Service

Author: Sarah Gilmartin

Genres: Literary Fiction

When Hannah learns that star chef Daniel Costello is facing accusations of sexual assault, she’s thrown back to her summer waitressing at his high-end Dublin restaurant.

A glamorous world of talent and testosterone, where attention from Daniel morphed into something darker…

Now the restaurant is shuttered and Daniel is faced with the reality of the courtroom. His wife Julie is hiding from paparazzi lenses behind the bedroom curtains.

Surrounded by the wreckage of the past, their three voices reveal a story of power, complicity and the courage that it takes to face the truth.

The exhausting and exhilarating life of a high-end restaurant is beautifully recreated in this masterful novel . . . deeply satisfying . . . A writer correctly confident in her recipe.
- Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth is Missing

In clean, clinical prose, Gilmartin lays bare both the power imbalances generated in a hothouse, hierarchical environment, and the schism between women’s rights in the wake of MeToo and a country still in thrall to the old patriarchal order.
- The Daily Mail

Service is gripping, fearless and raw. I could not put it down.
- Una Mannion

Absolutely compelling. Every page fizzes with energy and observation. Gilmartin combines effortless, elegant writing with a momentum that propels you onwards, barely pausing until you've reached the end. A masterful novel.
- Rebecca Wait

A hugely gripping literary page-turner. Sharp, visceral and shocking.
- Claire Powell

Hooked by Daniel Costello's predatory charms, and then by a thirst for natural justice, I raced through Service. Sarah Gilmartin is a smart, stylish and darkly funny writer.
- Aingeala Flannery

A brilliantly observed immersive novel which tells the 'me too' story from every angle.
- Amber Medland, author of Wild Pets

Sarah Gilmartin's second novel is consummately done. The prose is clean, crisp, perfectly-filleted; the pace and tension perfectly controlled, to the very last page. Superb.
- Lucy Caldwell

I love the high-octane setting of this novel, with its vivid portrayal of the heavy drinking, hard-living lifestyle of the staff who work in a celebrated restaurant. The story is skilfully told, teasing out the layers of truth and denial that give texture to a toxic history. In teasing out the strands of her narrative, Sarah Gilmartin gets it absolutely right.
- Kathleen MacMahon

Addictive... a #MeToo story of power imbalances and blurred boundaries which will resonate with many.
- Red