The Beach at Doonshean

The Beach at Doonshean by Penny Feeny. Amazon Digital Services, LLC. 295 pages. ***

"They called it the secret beach" a secluded, not well-known beach in Ireland. Will stands on the ledge above the beach searching for his family when he hears the cries of a child and he can't tell if they are cries of excitement or fear. He sees a little boy lose his footing and topple into the water. Without hesitation, Will runs into the freezing ocean and only one person survives the water on that day.

It's now thirty years later and the story fast forwards to that same beach and town in Ireland. The two families whose lives were entangled on that day come together seeking closure and answers to their questions. Has Matt, the little boy saved from that ocean on that fateful day wasted his life seeking something that seems to evade him? 

The story is a good one and is presented on many levels, how the past affects all of the people in both families. It fell a little short on the ending and I wanted more character development because of the many story lines, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Feeny does an excellent job describing the countryside and beach  in Ireland. Doonshean is a townland situated in the western County Kerry,  Ireland. 

I received an ecopy for a review.

Penny Feeny has lived and worked in Cambridge, London and Rome. Since settling in Liverpool with her husband many years ago, she has been a copywriter, editor and radio presenter and brought up five children. Her short fiction has been widely published and broadcast and won several awards. Her first novel, That Summer in Ischia, was Amazon UK's best selling title in the summer of 2011. 

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