The perfect family - Genevieve Lyons

Set in Dublin in the late 1940s, THE PERFECT FAMILY tells the story of the Floods, a well-to-do family whom friends and acquaintances consider to be perfect. Roddy, the father, runs the family business; Cora, his wife, concentrates on being the perfect spouse and mother of their five children - Ossian, the handsome eldest, who is a priest; Fidelma, the eldest daughter, as beautiful as her brother; Decla, the next daughter and desperate for a boyfriend, Cecie the youngest daughter; and Eamon, eight years old and a naughty little boy. It soon emerges that the family isn't quite as perfect as it seems: Cora has a repressed attitude to all things sexual, yet has erotic thoughts about her confessor; Roddy has a mistress; Ossian is ruthless and ambitious, Fidelma spoilt and vain. When Decla is wooed by a stranger ordered by the newly formed IRB to infiltrate the family, its problems come to a head....