Redemption Song:

An Irish Reporter Inside the Obama Campaign

Niall Stanage

Liberties Press, npa, 256pps

ALTHOUGH Stanage was practically embedded inside the Obama campaign trail, the profile of the 'great man' that emerges from the book is a hazy one. The loquacious person presented on TV is not the man who turns up at press conferences; among the press corps, Obama is notoriously unrevealing about himself. And incidentally, there is no man-to-man interview here. That said, there are some insightful points revealed, turning points in Obama's career and individual profiles of his background team – you'll be hearing a lot about David Axelrod – and how they all pulled together during Obama's ascent to the White House, a rare phenomenon in politics. Stanage also exposes the reality behind the so-called 'ethnic Irish vote' and its influence during the presidential campaign. People in the US are more concerned about petrol prices, mortgage foreclosures and Iraq than they are about a US envoy to Northern Ireland and 'unregistered' Irish workers. Coming near the close of the campaign struggle, Oprah Winfrey had more influence on the outcome. Finally, I can tell you something personal about the president-elect: he promised his wife he would quit smoking. And he broke that promise. Yes I can? Oh no you can't. A well gathered and pacy read.

The Mummy's Boys: Threats and Menaces from Ulster's ParaMafia

Jim McDowell

Gill & Macmillan, npa

TRUST the Irish – though they wouldn't call themselves any such thing – to come up with a label like that. The Mummy's Boys, Andre and Ihab Shoukri, had an Egyptian father who, ironically, left there because of religious intolerance, married an Irish woman and settled in Northern Ireland. The mother was a devout Christian. Unfortunately, her sons' only loyalty was to crime. They would say that their only crime was to loyalty. Not strictly true. Some of their exploits will make readers recoil. Before the UDA took them off the streets and gave them that nickname, they stole cars, burgled houses. Later they would use the UDA as a front for their massive drugs business, protection rackets and loan sharking. They became very wealthy and extremely greedy which finally brought about their end. One of them died a few weeks back from a drug overdose. The other is in the clink. A painful yet precise reminder of the way things were.

Gomorrah: Italy's Other Mafia

Robert Saviano

Pan, Stg£9, 424pps

THE titular city is a pun. The city of sin here is Naples. The sinners are the Camorra, the Mafia network which has turned this most beautiful of locales into a godforsaken hell of dumped toxic waste, sex-trafficking, narcotics, phoney designer clothes, murdering teenagers who will kill for tiny infractions and for small amounts. Whoever his sources are, Saviano is particularly knowledgeable about the Camorra, the cells, the vicious infighting, and the blind alliances to the latest head honcho that lead to internecine feuding, which in turn leads to more murders and the re-emergence of a new leader who will be doing well if he ever sees 50. Need I tell you that Saviano travels under police protection?

The Letters of Noel Coward

Edited by Barry Day

Methuen, Stg£15, 774pps

SEE 'The Master', which he was inexplicably called, as he sits at his writing desk, in his dressing gown (pure silk of course, deah boy), dashing off letters to Virginia Woolf (who rightly compared him to one of her canaries), Edith Sitwell, Marlene Dietrich or a telegram to Terence Rattigan ("I'll arrive at 5.30 stop tall divinely handsome in grey"). When he wasn't writing letters, he was sniggering at people less fortunate them himself or of a different racial hue. He was a stage technician who always had to be stage centre, and reading these supercilious letters just confirms the accuracy of Woolf's description. The editor of these letters gets in on the theatrical act by describing the Spanish Civil War as "an out-of-town tryout for what was soon to come". Dear God.

Phantom of the Rue Royal

By Jean Francois Parot

Gallic Books, Stg£12, 345pps

MAY 1770 and Paris is all abuzz with anticipation as the Dauphin prepares to marry the hapless Marie Antoinette. Another woman is also about to get it in the neck. A huge fireworks display is mounted for the royal marriage. Thousands throng the streets. In the middle of the display, a horse bolts when it is spooked by a firework and hundreds are killed in the resulting stampede. Among the hundreds is one woman who has been throttled. Some opportunistic fiend took advantage of the chaos to kill a woman. But why? Call in Commissioner Nicolas le Floch. Wonderfully atmospheric.