Bloodlines Unseen

In a land divided by blood, borders, and silence—how far would you go to protect love?
Belfast, 1969.
Clara Devane is a young Catholic paediatric nurse on the frontlines of a city being torn apart. On a day etched into history as Bloody Friday, Clara shields her infant son beneath a triage cot while tending to victims of a bombing. Her act of bravery is caught on camera by Liam Kerr, a Protestant photojournalist posing as neutral press. His photo is printed across the city, branding Clara as “Mother of the Cause”—and marking her for death.
Her own father, a senior IRA figure, stages Clara’s death in a ferry explosion to save her from both British interrogators and republican retribution. She vanishes into the Donegal countryside under a new name, raising her son in a safe-house run by an ex-nun with secrets of her own. Her survival becomes the quietest form of rebellion.
Three years later, Liam—still haunted by guilt—captures a single image of a woman during a cross-border raid. It’s Clara. Alive. In that moment, both their lives ignite again.
To reunite, Clara and Liam must outwit paramilitaries, military intelligence, and the very families that swore to keep them apart. Alongside coded radio broadcasts, midnight supply runs, chalk tally walls, and a rosary strung with microfilm, they fight to reclaim love amidst a war designed to erase it.
As Clara battles to protect their son and confront the legacy of her father’s cause, Liam must risk everything to expose the hidden truths behind the conflict—and prove he never stopped loving her.
Their love was never meant to survive. The world won’t let them forget. But the quiet that followed could be louder than all the bombs that came before.
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Themes:
Survival as silence
Identity as resistance
Motherhood as defiance
Love in the crossfire of loyalty and betrayal
Truth that can’t be buried—only exposed, one photograph at a time
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Set against the backdrop of The Troubles (1969–1977), this heart-wrenching and unflinching novel paints an intimate portrait of a family fractured by ideology, a woman erased by her own father, and the echo of a love story caught between two sides of the same war.
Inspired by real oral histories, political archives, and raw generational trauma, The Quiet That Followed refuses to look away from the truth. Hauntingly cinematic and lyrically unfiltered, it’s a story for anyone who’s ever loved across lines drawn in blood.
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Content Warnings: violence, war trauma, death of a sibling, PTSD, religious/political conflict, child endangerment
Praise for the Fallon Saga:
“Brutal, beautiful, and unforgettable.” – Indie Book Awards Finalist
“Feels like reading the Irish version of The Nightingale meets Atonement.” – ARC Reviewer
“Every sentence feels like a wound and a prayer.” – BookBub Critic