Roads and Circuses Some Civil Servants are not so civil. Marcus O'Malley is the brown-nosing suck-up everyone despised in school. He also happens to be Ireland's best known barrister who truly has it all: a beautiful runway-model wife, two perfect children, prestige, power and wealth. When he refuses a dangerous villain's request to defend him of heinous crimes, Marcus is rightly intimidated. A seemingly random opportunity to run for political office pops up and only as means to save him from the threats does he decide to dive in. With his reputation as a do-gooder, Marcus takes like a duck to water to the local scene and his meteoric rise through the party's rank begins. But as he sets his sights on becoming Prime Minister, he must cooperate with unsavory colleagues, bide time and determine what's best for him versus what's best for the party. Could outside forces bring him down, ruin his career and potentially send him to jail? Can he play the game in the shark-infested waters of Irish politics? Does he want power just for the sake of having power? Is he able to see that the chaos and the mayhem in his life are self-created? Can he continue to fool all of the people all of the time? Including himself? Roads & Circuses is a thrilling satirical look at the world of politics and the duplicitous mind of a politician. It's not so much what a politician says or does that should worry you, it's what they actually THINK! And although set in Ireland, Marcus O'Malley could exist in any country or political party in the world. West Dublin Series: Prologue Not all towns are created equal... Not all families are worth the trouble... The West Dublin Series are quirky and sinister congruent tales of The O'Malley Family, the people you love to hate. The O'Malleys are a prominent but dysfunctional Irish family living in a rapidly-changing society which is falling apart at the seams during the great recession. When the patriarch of the family, Bernard O'Malley, tells his impressionable five children a seemingly innocuous tale every Easter, little does he realise the ramifications of his well-intended 'life lesson' and how it will individually shape their future relationships to everything. Each book focuses on one member of the family and their self-imposed nightmares concluding in the last week of November 2008. Bureaucratic politicians, dodgy builders, desperate estate agents, corrupt immigration officers and dubious solicitors become involved in murder, extortion, adultery and arson - amongst other horrors. From the water, to the wind, and from the birds, to the cats and dogs, something isn't right in this place. There is never a dull moment in West Dublin but thank God you don't live there.
