Among the Deepening Shades

Ireland--Lush green pastures and hillsides. Thatched-roof houses. Like a picture of July in the Guinness calendar, a painter's landscape, or a poet's idyll. But look more closely. Those bare feet sticking out into the road are attached to a body heaped in the weeds. A green plastic bag covering the face and knotted at the throat. The cycle of violence is unending. Or is it? Sean McManus and Joseph Keegan are best friends, Catholic boys from the Bogside who grow up through the ranks of the IRA. Both are in love with Margie Bradley, but to Joseph, it's always been Sean who gets there first. Sean becomes a bomb-maker, and when he and Margie are arrested for concealing weapons, the Royal Ulster Constabulary compels Sean to become an informer, or risk sending Margie to prison. Sean walks a tightrope between his deal with the police and his covenant with his brothers in the IRA. If caught, Sean faces the ultimate penalty of all 'touts.' A plastic bag over his head. Bare feet. And a bullet. And it's his lifelong friend Joseph who must deliver the sentence. Among the Deepening Shades is told through the three voices of Sean, Joseph and Margie, and it culminates with an unexpected twist that may give hope that the cycle of violence, and the death of friends, will one-day end.