her the coffee was shite. But she didn do th’ice-­cream thing again, even though I was nice an learnedta say džezva, so I guess it was juss a one-­time thing.

 

Still, it was deadly havin her there an that, cause she was dead sound an Annie was dead happy cause they kept talkin bowt th’auld times, college times, in Glasgow n’all. Must’a been good times, which made me a bit sad cause she didn know me in th’auld times an she’d never even beenta Dundalk back then. But still, I was happy cause she was happy.

  • SHORTLIST | 2022
    Desmond Elliott Prize
A CRIMEREADS BEST NOIR OF THE YEAR
ONE OF THE YEAR'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS FROM CRIMEREADS


“Luke Cassidy’s debut is as assured as a third novel, told in the unique and gritty cadences of Dundalk, an Irish border town.”
—Crime Reads
 
“Raw with emotion, whip-quick humor, and brutal honesty, Cassidy’s brogue-thick writing delivers a narrator memorable both for her tough-as-nails attitude
and the fragility hiding beneath the surface.”
Booklist

Iron Annie is the debut novel by Irish author, Luke Cassidy, and what a debut it is! Full of atmospheric grit and dark, raw characters, Cassidy delivers a poignant yet gripping look at the seedy underbelly of an Irish border town. . . . Cassidy is most definitely the one to watch! Iron Annie is a creative and charmingly dark novel that will stick with you. With sharp, unassuming characters, Cassidy combines drug dealing, Irish crime syndicates, and queer romance in a clever and engaging way.”
—Mystery and Suspense

“A queer underworld Thelma & Louise with better jokes. . . . Very funny. . . . Cassidy keeps tight control of a story that's simultaneously state of the nation, romance and crime.”
—Sarah Moss, Irish Times

“Terrific. . . . Written in an exhilarating, lyrical vernacular, in much the way of Anna Burns, Kevin Barry or even Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. . . . Aoife is a character redeemed to a large extent by her extraordinary narrative voice, yet Cassidy also summons up an entire small-town world here, one that's both fiercely informed by under-the-radar community bonds and at the mercy of wider seismic political forces.”
Daily Mail (UK)
 
“[A] heady experience, infused with humour and grief. Aoife and Annie are fascinating. . . . All of the characters are gloriously vivid but entirely believable. The Town and its underbelly are starkly yet lovingly described. This is probably this year’s most ambitious and well-written debut. ‘Mon the Town.”
—Estelle Birdy, Irish Independent
 
“[A] barnstorming gangland comedy set among a motley band of drug-runners from Dundalk, Ireland, where debut author Luke Cassidy was born. . . . Cassidy's ingenious use of rhythm and phonetics make Aoife's voice sing from the page. . . . Iron Annie is a blast—tender and brutal, funny and sad. It also has interesting things to say about hot topics such as gender and Ireland’s relationship with post-Brexit Britain. Above all, though, it's a spectacular feat of firecracker prose. Not to be missed. . . . A full-spectrum thrill from a first-time novelist who looks destined for great things.”
Metro (UK)

“Absolutely brilliant. Fizzes with energy—and with raunchiness, colour, beauty, and insight.”
—Sue Leonard, Irish Examiner

"A vibrant, profane narrative of heartwarming criminality."
Kirkus Reviews

“With his rich language, Cassidy lands in the company of Kevin Barry, Roddy Doyle, and other notable bards of the Irish demimonde.”
Publishers Weekly

“It's apparent from the opening lines of Iron Annie that Luke Cassidy can write. His prose fizzes with energy and music, and the reader is immediately plunged into the anarchic underbelly of Ireland and the lives of Cassidy's vivid characters.”
—Graeme Macrae Burnet, author of His Bloody Project

Iron Annie marks the arrival of a fresh and compelling young voice in literary fiction. . . . These complex, funny, tender, lewd and lovely characters will grab you by the throat from the first line and dare you to stop reading.”
—Emily Rapp Black, New York Times bestselling author of Sanctuary

Iron Annie is a staggering debut novel. And what makes it so stylish and ferocious isn't the drugs, the brutal violence, or even the wild love and sex—it's the language. I've never read anything like the sentences in here.”
—Rachel DeWoskin, author of Banshee

“What an exquisite novel Iron Annie is. The narrative voice fair crackles: it's full of wonder, grit, insight, sadness and joy, and is quite beautiful. And Aoife is one of those fictional characters that arrives only once or twice in an age, sublimely rendered and completely unforgettable.”
—Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart and From a Low and Quiet Sea

Iron Annie is absolutely everything I love in a book. The energy, the voice, the language, the characters, all real, raw and utterly convincing. Luke Cassidy is an incredible talent, with an ear for language to rival that of Kevin Barry, I could hear every single word.”
—Fíona Scarlett, author of Boys Don’t Cry

“[A] wonderful, imaginative, highly original emotional rollercoaster of a story.”
—Peter James, author of the DS Roy Grace series

Iron Annie is a novel full of grit and pearls—its language crackles with life. Luke Cassidy is a writer with a keen eye and a finely-tuned ear.”
—Ronan Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul

“Utterly original. . . . I think this book is like a bolt from the blue for Irish writing.”
—Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy

“It's wild and fierce and full of awful life. Also dead funny. . . . This needs to be slapped on the arse and let out snorting into the world like a mustang horse.”
—Niall Griffiths, author of Grits
© Megan Doherty
Luke Cassidy is a writer from Dundalk, Ireland. Iron Annie is his first novel. View titles by Luke Cassidy

About

DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE NOMINEE • An uncompromising, darkly humorous look at life in the criminal underworld of the Irish border from a major new Irish literary voice.

Dundalk—The Town, to locals—took Aoife in when she left home at eighteen. Now she’s gone from a small-time slinger of hash to a bona fide player in Dundalk’s criminal underworld. Aoife’s smart, savvy, and cool under pressure. Except, that is, when it comes to Annie. Annie is mysterious and compelling, and Aoife is desperate to impress her and keep her close. Unfortunately, not everyone in The Town shares Aoife’s opinion of Annie. So much so that when Aoife’s friend and associate, the Rat King, approaches her about off-loading ten kilos of stolen coke, he specifically tells her to keep Annie out of it. Aoife doesn’t want to do the job without Annie, though, so she lands on an idea. Annie has contacts in the UK, and sure it’d be better to get the coke as far away from Dundalk as possible. At first, everything goes to plan. But when Annie decides she'd like to stay in the UK, Aoife makes a decision that changes everything, and finds her whole world turned upside down.
 
Gritty yet tender, tragic yet hopeful, Iron Annie crackles with energy, warmth, and heart.

 
A VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD ORIGINAL.

Excerpt

Wait Til I Tell Ye

 

The Swell’a the Night

 

Bakin deep in the swell’a the night she was, sat there sittin through the barrels’a shite comin spewin out’a yon lad’s mouth. Tryinta impress her he was. T’impress her. Can y’imagine yon? Ar Annie n’all? The fuckin Iron Ann.

 

See, she’d been in the Town three months by then—­chompin at the bit, rarinta do a job by herself. I wantedta give her somethin simpleta start with. Easy prey, the teeth on her sure.

 

Yon buck. So sure’a his own charm he didn see it comin, the slap on the side’a the head. Ach no, she didn hit him like. Much smarter than that, ar Annie, much smoother. As if. An her out collectin pennies for the poor an marchin agin the war, an it not even happenin round here anymore.

 

Naw, she juss lifted his bag an him in the toilet. Had his fancy computer an a bunch’a other kit, his wallet n’all. Sure the bag was near worth more than anythin he had in it.

 

Yon fuckin peacock prick, down from Dublin, big fuckin smoke. I caught up with him down by Defenders’, me an big Shamey Hughes. We were only watchin out for her, see. Said I wouldn interfere, I promised her. But it was her first solo flight, I wasn gonna leave her all on her own either.

 

“I hear you’ve still got the accent,” he saysta me when I call him out, an him only two years out’a the Town, but now he’s talkin like a proper D4 dub. Cunt.

 

See, this lad thought himself the big man now that he’d gone an made a name for himself below in the big smoke. Out makin a big noise in all the street an givin people grief, askin after Annie.

 

She shouldn’a tauld him her real name. The fuck was she thinkin? Anythin would’a done. Calypso. The fuck. Whatever.

 

After that Annie disappeared for a while, went on one’a her wee turns. She’d wantedta handle it soft she said, to talk her way out’a it. An with her it might’a worked haigh.

 

But fuck it sure. We don’t pardon pigs round here, we cut their throats.

 

This’ll Sound Funny, But

 

Jelena

 

That was deadly that time when Annie’s pal Jelena cameta visit. Polish. Cept I don’t think she was Polish, cause she was from Serbia an that might be someplace else. But sure it’s all the same anyway. Usedta be the same fuckin country a few years back didn it?

 

That was some craic I’ll tell ye, the three’a us in bed together. Now, it wasn like that, not exactly, juss like . . . Almost that, cause we all wanted it, but Annie kinda didn want it. She wanted it too but she said it’d be weird an yer wan Jelena bein an auld friend an that. Still n’all, she didn do nathin when ar Jelena reached her hand acrossta me, which wasn even hard, cause the bed’s not big. An I knew Annie was only pretendinta be asleep, cause her breathin changed cause she liked it too, she liked that it was happenin, an she liked that she was there. I liked that she was there too. Some craic. That Jelena had some way with her hands. Juss dove in an wriggled bowt like her fingers were a spoon lookinta worry out the best bit’a the tub’a ice cream, juss that one special bit y’know, all fudge or somethin tasty. Fuckin deadly.

 

 

 

The mornin after, she brought us up a pot’a coffee, Jelena did. Well, it wasn a pot actually, it was somethin called a džezva, a funny-­shaped yoke that was wide at the bottom an narrow at the top, made’a copper, with all designs an that on the side. She got it in Bosnia, she said. Brought it as a present for Annie. Looked dead nice. Annie seemedta really like it too, reminded her’a th’auld times. Džezva. Took me all morninta learn that one. The coffee was shite n’all, cause it had the bits still in it, an they got caught in yer teeth. She could’a juss used instant sure, but naw, she wanted t’use this special coffee. Shite. She said that’s how people drank it in Serbia, an Bosnia too, an I didn say nathin cause I thought if I did she wouldn do that thing again, th’ice-­cream thing. Cause I know Polish people are pretty poor, I mean why else would they come to a shithole like this an do shite jobs, an why would they drink shite coffee? So I didn tell her the coffee was shite. But she didn do th’ice-­cream thing again, even though I was nice an learnedta say džezva, so I guess it was juss a one-­time thing.

 

Still, it was deadly havin her there an that, cause she was dead sound an Annie was dead happy cause they kept talkin bowt th’auld times, college times, in Glasgow n’all. Must’a been good times, which made me a bit sad cause she didn know me in th’auld times an she’d never even beenta Dundalk back then. But still, I was happy cause she was happy.

Awards

  • SHORTLIST | 2022
    Desmond Elliott Prize

Reviews

A CRIMEREADS BEST NOIR OF THE YEAR
ONE OF THE YEAR'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS FROM CRIMEREADS


“Luke Cassidy’s debut is as assured as a third novel, told in the unique and gritty cadences of Dundalk, an Irish border town.”
—Crime Reads
 
“Raw with emotion, whip-quick humor, and brutal honesty, Cassidy’s brogue-thick writing delivers a narrator memorable both for her tough-as-nails attitude
and the fragility hiding beneath the surface.”
Booklist

Iron Annie is the debut novel by Irish author, Luke Cassidy, and what a debut it is! Full of atmospheric grit and dark, raw characters, Cassidy delivers a poignant yet gripping look at the seedy underbelly of an Irish border town. . . . Cassidy is most definitely the one to watch! Iron Annie is a creative and charmingly dark novel that will stick with you. With sharp, unassuming characters, Cassidy combines drug dealing, Irish crime syndicates, and queer romance in a clever and engaging way.”
—Mystery and Suspense

“A queer underworld Thelma & Louise with better jokes. . . . Very funny. . . . Cassidy keeps tight control of a story that's simultaneously state of the nation, romance and crime.”
—Sarah Moss, Irish Times

“Terrific. . . . Written in an exhilarating, lyrical vernacular, in much the way of Anna Burns, Kevin Barry or even Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. . . . Aoife is a character redeemed to a large extent by her extraordinary narrative voice, yet Cassidy also summons up an entire small-town world here, one that's both fiercely informed by under-the-radar community bonds and at the mercy of wider seismic political forces.”
Daily Mail (UK)
 
“[A] heady experience, infused with humour and grief. Aoife and Annie are fascinating. . . . All of the characters are gloriously vivid but entirely believable. The Town and its underbelly are starkly yet lovingly described. This is probably this year’s most ambitious and well-written debut. ‘Mon the Town.”
—Estelle Birdy, Irish Independent
 
“[A] barnstorming gangland comedy set among a motley band of drug-runners from Dundalk, Ireland, where debut author Luke Cassidy was born. . . . Cassidy's ingenious use of rhythm and phonetics make Aoife's voice sing from the page. . . . Iron Annie is a blast—tender and brutal, funny and sad. It also has interesting things to say about hot topics such as gender and Ireland’s relationship with post-Brexit Britain. Above all, though, it's a spectacular feat of firecracker prose. Not to be missed. . . . A full-spectrum thrill from a first-time novelist who looks destined for great things.”
Metro (UK)

“Absolutely brilliant. Fizzes with energy—and with raunchiness, colour, beauty, and insight.”
—Sue Leonard, Irish Examiner

"A vibrant, profane narrative of heartwarming criminality."
Kirkus Reviews

“With his rich language, Cassidy lands in the company of Kevin Barry, Roddy Doyle, and other notable bards of the Irish demimonde.”
Publishers Weekly

“It's apparent from the opening lines of Iron Annie that Luke Cassidy can write. His prose fizzes with energy and music, and the reader is immediately plunged into the anarchic underbelly of Ireland and the lives of Cassidy's vivid characters.”
—Graeme Macrae Burnet, author of His Bloody Project

Iron Annie marks the arrival of a fresh and compelling young voice in literary fiction. . . . These complex, funny, tender, lewd and lovely characters will grab you by the throat from the first line and dare you to stop reading.”
—Emily Rapp Black, New York Times bestselling author of Sanctuary

Iron Annie is a staggering debut novel. And what makes it so stylish and ferocious isn't the drugs, the brutal violence, or even the wild love and sex—it's the language. I've never read anything like the sentences in here.”
—Rachel DeWoskin, author of Banshee

“What an exquisite novel Iron Annie is. The narrative voice fair crackles: it's full of wonder, grit, insight, sadness and joy, and is quite beautiful. And Aoife is one of those fictional characters that arrives only once or twice in an age, sublimely rendered and completely unforgettable.”
—Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart and From a Low and Quiet Sea

Iron Annie is absolutely everything I love in a book. The energy, the voice, the language, the characters, all real, raw and utterly convincing. Luke Cassidy is an incredible talent, with an ear for language to rival that of Kevin Barry, I could hear every single word.”
—Fíona Scarlett, author of Boys Don’t Cry

“[A] wonderful, imaginative, highly original emotional rollercoaster of a story.”
—Peter James, author of the DS Roy Grace series

Iron Annie is a novel full of grit and pearls—its language crackles with life. Luke Cassidy is a writer with a keen eye and a finely-tuned ear.”
—Ronan Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul

“Utterly original. . . . I think this book is like a bolt from the blue for Irish writing.”
—Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy

“It's wild and fierce and full of awful life. Also dead funny. . . . This needs to be slapped on the arse and let out snorting into the world like a mustang horse.”
—Niall Griffiths, author of Grits

Author

© Megan Doherty
Luke Cassidy is a writer from Dundalk, Ireland. Iron Annie is his first novel. View titles by Luke Cassidy