Martin Malone's 'Black Rose Days' for launch

Kildare town writer Martin Malone's latest book will be launched in his home town on Thursday 23 June, writes Brian Byrne.

Guest speaker at the launch of 'Black Rose Days' in Kildare Community Library, at 7.30pm, will be poet, broadcaster and writer from Naas, Mae Leonard

The novel is set around an unsolved murder committed 31 years ago on the Curragh Plains. The victim's husband, the chief suspect at the time of the murder, returns to Ireland in an attempt to clear his name once and for all and uncover what has been left hidden.

'Black Rose Days' is described as a gripping and disturbing mystery, and a powerful work by one of Ireland's finest storytellers.

The author's 'The Broken Cedar' was nominated for the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. 'Us' won the John B Keane/Sunday Independent Award in 2001, and his short story collection, 'The Mango War', won the RTÉ Francis MacManus Award in 2004.

Martin also worked as a military policeman with the Irish Army as a United Nations peacekeeper. He served five tours of duty in Lebanon and one in Iraq.