LAUNCH: The Bratinsky Affair

Join us to celebrate the launch of ‘The Bratinsky Affair’ the debut novel by Jim Loughran. The book will be launched by Seamus Martin, former Moscow Correspondent and International Editor of The Irish Times. Refreshments will be served.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK: The Bratinsky Affair

“An intelligent and atmospheric thriller… An accomplished debut.” – Thomas Waugh

Wicklow, 1976.

The dramatic death of Countess Irina Bratinsky, a well-connected dealer in Fabergé jewellery, becomes international news. But why are the Irish, French and Russian police so interested in her death?

For journalist Tom O’Brien it’s an opportunity to advance his career as he exposes the countess’s secrete life of espionage and crime.

Tom meets Irinia’s granddaughter Olga – and they retrace Irina’s steps from revolutionary Russia to war torn France.

Inexorably they are drawn into the search for a missing family heirloom – a mystery which has already claimed three lives. When Irina’s long lost brother Pavel emerges from the gulag as one of the most ruthless criminals in Brezhnev’s Russia he has vengeance on his mind rather than reconciliation.

In their search for answers Tom and Olga confront Pavel in the ruins of Irina’s ancestral home outside Saint Petersburg. The question is: will they survive?

While The Bratinsky Affair reads like an adventure story there is also a more serious subtext. As human beings we are all motivated by the desire for love, the need to belong, the instinct to protect the people we love and the fear of death. Everything depends on the choices we make. As a refugee, Irina loses the world she grew up in and loses herself in her search for money and status. Tom has to decide whether to be true to himself or to live up to the expectations of others. In either case there is a price to pay.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Loughran was born in Northern Ireland and studied French and Spanish at Queens University Belfast. Following graduation he spent a year in Paris before completing his Post Graduate Certificate in Education. Jim taught French in Belfast and then moved to Dublin where he worked for ten years as a Media Planner in one of Dublin’s leading advertising agencies. During this time he also got involved with Amnesty International and was Chairperson of Amnesty Ireland for five years. He then joined the organisation on a full-time basis as Development Manager before taking on the role of Head of Media. He initiated ground breaking research into Irish links to the arms trade and produced two major reports: “Ireland and the Arms Trade – Decoding the Deals” and “Claws of the Celtic Tiger.”

Jim was head hunted by Irish based international human rights organization, Front Line Defenders to take up the newly created role of Head of Media and Communications. Prior to his retirement he was responsible for setting up the Human Rights Defenders Memorial Project, a unique collaborative project to document the killings of human rights defenders. He was the author of ‘Stop the Killings’ a major report which analysed the patterns of violence that led to the killings of human rights defenders in: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and the Philippines. These 6 countries collectively account for 80% of the killings of human rights defenders annually. He was jokingly referred to in the office as, ‘Head of Killings.’

Jim lives in Dublin with his husband. Since he retired Jim has shifted his focus from writing press releases and opinion articles to historical fiction. His first published work, ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’ is a short story published in October 2025 by Briar Press, New York, as part of ‘These Dark Things,’ an anthology of 12 gothic short stories. The Bratinsky Affair, published by Sharpe Books, is his first novel.