The Secret Son
Jennifer Burke, 2013
Poolbeg Press
312 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781842236048
Summary
Sean Murtagh, who has been living and working in New York since leaving college five years ago, returns home to Wicklow in Ireland when his wealthy father, Liam, is unexpectedly killed in a car crash. He is shocked to discover that Liam’s will disinherits his wife and children, leaving the family home and fortune to a secret son, Andrew Shaw.
For the Shaw family, the news offers a lifeline. Twenty year old Andrew is seriously ill with kidney disease and the inheritance may mean the difference between life and death. However, the lives of Andrew, his devoted older sister Tors and younger brother Jack are changed when their mother insists they move across the country to Wicklow to stake their claim under the will.
Thrown together, Sean Murtagh and Tors Shaw find their loyalties tested as they try to find some middle ground between the families, while each dealing with their own grief and personal tragedies. Further revelations from the past, along with Andrew’s deteriorating health, creates an impossible situation that threatens everything Sean and Tors hold dear.