"The Rag Tree is great fun. Fast-paced, entertaining, and, of course -- it's about the Irish, after all -- wry. Danny Costello has merged the old Ireland with the new to create a political thriller that is as appealing for its many, marvelous characters as it is for its complex plot."
- Alice McDermott, National Book Award winning author of Charming Billy

"D.P. Costello's splendid first novel is a page turner par excellence, beautifully-written and wonderfully-paced. The reader finds himself, like most of Costello's characters, on the edge, in a new Ireland still haunted by history and old ghosts. This a book you won't put down."
- Christopher Fox Professor and Director, University of Notre Dame Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies

“Anyone with Irish blood in his veins will be mesmerized by The Rag Tree. It is a vivid portrait of today’s Ireland that simultaneously evokes the Ireland of ancient days. Above all it is a compulsively readable story, crammed with unforgettable characters.”
–Thomas Fleming, best selling author of over forty novels and nonfiction books, including Time and Tide, principal commentator on the award-winning PBS documentary, The Irish in America:Long Journey Home

"AWESOME...From a shocking first chapter to a mystery that doesn't unravel till the very last word, The Rag Tree is a page-turner that takes readers inside modern Ireland… This book could catch fire".
–Brody Mullins, The Wall Street Journal

"The Rag Tree lights up the page like a cinematic gem…a lilt and a rhythm enveloping each word…I can just hear those Irish accents…The novel brims with mysticism…an unlikely hero’s journey…non-stop intrigue."
–Chiquita Mullins Lee, playwright, Pierce to the Soul and fiction writer Rainbow Season; Provincetown Writer’s Conference Fellow

"...an examination of modern Ireland...genuine..." - The Kilkenny People

"It's said the novel is dying. Maybe so. But not if Danny Costello has anything to say about it. The Rag Tree, his debut novel, is an energizing, entertaining, revivifying jolt of sustained electricity that skillfully blends myth, history, fantasy and present-day possibility. The Rag Tree is a fast-paced treat. The novel lives!"
-Peter Quinn, American Book Award winning author of Banished Children of Eve, The Hour of the Cat, Looking for Jimmy: A Search for Irish in America

“The latest in that enchanting line of Irish myth-spinners, D.P. Costello offers a terrific tale of politics, loyalty, tradition, betrayal, love and hard choices. When you turn the last page of The Rag Tree, you’ll want to pack your bags immediately and hop on the next flight into Shannon.”
– Jack O’Connell, author of The Resurrectionist

"The Rag Tree is a novel that weds the New Ireland with the faeries, banshees and talking crows. The marriage thrives because the writing is gorgeous and the characters – musicians, politicians, IRA informants and a lethal priest – are absolutely believable."
- Denis Collins, author of Nora’s Army

"A magical imagining of old Ireland meeting the new Ireland. Costello's vivid language in his first book, The Rag Tree is enough to make you believe in pookas; that is, if you don't already."
- Dan Barry, author of Pull Me Up: A Memoir

"Ancient Ireland meets contemporary "Eire Nua" in this fast-paced, richly imagined novel. Costello's feel for, and knowledge of, Ireland's complex and troubled history---along with its myths, music, and national idiosyncrasies---lend wondrous authority to this cinematic thriller. Murder, sex, politics, and mystery--- The Rag Tree has it all."
Terence Winch, American and Columbia Book Awards winner, poet, musician, fiction writer. Author of Boy Drinkers, When New York Was Irish

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