Goldengrove

McCabe (The Butcher Boy) unspools a pungent tale of betrayal and confession involving the exploits of two MI5 agents during the Troubles. In 2019, recently retired agent Chenevix Meredith takes stock of his colorful experiences in 1960s Dublin, where he ran a theatrical agency with his colleague Henry Plumm as a front for MI5’s anti-IRA operations. The occasion for his trip down memory lane is Plumm’s grisly murder; the former agent was found battered to death by an oar in the hotel room where he was working on his memoir. McCabe’s novel consists of Meredith’s own memoir, which he drafts in fits and starts, regularly interrupting himself to point out that writing about his work is prohibited by the agency, though he’s bothered not by his own transgression but Plumm’s. The novel is difficult to follow, partly due to Meredith’s digressions and misdirection, whether in doling out the details of Plumm’s demise or recounting the endless nights he spent drinking and sharing stories with Plumm in a Dublin pub. But it’s in those stories where Meredith’s and especially Plumm’s voices come to life, as when Plumm recounts the tale of an older intelligence officer who became notorious for beating a young man to death with an oar during a 1921 Dublin uprising. Adventurous readers will find plenty to admire in this strange brew. (Aug.)