Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Irish novelist McKinty returns to his roots with the first book of the Troubles Trilogy, set in his hometown during the time he grew up. At the height of conflict between the Catholic IRA and Protestant paramilitary factions in 1981, Sean Duffy, a Catholic police sergeant in the Protestant town of Carrickfergus, near Belfast, gets an unusual case. Two gay men have been murdered, their right hands severed (the classic modus for killing an informant) and switched between the two bodies. Duffy initially suspects a serial killer, but when no more gay men are targeted, he comes to believe that the second killing was done simply to cover up the first, in which the head of the IRA's feared internal security force was the victim. Even after the case is reassigned, Duffy defies orders and keeps digging, coming up against corruption and collusion. Everything in this novel hits all the right notes, from its brilliant evocation of time and place to razor-sharp dialogue to detailed police procedures. McKinty, author of the Forsythe and Lighthouse Trilogies, has another expertly crafted crime trilogy going here, and readers will want to see what he does in the concluding two books.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This series starter from McKinty (Fifty Grand) introduces hard-boiled but likable Det. Sgt. Sean Duffy, a Catholic who remains brashly, winningly sardonic even under the pressure of 1981 Belfast's over-whelmingly Protestant police force. With the hunger strikes ongoing, Duffy tries to prove himself by finding an apparent serial killer targeting gay men, but is impeded by Northern Ireland's revolution-racked but socially conservative culture. As Duffy tries to decipher gnomic clues involving opera and mythology, he begins to suspect that the suicide of a hunger striker's wife links the apparently apoliti-cal murders to the equally ruthless paramilitary and IRA factions. Though an anachronistic tone occa-sionally jars with the period atmosphere provided by carefully observed detail and cameos from the likes of Gerry Adams, the deft mix of noirish melancholy with express-train pacing and blockbuster-ready action enticingly sets the stage for Duffy's future adventures. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
What better cover for a serial killer than the political hunger strikes, car bombs, and street riots of Northern Ireland's "troubles"? Det. Sean Duffy, a rarity as a Catholic cop, doesn't step back from digging deep into a case in which gay men are being killed and mutilated with symbolic messages (such as cut-off hands) and more obscure, artistic clues. But as Duffy learns more about the victims, he wonders if their deaths aren't politically motivated after all. Then, when a local missing woman turns up dead and is presumed to have killed herself, initially only Duffy senses that she was murdered and that her death connects with those of the gay men. By now, he has managed to alienate some powerful folks in the activist movement, and he might have to be silenced, too. VERDICT For fans of Stewart Neville's crime novels, a new and harrowing Irish trilogy is underway. At turns violent and labyrinthine, McKinty's (Dead I Well May Be) fine police procedural is also the ultimate page-turner. I cannot wait for Book Two! (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
