Colin Barrett. Grove, $27 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8021-6094-2 Barrett’s splendid debut novel (after the collection Homesickness) wraps a taut crime story around a fascinating set of character studies.

Colin Barrett could become the seventh Irish writer, and the second in a row, to win the Booker Prize after his "Wild Houses" made the 2024 shortlist.

Wild Houses, by Colin Barrett (Grove). In the opening chapter of this short, deftly written novel, two roughnecks in the employ of an Irish drug dealer abduct a teen-age boy named Doll English ...