Shade

Neil Jordan tells us straight away that the narrator of the novel, Nina Hardy, has been brutally murdered by George the handyman. The story works its way back to the childhoods of these two on the banks of Ireland's River Boyne. They come from different backgrounds but their pasts are irrevocably intertwined. Nina and her brother, Gregory, are children of privilege. George and his sister, Janie, from over the river are not. They grow up together, the best of friends. Their common history ties them together although they develop very different characters. Nina becomes a famous actress, Georgie is brain damaged and mentally ill, Janie is a lush and Gregory is an adult who withholds his emotions. Danger looms as the children grow older and their idyllic childhood is threatened by blooming sexual tension.
A sense of doom pervades throughout due to our foreknowledge of Nina's gruesome end. When Nina returns home after the deaths of her parents she naively believes that she and George can resume the innocent childhood relationship she'd left behind so many years ago. Turns out she was wrong. I enjoy tales of Edwardian Ireland (William Trevor's Lucy Gault for instance) and I think this book succeeds as a memoir , a love story and as a ghost story.