Cashelmara IV

Ned has formed a circle of young friends, mostly tenants sons from the estate, and he uses them to seize Drummond, meaning to arrest him. However in the struggle Drummond is killed. Sarah admits to Ned that she killed Patrick but he was ill and dying anyway, and she was afraid that he would try and take the children from her. Ned tells her that he seized Drummond to protect her, and that the estate will be happier without his being manager, as he had been creaming off money and being harsh with tenants he did not like. Even his own 2 sons were against him because he had deserted their mother to live with Sarah. Sarah tells her son that she will not go to pieces over Maxwell's death, she loved him but she will recover and he suggests she goes to England to recuperate... He still loves her but his feelings are very complicated. But now he is master of Cashelmara and a husband and father and can get on with his new life. Cashelmara was Howatch's second long novel, covering 3 generations.... and with narrations by Edward De Salis's wife, Patrick's wife and Maxwell Drummond. She was sympahtetic to the Irish point of view, though her characters were mostly Anglo Irish. The novel covers the years from after teh Famine to the Fall of Parnell. However it is a rather depressing story with a lot of tragic deaths and violence and a muted ending. A few years later, she wrote Wheel of Fortune, which covered the mature years of Edward III, and his offspring. It is also a rather sad difficult novel. I hope to review it later