Stephanie Downey
Stephanie Downey is a writer and educator living in Southern California with her husband, children, and their menagerie of animals. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master’s degree in Education. As a writer and reader, she is drawn to morally gray characters who make readers sit between the blurred lines of right and wrong while exploring the complexity of human nature. She believes there’s power in a cup of tea, time at the sea, and venturing to new places. The Bogside Saints is her first novel.
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THE BOGSIDE SAINTS
THE BOGSIDE SAINTS, set during the deadliest year of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, follows a photojournalist grappling with the aftermath of Bloody Sunday and the rise of the IRA, while exploring the complexities of loyalty, family, grief, and the gray areas of love and war.
Derry, Ireland 1972. Cara Connelly has known Malachy O'Malley all her life. He's her brother Liam's closest friend and the one who steadied her through her mother's death and the grief that followed. But as the Troubles engulf Northern Ireland, violence becomes an inescapable part of daily life, and the boys she grew up with begin to walk starkly different paths.
Liam believes in peaceful protest, while Malachy is drawn to the IRA. Cara, caught between them, turns to photography as a way to make sense of the chaos around her, and maybe even a path toward a life beyond it. As her bond with Malachy deepens into something undeniable, she is pulled into a world of secrecy, where every moment spent waiting for his safe return is agony.
When Cara’s life is upended by a devastating loss, she is thrust deeper into the conflict in unexpected ways. As the cost of every decision rises, she must navigate a dangerous balancing act between love, loyalty, and survival.
In a land divided by war, love becomes the most dangerous choice.
Publication
US: Macmillian (St. Martin's Press)
Release date: 3 August 2027
