The Red Branch
Published on 30. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
312 pages
979-8-9907678-3-6 (ISBN)
Description
Your undercover operation is blown before you get to San Francisco. What next? If you're Orpen, you join the cops. Sort of.
It's the Fall of 1883. Irish revolutionaries are changing the face of London with American dynamite, and not in a good way. Irish-born London Metropolitan Police Sergeant, Robert Emmet Orpen, is sent, badly disguised as a tourist, to San Francisco to prevent at least some of the explosives getting into the wrong hands.
He realises that he may be out of his depth when his cover is blown before he even gets as far as the west coast. Now what does he do? First, he charms his way onto the San Francisco police force, where he is assigned to the coattails of a cynical, 'larger than life' Civil War veteran (from the losing side). Then he finds himself caught up in a murder involving one of the two violent Irish factions vying for supremacy in one of the most Irish of American cities. Orpen is going to wish he never heard of the murderous Knights of the Red Branch.
It's the Fall of 1883. Irish revolutionaries are changing the face of London with American dynamite, and not in a good way. Irish-born London Metropolitan Police Sergeant, Robert Emmet Orpen, is sent, badly disguised as a tourist, to San Francisco to prevent at least some of the explosives getting into the wrong hands.
He realises that he may be out of his depth when his cover is blown before he even gets as far as the west coast. Now what does he do? First, he charms his way onto the San Francisco police force, where he is assigned to the coattails of a cynical, 'larger than life' Civil War veteran (from the losing side). Then he finds himself caught up in a murder involving one of the two violent Irish factions vying for supremacy in one of the most Irish of American cities. Orpen is going to wish he never heard of the murderous Knights of the Red Branch.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
422 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-9907678-3-6 (9798990767836)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Myles Dungan is an Irish writer, lecturer and broadcaster. He holds a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin and was the recipient of a Fulbright Award to the University of California, Berkeley in 2007. He is the author of more than a dozen books on Irish and American history (including Four Killings, Conspiracy: Irish Political Trials, Irish Voices from the Great War, How the Irish Won the West and Land is all that matters). He is also the author of two works for children, The Great Irish History Book and The Forgettables. The Red Branch is his first solo effort as a fiction writer. He has high hopes that it will not be his last.