Insightful dissection of a class action

Bad Day in Blackrock. By Kevin Power, Lilliput, €15

The plot of Kevin Power’s remarkable and sometimes harrowing debut novel is simple. One summer night in 2004 a 20-year-oldyouth from a privileged South Dublin background is kicked to death outside a Blackrock nightclub.

Three students from similar backgrounds are charged and serve short sentences for violent disorder. A later attempt to charge one with manslaughter collapses due to contradictions in the reports of ...