Liam is 12 years old when two men break into his house and kill both his parents as they sleep. After seeing one of the murderers – the Mole – Liam is in danger, too. Though he is sent by the police to a safe house, he is betrayed and must run again. Through a combination of courage and unusual skills, he outwits the Mole and returns to a real safe house, taken in by family friends.

Set in Northern Ireland in 1999, Safe House, by award-winning novelist James Heneghan, shows how sectarian violence continues even after the Good Friday peace accord. Liam’s parents are the random victims of retaliation after a prominent Protestant paramilitary leader is killed. The almost blasé responses of Liam’s Catholic neighbours and the Protestant police demonstrate how “normal” such events have become after decades of “the Troubles.” Because of this political context, teachers in particular will find this text useful.

While this set-up has potential for real drama – a double murder, several escapes, political intrigue – I found Safe House more plodding than page-turning. Both the prose and the characters are listless; despite Liam’s terrible trauma, he remains remote and doesn’t emotionally engage the reader. Even flashback scenes of happier times, which fill in the personal and historical background, fail to give personality to Liam or the supporting cast, who remain abstract, even stereotypical, figures (the relentless villain, the maternal, tea-pouring neighbour). A subplot about Liam’s circus training and his budding romance with a Protestant gymnast seems tacked on, existing only to explain Liam’s series of daring escapes. To use an appropriate analogy, on the tightrope of fiction, Safe House stumbles.