The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley: A Novel [Paperback]

A dark and unexpected novel about a Dublin undertaker who finds himself on the wrong side of the Irish mob.

Paddy Buckley is a grieving widower who has worked for years for Gallagher’s, a long-established—some say the best—funeral home in Dublin. One night driving home after an unexpected encounter with a client, Paddy hits a pedestrian crossing the street. He pulls over and gets out of his car, intending to do the right thing. As he bends over to help the man, he recognizes him. It’s Donal Cullen, brother of one of the most notorious mobsters in Dublin. And he’s dead.

Shocked and scared, Paddy jumps back in his car and drives away before anyone notices what’s happened.

The next morning, the Cullen family calls Gallagher’s to oversee the funeral arrangements. Paddy, to his dismay, is given the task of meeting with the grieving Vincent Cullen, Dublin’s crime boss, and Cullen’s entourage. When events go awry, Paddy is plunged into an unexpected eddy of intrigue, deceit, and treachery.

By turns a thriller, a love story, and a black comedy of ill manners,The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckleyis a surprising, compulsively readable debut novel. Massey has an eye for black humor and the details of a life fully inhabited. … He’s got the natural voice of a storyteller.
—NPR

“Refreshing... It takes the subject of death and turns it into an adventure that is both funny and thought-provoking… A mix of black comedy, adventure and hilarious love story, The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley is smart storytelling from a writer whose knowledge of the undertaking business shines through.”
—The Irish Times

Jeremy Massey does for Ireland what Carl Hiaasen does for Florida.
—The Charlotte Observer

This is what we call ‘a nightstand book’ at ourl£$