If Only She Knew: Love, art and espionage, in a compelling, stylish drama set in the Victorian artworlds of Dublin and Manchester - Paperback

by Derville Murphy (Author)

A compelling drama about love, courage and betrayal set in Victorian Dublin and Manchester during the Home Rule debate. Fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale will be enthralled.

Julia Benson, spirited Irish artist and photographer from a Unionist family, is having an affair with Fenian Donal O'Keefe. To prevent her from squandering the family's dwindling fortunes and to end her relationship with Donal, her father's will makes her dependent on her younger sister Harriet's controlling husband, Edward.

Donal's brother, the supercilious solicitor Eoin O'Keefe, persuades Julia that to contest the will is futile, and Harriet and Edward move to Manchester to start a new life without her. Shortly afterwards, Julia receives a disturbing visitor in the photography studio who tells her that Donal, who had travelled to America to raise funds for the Nationalist cause, is now missing in England and his life is in danger.

To find Donal, Julia moves to Manchester where she tries to establish herself in the art world by raising awareness of Ireland's plight through her painting. But, to her dismay, she becomes increasingly entangled in a web of Fenian espionage. Reluctantly, she turns to Eoin O'Keefe for help when she becomes involved in a plot so horrific that it could ruin all their lives forever, destroying the Nationalist cause and any hopes of Home Rule for Ireland.