The Fix by Fergus Deffely

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you’re in the mood for a slow paced easy read, you might enjoy this novel.

The Fix is set in Athgearr, a fictional town in the West of Ireland. The majority of the scenes are set in the local pub with a lot of focus on the local interest of the GAA, which gives me reason to think that my husband would enjoy this book, and the banter among some of the characters.

The story begins with Charles, a quiet man with low self-esteem. I don’t think he’s sure of his place in the world.

Then we are introduced to the manipulative and sinister character, Christy Gloss. Christy is a member of An Garda Siochana, but does that make him a reliable and trustworthy man?
Charles finds himself being coerced into wrongdoings. There aren’t many people close to him, so he doesn’t have anyone to confide in. Or so we’re led to believe.

The plot takes a nice little twist towards the end, but the conclusion left me wondering about one or two things. Perhaps this was the author’s intention!

For me, The Fix is an intriguing plot-driven story and I didn’t feel too emotionally invested in the characters. Having said that, I did want a happy ending for Charles.

The author’s writing is impressive and his descriptions are vivid. A couple of lines I particularly smiled at were; “Marty caressed his stool with the curl of his body” “From time to time, a light breeze blew, carrying the teasing promise of cold”.

There were a couple of scenes (especially in dialogue) that threw me out of the story because I didn’t think they were relevant to the plot. I kept with it though, and pleased that I did.

This is the kind of story that I think would be a good play. The pub scenes, the typical GAA chatter among the locals, and the anticipation of the weekly lotto draw.
A good debut novel by Fergus Deffely.

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