Böcker utgivna av Marble City Publishing

There was a curse on the 'Big House'. A local peasant foretold that the family would someday be 'ruled by a cripple!' So, when a son was born without any limbs, it seemed the premonition had come true. But nobody could have foretold what the boy would achieve and how his name would go down in history as one of the most remarkable Irishmen to ever live. An amazing story of 19th century life, love and courage that reached across continents and social classes. This is an unforgettable novel of yearning, perseverance and gritty determination to both inspire and challenge. There is nothing the human spirit cannot overcome. 'I have worked with Maria O'Rourke and greatly admire her writing and storytelling.' Joseph O' Connor 'Maria O'Rourke's sympathetic, insightful imagining of Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh's life is a tremendous achievement. This is an amazing story, beautifully told, of resilience and fortitude, and a searing portrait of a fracturing, transforming society.' Donal Ryan 'In writing this absorbing novel, Maria O'Rourke has brought to life the people, the landscape and another time in south Carlow, but she has also produced a work that lingers in the memory long after the last page has been read. Defying the Curse is a wonderful book.' John MacKenna

MEET two unusual detectives. Ludovico - a young man who has had his testicles cut off for the sake of opera. And Monsieur Arouet - a fraudster, or just possibly the philosopher Voltaire.VISIT the setting. Carnival time in mid-18th century Venice, a city of winter mists, and the season of masquerade and decadence.ENCOUNTER a Venetian underworld of pimps, harlots, gamblers, forgers and charlatans.BEWARE of a mysterious coterie of aristocrats, Jesuits, Freemasons and magicians.DISCOVER a murder: that of the nobleman, Sgr Alessandro Molin, found swinging from a bridge with his innards hanging out and a message in code from his killer.Scherzo is a murder mystery of sparkling vivacity and an historical novel of stunning originality told with a wit and style highly praised by critics and nominated for the Booker Prize.

A disillusioned soldier looks for love. An exiled Emperor fears assassination. Agatha Christie takes a holiday. And George Bernard Shaw learns to tango. In the aftermath of World War I, Michael Pinfold a disillusioned ex-soldier tries to rescue his failing family wine business on the island of Madeira. In a villa in the hills the exiled Austrian Emperor lives in fear of assassination by Hungarian killers, while in Reid's Hotel, a well-known lady crime novelist is stranded on her way to South Africa and George Bernard Shaw whiles away his days corresponding with his friends, writing a one act play and learning to tango with the hotel manager's spouse.A stranger, Robinson, is found murdered and Michael finds himself manipulated into investigating the crime by his sinister best friend, Johnny Cardozo, the local police chief, with whose wife he is pursuing an arid love affair; manipulated, too, by Father Flaherty, a priest with dubious political interests, and by his own eccentric parent, who claims to have been part of a comedy duo that once entertained the Kaiser with Jewish jokes. Will Michael find love? Will the Emperor escape his would-be killers? Will any of the characters learn the true meaning of the tango?