“I think he was dead before I shot him.” With these auspicious words begins a murder mystery so utterly unlike any other that it took fifteen of Ireland’s finest writers (working well below their peak) to bring it to its unlikely conclusion. The plot involves a mad search for the only manuscript of an unpublished novel by James Joyce, and features a stellar cast—including a sadistic sergeant with the unlikely name of Andy Andrews and the unforgettable mob boss Mrs. Bloom, a woman “who had tried everything but drew the line at honesty.” Raucous, raunchy, gratuitously violent and completely hilarious, Yeats Is Dead! is a diabolically entertaining mulligan stew of a novel. James Joyce would be proud. Yeats Is Dead doesn't seem like a book so much as a protracted pub crawl in the company of 15 hyper-articulate potty-mouths. Roddy Doyle , Frank McCourt , Anthony Cronin , and a dozen of their lesser-known compatriots have written a literary mystery that isn't terribly literary and doesn't really hang together as a mystery. It is, however, a showcase for riffing by some very clever writers. The novel commences with a chapter from Doyle, wherein a couple of cops on the take raid the trailer of a down-and-outer. They've been instructed to sack the joint by the all-knowing underworld crime boss Mrs. Bloom (much given to crying "O yes" in proper Joycean fashion). Unfortunately, the two policemen accidentally kill the resident hobo, and in doing so set off a whirlwind of brutality, inner-city intrigue, and unlikely romance. Each chapter is written by a different writer, and each writer seems eager to outdo the last by killing off as many characters as possible. This can be good, bloody fun. It can also lead to some creaky exposition along the lines of this passage from Cronin's chapter: "The guard that got shot. What did he think he was up to? And what was his connection, if any, with the Tommy Reynolds murder?" More successful are the writers who altogether give up the ghost of creating a cohesive mystery, and instead wallow around in literary references and ridiculously purple prose. Here novelist Joseph O'Connor tries his hand at an action scene: "Gravity and Mrs. Roberts had entered into conflict, and, as devotees of the late Sir Isaac will confirm, out of such a negotiation may emerge one victor." Not exactly Tom Clancy, and a good thing, too. The Irish must be a genial race, for they keep turning out these collaborative efforts, the most recent being Finbar's Hotel and Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel . (By the way, all royalties from the sale of this particular round robin will go to Amnesty International.) In any case, the format can be tough on the writer who must bundle it all up in the final chapter. Here the task falls to honorary Irishman Frank McCourt, and let it be said, he does his salty, saucy best. --Claire Dederer The authors who each contributed a chapter to this romp include Roddy Doyle, Frank McCourt, and Marian Keyes, and their protagonists are two decent sorts who beat up guys on the side to earn some extra dough. Eventually, murder intervenes. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Think of a Dublin pub. Fifteen Irish writers, including Frank McCourt, Conor McPherson, and Anthony Cronin, line the bar. And they launch into a tale, a mystery it is; Roddy Doyle starts things off with "I think he was dead before I shot him," and each storyteller takes it upon him/herself to pick up the story where the previous speaker left it. Yeats Is Dead! is a progressive feast in which some of Ireland's most famous contemporary writers top each other, chapter by chapter, in a mystery centering on the suspicious death of a man who may have harbored an unpublished manuscript by James Joyce. The result is not a mystery at all, but an exercise in embellishment, a send-up of crooks and grifters and cops, a bravura display of Irish wit and word power that hurtles to a miraculous wrapping up. Great fun and a great showcase for contemporary Irish writers. Connie Fletcher Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Despite the playful inaccuracy of its title - Yeats will never die - this is a splendid venture, full of wit and high spirits. A great romp of a read." --John Banville "Despite the playful inaccuracy of its title - Yeats will never die - this is a splendid venture, full of wit and high spirits. A great romp of a read." --John Banville Joseph O’Connor’s debut novel, Cowboys and Indians , was short-listed for the Whitbread Prize. His work has been widely translated and has won many prizes. He lives in Ireland. Yeats Is Dead! is a novel written by fifteen Irish authors as a fund-raiser for Amnesty International, a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights. Amnesty International works independently of all government and political ideologies to: secure the release of prisoners of conscience—people detained solely because of their belief