Odds and Ends

Aunt Lizzie and her niece are motoring through rural Ireland when their Daimler grinds to a halt on a desolate road, leaving them stranded in a landscape of black bog-holes and ghostly white cotton. What begins as a straightforward breakdown soon veers into something far stranger: seeking shelter, they stumble into an Irish wedding party and discover a recently deceased grandfather concealed in a wardrobe. This sets the tone for the entire collection: ordinary journeys through the Irish countryside that curdle into comedy and mild menace. B.M. Croker's interconnected tales follow the two women from one absurd situation to the next, their brisk practicality a foil for the chaotic hospitality they encounter. The writing is sharply observed, the humor dry, and the Irish settings rendered with an atmospheric gloom that suggests something sinister always lurks just beyond the headlamps. For readers who enjoy early comic fiction with a Gothic whisper and a motor car's unreliable promise of modernity.