Saints Rest: A Saint John Story

Sarah Harrigan

READING TIME: 4 MINUTES

Saints Rest, slated to be released in March this year, is a novel by Luke Francis Beirne. This neo-noir story is set in uptown Saint John. It will be the newest addition to Beirne’s very decorated resume as a writer. His website, includes links to his essays, reviews of his books, and information about his previously published works. 

Saints Rest by Luke Francis Beirne

Baraka Books/Website

In this novel, Frank Cain is a private investigator hired by Malory Fleet. A year ago, police closed the case of her murdered son. Now, Malory is worried about Amanda, her son’s missing girlfriend. Cain must look for clues in uptown Saint John, learning more about Malory in the process. He grows suspicious of Detective Stuart Boucher, who follows him throughout. 

The idea for Saints Rest came from Beirne’s own experience living in uptown Saint John. In Luke’s eyes, Saint John has “a very gritty, noir feeling due to its architecture and the dense fog that comes in from the water, often filling the streets. Uptown buildings were built by brick and stone following a great fire which destroyed much of the city. When the fog rolls in through these streets, it is very atmospheric.” 

Saints Rest is available for pre-order here. 

Novels by Luke Francis Beirne

Beirne’s first novel, Foxhunt, was published in 2022 by Baraka Books. It became a finalist in the General Fiction category for the 2022 Foreward INDIES awards, and it made The Miramichi Reader’s list of best novels of 2022. 

Baraka Books/Website

This novel, set in 1949, revolves around a Canadian writer named Milne Lowell. He leaves Montreal to become an editor for a magazine, Witness, in London. Also writing for Witness is Carson Ward, a British poet; Marguerite Allard, a French-Canadian anarchist; and a novelist from America, Eric Felmore. At first, the group easily writes about cultural freedom. However, the Cold War soon wraps the group up in its politics. 

Baraka Books/Website

Blacklion, Beirne’s second novel, was published in 2023. CBC named it as one of the novels to read in 2023, and the Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick shortlisted it for the 2023 Best Novel Award. 

Set in Beirne’s homeland of Ireland, the novel takes place in 1972. CIA operative Raymond Daly must go to Ireland and re-establish a line running guns to the IRA. Daly sets his sights on an IRA splinter group near a town called Blacklion. As Raymond works undercover for this mission, the lines between his true self and his cover start to blur. 

Short Stories by Luke Francis Beirne

Beirne has many other published works, including short stories. Nutgrove is about a woman named Ivanna on Christmas Eve. Hamilton Arts & Letters originally published it in December of 2018, before republishing it in December of 2021. 

In Models, Al is sent to investigate a suspicious man at the train tracks and has a short conversation. Beirne was awarded the David Adams Richards Prize for Prose in 2017 by St. Thomas University for this story. It is published in The Honest Ulsterman. 

Tin Can Beach, published in The Commoner, is another of Beirne’s works set in Saint John. In it, a journalist named Sawyer is given a lead. 

When asked about writing a short story versus a novel, Beirne said the main difference was a short story’s ability to heavily focus on a brief moment or interaction. Usually, it sticks to a small cast of characters and involves one central occurrence. “Novels tend to be much larger in scope, characters, and the chain of events.” 

Other Works by Luke Francis Beirne

His essays and reviews appear alongside his short stories in many magazines: Counterpunch, CrimeReads, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Honest Ulsterman, NB Media Co-op, The Commoner, and ZNet. 

In 2020, Beirne wrote a few articles for Boxingnews24 on boxers such as Charley Burley and George Dixon. Some of his work in 2021 included “The pandemic is not isolated” and “After unearthing mass graves, Irish settlers must support decolonization” for NB Media Co-op 

Among his many works from 2022, Beirne wrote “Apocalypse Now” for Libcom, an essay about the ongoing socio-ecological crisis. There were also historical pieces, like “Canons of Cold War” for Counterpunch and “Surrealism: A Radical Experiential Reality” for The Commoner. 

More recent are his book reviews from 2024. These include “A Case of Matricide” for The Miramichi Reader, and “This Lark of Stolen Time” for TMR. 

When asked about advice for UNB Saint John aspiring writers, Beirne said: “My main advice is just to write, write, write. Also, edit far more than you think. It’s also usually a good idea to write a draft of something and then set it aside for a while before going back to it.” 

Upcoming

Aside from the upcoming release of Saints Rest, Beirne plans to continue writing books similar to that novel’s tone and characters. Any UNB Saint John students looking to support a local author can check out Beirne’s current novels or check out Saints Rest once it has released.

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