"The Irish Smuggler is a rare find. Both a literary oeuvre and a gripping page turner. Highly readable in either context."
-Alexander Campion, author of the Capucine Culinary Mysteries
"The Irish Smuggler is a multi-layered yarn of intrigue and adventure on a global scale. Stories that emerge from 'The Troubles,' tend to be rich in passion and adrenalin. Brian Kelly has invested The Irish Smuggler with a rich count of both."
-Stewart Meyer, author of The Lotus Crew and soon to be published, The Heist Broker
"The Irish Smuggler is a great yarn! Well-written, well-researched, highly cinematic-and highly recommended."
-Rory O'Connor, author of Friends, Followers and the Future
"Any Harvard graduate can write a book but only Brian Kelly could have written this thrilling adventure, The Irish Smuggler. It cries out for the big screen or a mini-series for the smaller screens around the world."
-Sergei V. Skvortsov, President of Phoenix Films, the leading prime-time television producer in Russia
The Irish Smuggler is an adventure story which pits Padraic Egan and three other IRA volunteers, friends from childhood, against all comers as they smuggle arms into Ireland and global cannabis crops into the United States. Taking on the British Army, Afghan mujahidin, a seafaring hippy commune, Russian and Chechen gangsters, Soviet police and the American DEA, not to mention mother nature, their adventures are twisted and changed as continual opposition and obstruction force them to adapt. The reader will meet Afghan mujahidin as they fight a Soviet Army of monumentally superior force. Spanning a stretch of time from 1975 in Ireland to 1991 in New York, much of the story takes place in the heart of 1990 Afghanistan and across the USSR in its final weeks and days in 1991. Driving Padraic Egan's ambition to survive and win out-even in the throes of despair-is talented Miss USSR contestant, Irina Vyrubova. In addition to this Russian beauty, several daring young American women bring not only added suspense but touching romance and abundant humor to a sometimes raw tale of men risking everything for homeland or glory or riches. And sometimes, all three.
Brian B. Kelly became the first person in Harvard's long history to complete the requirements for a BA in English while still a sophomore. After meeting requirements for a second major, he graduated from Harvard with honors in 1967. Brian is the author of TROPIC OF PARADISE and SMARTASS! AN AWAKENING. Currently he is working on Commie Spy! The Life and Times of a Soviet Patriot From Brooklyn, a novel based on the life of his friend Joel Barr, the close friend of Julius Rosenberg. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
