"Kala" by Colin Walsh

An audio book. Set in Ireland.

In summer 2003 Kala Lannan (15 y.o. girl brought up by her wheelchairs grandmother) disappears. In 2018, Mosh helps look after his mother's cafe. He has a scar. The 15 y.o. twins Donna and Marie, who he used to babysit, come in asking for a loan to move into a flat. Their mother Patricia is remarrying on Monday. He says no. Their father Jer Lyons is a piss-head. Their brothers are Teabag and (deceased) Aidee.

Human remains have been found nearby.

Joe Brennen, now a rockstar living in LA, was Kala's boyfriend and top of his class. His dad Dudley is a policeman. Joe's back for a few weeks to open a venue he's bought. He was friends with Mosh, but they've not met on this visit. Mosh had gone out with Kala too, and resented Joe's self-centredness. Helen (daughter of the groom - she was Kala's friend) is returning from Canada for the wedding. She's a journalist/writer. Her sister Teresa is hippyish. There's a hen party coming up.

Chapters are from Mosh's (3rd person), Helen's (3rd person) and Joe's (1st person) PoV. There are 2 timelines: one leading up to Kala's disappearance, the other leading up to the wedding. Mosh was the last to see Kala. She didn't want to go home that night. Earlier they'd seen a dog-fighting event in a barn owned by Teabag's family.

The remains are confirmed as Kala's. Joe is told by his father that in her detached skull there was a photo of her and her friends (including Mosh, Joe, Helen). The hen-night and Joe's opening gig aren't cancelled. The twins have disappeared. Mosh receives a txt from their phone saying "No police".

I like the descriptions of first kisses and first love - how a boy might feel when a girl holds his hand in front of others; how, sober, he might apologise for his friends saying that they're ok really, just drunk. I like how the kids had unspoken suspicions, how they boasted about their knowledge and activities, fearing they'd be discovered.

They all seem to have struggled after Kala's disappearance. Aiden helped at the dog fighting. Maybe it’s that what unhinged him. Joe's song's seem stuck in that era. He wants a confident but can't find one.

Helen’s messaged by an Art Teacher, who tells her that Kala’s mother was a pupil who left when she was 14. Kala had researched into it prior to disappearing.

A man called Blinky's being held in Jer's barn. He's been assaulted by Jar and Teabag. Helen and Mosh sneak in. He says that the Lyons ripped him off, that he was told to bury Kala, that he knew who her father was, that Kala's grandmother knew things. They go to Kala's grandmother and find the twins there - tied up, left for dead. They return to the barn, planning to save Blinky. But Joe's dad is in the barn.

Teabag visits Joe, asking why Joe's family was rich well before Joe's fame. We learn that Jer is part of an organisation that organises dog fights, owns Mosh's mum's cafe, and much else besides. Jer was ripping off Blinky who had kidnapped the twins for a ransom. And Kala's father was her mother's father.

Just before Kala's disappearance Teabag punched Joe. Joe's father hit Teabag. The Lyons took revenge on Kala (not Joe because Dudley was already bent?). Mosh, trying to save her, got acid in his face. Ah - the scars.

Dudley asks to meet Helen, who's been trying to tie the pieces together. He takes her to an abandoned house to kill her. Joe and Teresa follow. Joe attacks his father to save her. The press are excited by the bent policeman angle, moreso when they find that the famous Joe Brennen is involved. The marriage is cancelled. Blinky's dead. Everyone else survives.

There's some lively language -

• "floating into a beer buzz like a kite cutting its own string"
• "He had a face on him like a toolbox"
• "sculpted curls"
• "you give her the smile you use for selfies"
• "the light hovering in the whisky on the table"
• "The heat's gone heavy like the sky's doing push-ups on me"

Other reviews

• Lucy Popescu
• goodreads
• Ruth Gilligan (After a slightly slow start, the momentum builds via a series of dramatic turns, culminating in a genuinely shocking twist. And yet, as with the novels of fellow Irish author Tana French, there is much to savour beyond the thrilling plot. The characterisation is particularly strong, each psychological portrait richly drawn; the prose is beautifully atmospheric throughout. Kala is both a genuine page-turner and a profound meditation on memory and how it shapes our lives – how our past selves forever haunt the people we become.)