Only Pretty Damned

A captivating, engrossing, gothic noir that whisks the reader away and makes them feel as if they’re on the road with an old time travelling circus. The characters are complex, the prose rich, and riveting darkness abounds as the plot unfolds. A stellar debut from Niall Howell.......more

Brilliantly written. Niall Howell is a wordsmith.......more

ONLY PRETTY DAMNED By Niall Howell Rowland's World Class Circus is a world of shattered dreams. Under the bright lights is a dark life. As the carnies travel across the United States and Canada we feel a history. So much has happened before, underpinning the story, information that slowly oozes out as......more

A wonderfully calibrated first-person Noir that slides around corners and dips into cracks, all the while plunging straight for one of the most surprising yet inevitable final lines you’ll ever read. If you like Noir, you don’t want to miss this one.......more

This slow-burning noir is set in a post-WWII traveling circus. That was enough to sell me on the story right there, but the great period atmosphere and taut writing put it over the top. The narrator, Toby, currently working as a clown, is a bitter, heavy-drinking ex-aerialist, and his old partner is......more