South Wexford, 1920: Jim Rowe is the newly appointed captain of a company of volunteers set up to combat the recent arrival of a battalion of Black and Tans. Responsible for a number of bloody raids and killings elsewhere in the country, the Tans are under strict orders to quell any notions of Irish independence among the local population. Jim is young, idealistic and committed. When the ammunition he needs for his men does not materialize, he gets what he wants - by force - from local smallholders. Emboldened by his success, he starts to plan a far bigger operation: the ambush of the local Tan garrison as they return to base one evening. But Jim's dreams of success turn to fear when he suspects that one of his close friends may not be entirely loyal to the cause. When the Tans come after him, their reprisal is more vicious and more personal than he could ever have imagined. Featuring a cast of ordinary people caught up in the onward march of history, and with writing that swings seeamlessly between past and present, joy and despair, A Troubled Time is a haunting, lyrical novel of political idealism, love, jealousy and a lust for revenge.