The Keli Dowry

The Keli Dowry

The Keli Dowry is a delicious book...I'd give my right ear for your talent. Your characters are so well-drawn. Your descriptions are so evocative...best love scenes I have read...magically tender sensuality. Those who have traveled to Greece should buy it, read it, shut their eyes and they will be transported to the great beaches, the blue seas and the warmth of the sun in the land of Apollo, Diana and Aphrodite. "

- Senator Philippe Gigantes.

Greece, 1973

Political intrigue poisons an American underwater dig and its team in the Gulf of Argos. The fates of a young Irish widow, a Vietnam vet, a German officer from the Occupation, and a local beauty with murky origins are spun together on the brutal wheels of the Junta in Athens. Love and violence in the Aegean. Human freedom, mythic shackles. 

By the Hob

By the Hob

Michael Kevin Dooley, Irish born and bred, came to Canada in 1977 after 11 years at sea and living in Great Britain, Australia and South Africa. A work life as a Machinist and Marine Engineer followed, including service in the Coast Guard until a work injury ended it. Writing, long an avocation with many stories and novels written by hand, is now his vocation. Although ending formal education at age 15, Kevin has read extensively, travelled widely and knows his way around a library. 

Kevin is also a fluent Gaelic speaker and a gifted musician on several world stages -- and Ottawa Valley Ceilis. The story of common men and women struggling to realize their dreams and  surmount adversities to reach beyond them, drives this writer. Having had a hard row to hoe himself, Dooley's characters are reality-based with no pulled punches. His women, singly and in groups, in all their variety, are almost real to the touch. 

His characters are driven by their situations and their situations are tough and very real. Patrick and Mary weave their often separate ways through unspeakable circumstances and social conditions throughout the sea-ports of the world. Both carry the daemons of a poor Irish upbringing, yet ferociously oppose the injustices and cruelty they find blocking their every step towards surviving with a family in an uncaring world. Dooley's style is melodic, understated at times, yet seduces the reader further and further into the dark tributaries of this couples life journey.  Patrick's almost surreal experiences counterpoint Mary's down-to-earth methods of problem solving. “The themes and settings are recognizable in Heritage and history, much of it involved in the Hibernian (Irish) world and in the Diaspora. The writing is fast- paced, intense and compelling. This is a great read for those who enjoy a good hard dose of reality with their fiction!” Mike Heenan, Ottawa Editor & Poet