THE NAMELESS DEAD

TITLE: THE NAMELESS DEAD

AUTHOR: BRIAN McGILLOWAY

Pages: 379

Date: 29/03/2014

Grade: 4+

Details: No. 5 Inspector Devlin

             A Dialogues Through Literature

             Reading group read

Library

The blurb:

“'You can't investigate the baby, Inspector. It's the law.' 

Declan Cleary's body has never been found, but everyone believes he was killed for informing on a friend over thirty years ago.

Now the Commission for Location of Victims' Remains is following a tip-off that he was buried on the small isle of Islandmore, in the middle of the River Foyle. Instead, the dig uncovers a baby's skeleton, and it doesn't look like death by natural causes. But evidence revealed by the Commission's activities cannot lead to prosecution. 

Inspector Devlin is torn. He has no desire to resurrect the violent divisions of the recent past. Neither can he let a suspected murderer go unpunished. Now the secret is out, more deaths follow. Devlin must trust his conscience - even when that puts those closest to him at terrible risk.”

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My thoughts:

The disappeared:

“Individuals who, during the early days of the Troubles in the North, had been targeted because of some slight, imagined or actual, against the local IRA commanders.”

This book is the fifth title in a series in which I haven’t read any of the previous stories. Although I didn’t feel that affected the way I experienced this book it is of course possible that my review would have been slightly different if I had read the book after the previous four.

This book has a lot going on between its covers. Inspector Devlin is overseeing a search for one of the disappeared when the body of a baby is found. Not only does the baby show signs of having been born with birth-defects, it is also clear she was murdered. The death of an innocent baby, even if it happened decades ago, is not something Devlin can ignore even if he does know that he can’t officially investigate the dead nor use anything he discovers in a prosecution.

Things get more complicated when the son of the ‘disappeared’ man they are searching for is murdered. The waters are muddied even further when a second man is found dead.

When several other babies are found buried, all with similar birth defects, the case reaches a new level of frustration for Devlin. He can’t help feeling that the man who was ‘disappeared’ decades ago, the babies and the recent murders are all connected in some way. But with the law as it stands, he is officially not allowed to investigate anything except the recent murders.

When everything is eventually revealed it does provide answers, but whether or not justice has been served is anybody’s guess.

It is clear from my description there is a lot going on in this book. The disappeared, unbaptised babies, a crying baby that doesn’t appear to exist, ‘normal’, present day murders, ghost estates, cross-border jurisdiction, and private issues in the Devlin household all add to the story in what, occasionally, seemed to be almost an overload of story-line. Having said that, I was impressed with the way in which the author managed to pull all those, apparently separate, issues together in what was a well plotted although not entirely satisfactory conclusion. I would love to say more about this and explain why I found the ending less than satisfactory but can’t do so without spoiling the story. All I say is that it had nothing to do with the writing or the plotting, and shouldn’t be a reason for anyone to not pick up the book.

This book did make me think though. I’ve been aware of the disappeared and the efforts to find them for as long as I’ve been living in Ireland. I have to admit though, that I hadn’t really given it any thought before reading this book. It is one hell of a dilemma. Of course everybody wants to find those who disappeared without a trace decades ago, if only so that their families at last have certainty and the opportunity to bury their dead. On the other hand, the price for that scant comfort – no investigation and no prosecution – seems incredibly high. Just as the fact that those who committed those murders are getting off without any punishment just feels wrong and very far removed from anything justice is supposed to be.

Overall I would call this a good mystery, filled with realistic characters and more than enough issues to ensure the discussion my reading group will be having next week should be lively.

THIS IS HOW IT ENDS

TITLE: THIS IS HOW IT ENDS

AUTHOR: KATHLEEN MacMAHON

Pages: 376

Date: 24/09/2013

Grade: 4+

Details: Book Club Read

            Large Print Copy

Library

The blurb:

This is when it begins

Fall, 2008.

This is where it begins

The coast of Dublin, Ireland.

This is why it begins

Bruno, an American, has come to Ireland to search for his roots. Addie, an out-of-work architect, is recovering from heartbreak while taking care of her infirm father. When their worlds collide, they experience a connection unlike any they've previously felt, but soon a tragedy will test them-and their newfound love-in ways they never imagined possible.

This is how it ends . . .

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Well, I have to start this review by saying that this book managed to surprise me. This story turned out to be not at all what I thought it would be when I first started the book. While I did get the love story I was expecting, I also found an awful lot more in this book. And although I did find myself reading the last few pages of this book with tears in my eyes, I couldn’t help being pleasantly surprised by the rather unexpected way this story concluded.

While this is indeed a love story, it is not a traditional one. Our hero, Bruno is fifty years old, has two failed marriages behind him and has recently lost his job. Unable to face the upcoming elections – Obama vs. McCain - in America, he decides to travel to Ireland and research his family’s roots.

Addie is thirty-eight years old and has recently lost a baby as well as her long term partner. What is more, her work as an architect has dried up. With no real purpose in her life it is almost a blessing when her cantankerous father, Hugh, breaks both his wrists and needs her to move in to the family home to look after him. When Addie and Hugh discover that Bruno, who is a distant relative, is in Ireland to look into his family history, both of them are determined to ignore him. The last thing they need is a sentimental American disturbing the peace in their lives.

Yet, when Addie does meet Bruno she instantly knows that she is looking at the start of a love affair. What she doesn’t know is that she is also looking at the start of a complete life change. It may not be Bruno who causes all the changes in the lives of Addie and her family; he does somehow appear to be at the centre of them.  Over the course of less then a year everything will change for Addie, Hugh, Della – Addie’s sister – and Bruno. And even with tragedy facing all of them, most of those changes are far from bad.

This story was set up in a rather clever way. When the story starts both Addie and Bruno came across as somewhat pathetic. Addie seems to have lost her way in life completely. Looking after her father keeps her going but she appears lethargic and borderline depressed and lacking the will to do anything about it. Bruno’s journey to Ireland seems to be some form of a midlife crisis at first. While it makes sense that he would like to give his life some purpose now that he has lost his job, his fear of the possible outcome of the upcoming election seems completely unrealistic and over the top.

It is only as these two characters develop that the reader slowly gets an insight into what motivates them. And while I never completely got my head around Bruno’s obsession with the election, I did get a much better appreciation of what was driving Addie and her reasons for being who and what she is.

While this book is foremost about the journey Bruno and Addie make together, both Hugh and Della have some issues of their own to come to terms with. Especially Hugh having to confront his past, his reluctance to talk about it, “snobbery, pure snobbery” and his heartbreaking confrontation with karma were very well executed.

I liked that none of the characters in this book were perfect; all of them were selfish and insensitive at times although it was constantly clear that they were all trying to do the best they could within their personal limitations.

This is a book that will take the reader through a wide range of emotions. You will find yourself smiling, frowning, exasperated and crying. This is a story that resembles life; there is no such thing as a perfect happy ending. All we can do is make the best of what we are given. And that is not a bad message to send out into the world.

Overall I would call this a deceptively easy read with a far deeper meaning than you would expect when you first pick it up. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised even while your heart breaks a little bit.

THE HERBALIST

TITLE: THE HERBALIST

AUTHOR: NIAMH BOYCE

Pages: 309

Date: 23/06/2013

Grade: 4

Details: Received from Penguin Ireland

              Through Nudge

Own

“You wouldn’t know it but it’s my story. You won’t find me in the column inches. You won’t find me in the newsprint. You’ll find me in the gaps, the commas, the full stops – the small dark spaces where one thing led to another.”

Although the quote above relates specifically to one of the characters in this book, it is an accurate description for the whole book. This story is told with as much eloquence through everything that isn’t spelled out as it is through the words on the pages.

This story tells the tale of a small town in Ireland during a hot summer late in the 1930’s. It shows us the events that slowly, deceptively but steadily led towards heartbreak and destruction after two strangers arrive in town.

The first stranger was Don Vikram Fernandez, a dark-skinned travelling herbalist. Although he is looked at with suspicion by almost everyone in the town when he first arrives it isn’t long before, especially the town’s women, find that the potions and lotions he has on offer are something they can’t live without.

The only person to immediately take to Don Vikram is young Emily. Seventeen years young and having just lost her mother, Emily is an adventurous and romantic spirit. Although most people in town look down on her, Emily refuses to let that get her down or destroy her dreams. Young and lonely as she is it doesn’t take a lot of the herbalist’s attention or many of his enticing fantasies to make the girl believe herself deeply in love with him and him with her. When her feelings come up against her sense of justice, Emily finds herself with an huge and important decision to take.

The second stranger is Sarah. Having been raised in the country-side by her midwife aunt after her mother died in childbirth, Sarah finds herself transported into the town after the school-master, her secret boyfriend’s father, arranges a job for her there in his sister’s shop. The night before she leaves her aunt’s house, a big party is held in her honour; a party that will have far reaching consequences for Sarah and for the town she’s about to move to.

Carmel owns the shop where Sarah is about to start working. Having just lost her much longed for son in a still-birth, Carmel is deeply unhappy and more than ready to retreat into her bedroom to nurse her depression and read her kinky and forbidden novels. Ignoring her much younger husband as well as her shop and home will have far-reaching consequences and not just for her.

Young Rose is the beautiful and privileged daughter of the local doctor. Always kept close by her mother, Rose seems to have the spoiled and perfect life other girls can only dream about. But all is not well in paradise and by the time the truth is discovered it will too late for this young woman.

Observing it all is Aggie. Woman of ill repute, fortune teller and spiritualist it is Aggie who sees and knows it all. Unable to interfere she is able to share her knowledge and pearls of wisdom with the reader and in the process comfort the dead.

“There is a time in everyone’s life when you leave behind who you were born to be and become what life makes of you, or you of it.”

This is a beautiful and fascinating book. It captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of a small town in Ireland in the 1930’s with an accuracy that is almost painful. In this town, where it is impossible to be invisible, where opinions are formed to remain in place indefinitely and where the moral high-ground is held by those who least deserve to reside there, it wouldn’t take a lot to disturb the apparent peace and quiet.

What really impressed me is how the author managed to keep the upcoming drama below the surface for so long. While the reader is well aware that disaster is only around the corner – or a few turned pages away – the tone of the story is smooth and almost distant. Nothing is spelled out in detail. The reader has to read between the lines and draw the conclusions that aren’t spelled out. While there is a constant under current of pending doom, the story is told in whispers; the same sort of whispers that would give voice to gossip in a town like this. As a result, the story is told through the words that aren’t on the pages just as much as the words that are actually there. And some of those words are gorgeous:

“Sarah loved opening the shop, loved the way the light lit the silence first thing in the morning.”

Maybe there was a bit too much foreshadowing at the end of the chapters as in, for example, “maybe she should’ve listened more carefully”.  I understand that this would have been done to up the tension but I don’t think the book needed it. The tone of the story, and all the things that weren’t said or explained made it perfectly clear that we were heading for some sort of climax; the extra hints weren’t necessary in my opinion.

The characters in this book are fascinating, especially since you hear the story from several different perspectives. At first glance it would appear that their problems are very much a product of the time they’re living in, but if you think again not a whole lot has changed. Women who have lost a much wanted baby are still expected to “snap out of it”. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are still viewed with suspicion and mistrusted. Unplanned pregnancies are still a thing to be frowned upon. This is a thought provoking story about women; their strengths and weaknesses in the face of everything life and the people around them may throw at them.

According to the publisher’s information this story is based on real events in 1930s Ireland. I thought about researching what those real events might have been but decided that there really was no need. As much as this story is set in the past and as much as we may read this book and be horrified by the events described, it has to be said that not so much has changed since then. This is still a country where thousands of women feel the need to flee to England every year, where abortion remains illegal under all circumstances and many would refuse a woman that right even if would mean putting her life at risk. Eighty years later so little has changed that this story is far more contemporary than it should be. And that alone makes this a book well worth reading.

THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE

TITLE: THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE

AUTHOR: BRIAN MOORE

Pages: 223

Date: 28/05/2013

Grade: 3

Details: Book Club read for Dialogues

            Through Literature

Own

 

The blurb:

“The lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is the story of a respectable and religious piano teacher who has moved into a boarding-house in Belfast. Miss Hearne, like the house, has known better days. The landlady, her monstrous son and the other tenants make her nervous, but the landlady’s brother, Mr. Madden, seems attractive, possibly a suitable husband. Judith thinks he owns a hotel in New York, but in reality he is close to penniless and he has a drink problem. So does Judith. As her emotional and social life begins to fall apart, she also loses her grip on the faith that has sustained her. At last she does something shameful in a church.

Judith is an intensely sad heroine, but the way she is portrayed by Brian Moore is vibrant with life and dark comedy.”

A story without a single sympathetic, relatable or pleasant character in it is hard to like, and I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy this book very much. This is the second time I read this book and I really hoped that my dislike of it, the first time around, was due to me still being fairly unfamiliar with life in Ireland. Alas, it turned out that after another 10+ years in Ireland I don’t like this book any better than I did back then.

On the plus side I have to admit that this is a well written story. Brian Moore knows how to put a story together and build it up to its inevitable climax in a convincing and compelling way. For me to end up disliking the book and the characters in it as much as I did in this case both the story and people in it have to be written in a convincing manner.

My problem is that this story was compelling in the same way an accident or natural disaster can be hard to look away from; you can’t stop staring but feel kind of disgusted with yourself for not turning away. I mean, it is not unusual for me to come across a character I would love to slap around for a while. What is unusual is to read a book in which none of the characters appear to have any redeeming qualities. This book appears to be a study in human pettiness, determined to show-up the middle classes in Belfast about 50 years ago as small-minded, selfish and lacking in most forms of human decency. It really doesn’t matter which of the characters you look at; from Judith herself to her landlady, the landlady’s horrid son, the landlady’s brother returned from America and even the parish priest, everybody seemed to be thinking only of themselves, their own interest and the image they would like to uphold. It painted a very sad picture.  Although there were characters who, through their actions, appeared to show some human kindness near the end of the book you’d have to wonder if that was the result of their goodness or just to silence their guilty conscience.

Regardless of whether or not this book paints a faithful picture of Belfast in the 1950’s I can’t find many redeeming qualities in it, least of all the dark humour described in the blurb. And it is safe to say that I won’t be reading this book a third time, not for any reason or occasion.

RATLINES

US edition

TITLE: RATLINES

AUTHOR: STUART NEVILLE

Pages: 354

Date: 09/01/2013

Grade: 5-

Details: Received from Soho Press

             Through NetGalley

Own/Kindle

Ratlines: a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II.

It is 1963 when Lieutenant Albert Ryan from the Directorate of Intelligence is asked to investigate the murder of Helmut Krauss, a German national, and two other foreigners who have recently been murdered. With President John F. Kennedy's visit to Ireland only a few weeks away Minister for Justice Charles Haughey wants the killings to stop before they interfere with the first ever visit of a foreign head of state to Ireland. The three murder victims were all Nazis who had been granted asylum in Ireland after the end of World War II, a fact that has to remain a dirty secret.

A note left on Krauss’ body indicates that the killers are after Colonel Otto Skorzeny, Hitler’s favourite commando. And Skorzeny is still a powerful man. With connections to Haughey and the means to conduct his own investigations, he is determined to use Ryan in order to find those who are after him, regardless of the costs.

As Ryan investigates he finds himself caught up in a battle in which there are no good guys. With Skorzeny, with Haughey’s help, pushing him from one side and the killers applying pressure from the other Ryan finds himself caught between his duty to his country and his conscience. And it isn’t long before his fight for justice turns into a struggle to keep himself and the young woman he has met alive. In the middle of a struggle between two different evils, doing the right thing may well turn out to be impossible if not deadly.

Phew, what a book.

Stuart Neville has, once again, delivered a well plotted and heart-stopping thriller. There are numerous twists and turns in this story as well as an endless amount of interesting angles. The plot, as described above, would be more then enough to keep any reader on the edge of their seat but Neville adds extra tension through Ryan’s background. As a protestant who joined the British army during World War II, Albert Ryan is almost more despised in Ireland of the 1960’s than the Nazi’s are; something he gets thrown in his face on more then one occasion. And the fact that Ryan was part of the war, has seen the horrible acts the German’s committed with his own eyes, means that the question as to exactly where his loyalty should lie is an almost impossible one to answer.

Stuart Neville doesn’t shy away from violence in his books, and this one is no exception. There are scenes in this book that I would happily have ignored had they not been completely realistic and fitting to the story. The description of the character who would happily torture people in the most horrific ways but cried when his dog was killed was too chilling for words, and all the more real for it.

This is not a book that comes with clear cut answers or a nice clean resolution when the story ends. This is however a story that will make the reader think and I’m sure it is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

Stuart Neville is a wonderful author. His writing is smooth and clear, his characters realistic and compelling and the dialogue sounds true. The way he describes the action makes it easy for the reader to picture exactly what is going on. In fact, as I said before, there were a few occasions when I wouldn’t have minded if it had been a little bit harder to picture exactly what he was describing.

UK edition

The most fascinating thing about this book may well be that part of it is based on fact :

From the author’s note:

“These things are known to be true: Dozens of Nazis and Axis collaborators sought refuge in Ireland following the Second World War; in 1957 Otto Skorzeny  was welcomed to a country club reception by the young politician Charles Haughey; Otto Skorzeny purchased Martinstown House in Kildare in 1959; in 1963, in response to a question by Dr. Noël Browne TD the Minister for Justice Charles Haughey told the Irish parliament that Otto Skorzeny had never been resident in Ireland. The rest is just a story.”

The most chilling thing about this book, for me, is that it is only too easy to imagine that the rest, which is “just a story”, could also be true.

This is a fascinating page-turner for those who are not squeamish, an action filled roller-coaster with an intriguing plot and compelling characters. This is a must read for anyone who loves a well plotted historical thriller.

BROKEN HARBOUR

TITLE: BROKEN HARBOUR

AUTHOR: TANA FRENCH

Pages: 533

Date: 25/10/2012

Grade: 5+

Details: no. 4 Dublin Mystery

Library

The scene is gruesome and heartbreaking. Upstairs two young children, a girl and a boy, are found dead, probably smothered. Downstairs is a bloodbath with in the middle the children’s parents, both with multiple stab wounds. The father has also died but the mother is barely alive and rushed to hospital. The case is given to Detective Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy who is teamed up with rookie Detective Richie Curran. Kennedy has something to prove. Although he has an almost perfect record his last case didn’t work out as planned and this case, if he solves it to everybody’s satisfaction, should restore his reputation. And there is no reason why things shouldn’t work out for him. Kennedy is a man who controls his life and himself completely and up to the smallest details.

Except that this is one case he should probably have passed on to somebody else. The scene of the horrendous crime is in a half finished housing estate called Brian’s Town in the middle of nowhere. Years ago, when Scorcher was a teenager, the area was known as Broken Harbour and he and his family used to spend two weeks there, every summer. Those holidays were the happiest times in Scorcher’s life until the day tragedy struck. A tragedy that still haunts Scorcher’s life every single day.

As the two detectives start their investigation the solution appears to be simple enough. After all, all the evidence points towards a tragic but not uncommon domestic tragedy. But things are never that clear cut, and even when Scorcher thinks he has got the case solved his new partner has enough doubts to keep them digging for more evidence. It isn’t long before what started out as a murder investigation turns into a morality tale in which it becomes ever harder to figure out what the right thing to do might be. And with this case hitting so close to home and his private life getting more complicated Scorcher is losing the control he has worked so hard to achieve and maintain.

This is the fourth Dublin mystery by Tana French and like its predecessors it is a masterpiece. Well plotted, exquisitely written and with characters who are realistic and easy to sympathise with she has once again given the reader a book that is fascinating and almost impossible to put down.

French has taken Ireland and Dublin as it is right now. The story puts the reader in the middle of the current recession, in one of the many ghost-estates that litter the country and provide visible proof of past greed and current desperation. She has taken one perfectly normal and hard-working family and shows how events out of their control destroy the lives they worked so hard to create, taking their dreams down as well, until their lives have turned into something they don’t recognise anymore and evil creeps in.

The author leads the reader through an investigation where the twists and turns all make perfect sense. None of the suggested solutions come out of the blue and every suggested scenario makes as much sense as the previous one. When the solution is at last revealed it comes as a shock and a surprise, but not because it is unimaginable. It is all too believable that the all characters in this book would act the way they do and that is the reason that this is not only an imaginative mystery but also a thoroughly heart-breaking tale of the times we live in.

Part of me wishes that Tana French would write faster because I’m always eagerly anticipating her next book. A bigger part of me is glad she doesn’t though; the quality of these books is so high that I have to be grateful that she takes her time to give me an unforgettable story every single time.

DECEMBER BRIDE

TITLE: DECEMBER BRIDE

AUTHOR: SAM HANNA BELL

Pages: 262

Date: 04/08/2012

Grade: 3-

Details: Read for Dialogues Through

            Literature

Library

When Andrew Echlin’s wife dies, leaving behind Andrew and two grown sons, the man realises how important the woman was for the smooth running of his farm on the coast of Northern Ireland. Needing someone to take over the tasks his wife used to take care of, Echlin invites Martha Gormartin and her 30 year old daughter Sarah to come and live and work on his farm.

It isn’t long before both of Echlin’s sons, Frank and Hamilton take an interest in Sarah, an interest that is mutual.

When Sarah falls pregnant and gives birth to a son she refuses to name either of the brothers as the father and declines to marry either of them. This decision sends Sarah’s mother to an early grave and leads to the Echlin farm and its inhabitants being more or less shunned by the puritan Ulster community they live in.

It is only twenty years later, when there is only one brother left and Sarah’s second child, a daughter, wants to get married, that Sarah can be persuaded to marry the remaining brother.

This is a very grim and equally bare story.

What the author offers the reader are snapshots of a life in a time in the past during which horse drawn carts were still the normal form of transport in Ulster. What we get are glimpses at people and their surroundings without every finding out enough about either to feel any attachment to them. Motivations are hinted at but rarely clarified, feelings, when mentioned are suppressed and rarely, if ever, shared.

I read somewhere that a good author shows but doesn’t tell his audience what is going on with the characters in his story. If that is true, this author went about conveying his message in completely the wrong way. Nothing is shown in these pages, everything is told and despite that, or maybe because of that, I never really got a feeling for any of the characters in the book. I think it is quite possible that I could have felt sympathy for Sarah or any of the other characters in the book if I had been given a better insight into their emotions and motivations. But, since the author was cryptic at best when it came to revealing his characters inner lives, I really didn’t care about them or their fate at all.

I think this is a book that I would not have finished if it had not been a book for the “Dialogues Through Literature” programme and one that I will be discussing with my reading group at the end of the month. It doesn’t happen very often that I have to force myself to get back to a book, but with this one I found myself looking for excuses to do something else instead of reading.

I do understand why this book may have been picked for this reading programme; the story touches on the separation between Catholics and protestants and on the fact that although they had to cooperate occasionally to keep the community going, any conflict could and would be excused through that difference in faith and background.

The best I can say about this book is that it will make me appreciate future reads that much more than I might otherwise have. I guess that every now and again I need to be reminded that some books just aren’t for me and how lucky I am to read so many that I do truly love.

A JUNE OF ORDINARY MURDERS

TITLE: A JUNE OF ORDINARY MURDERS

AUTHOR: CONOR BRADY

Pages: 381

Date: 25/05/2012

Grade: 4.5

Details: Historical Mystery

Library

“G Division divided all crime into two categories: ‘special’ or ‘ordinary’. The absolute priority was ‘special crime’ – anything with an element of politics or subversion. ‘Ordinary crime’ might be serious but it took second place to security or politically related issues.”

Dublin, June 1887. It’s the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and Dublin is getting ready for a visit by the Queen’s grandson. A royal visit that is worrying those in authority; for political reasons they need it to be a success, but Irish nationalists are forming an ever bigger threat.

On the 17^th of June, the city is in the middle of an uncharacteristic heat wave when two bodies are discovered in The Phoenix Park. A man and young boy have been shot and subsequently mutilated and there is nothing to identify who they are or why they may have been killed. Detective Sergeant Joe Swallow of the Dublin Metropolitan Police is the man who has to investigate this case.

At the same time Ces Dawson, a woman running a highly effective criminal network dies, leaving in her wake a power-struggle between her deputies.

Only a day later another young woman is found murdered and this case is also assigned to Swallow.

Both cases soon prove to be very frustrating. The identity of Phoenix Park victims remains elusive, and without knowing who they are the police have little chance of discovering why they were killed, never mind by whom.

The case of the second young woman is taken of Swallow’s hands almost as soon as he discovers her identity. When it turns out she worked for a Dublin Alderman who has an important role in the upcoming royal visit the case is moved to a different security branch. A move which, Swallow realises, means that the case probably won’t be investigated properly at all.

Not inclined to concern himself with the politics of policing, Swallow doesn’t give up on either case. And when it appears that the two cases might be connected he is determined to get the bottom of it, regardless of the consequences.

And as if two murders weren’t enough to deal with Swallow has more to worry him. There is his relationship with a younger, pub-owning widow which he will have to make up his mind about. And although the murders Joe Swallow is investigating are ordinary ones, he isn’t far away from political troubles when his sister finds herself attracted to an Irish freedom fighter and his ideas. A situation which could see the girl in prison and could potentially cost Joe his job.

There is an awful lot going on in this fascinating historical mystery and the reader needs to pay attention to all of it if they want to stay on top of everything.

The mystery is well plotted and the answers are revealed in a convincing way. There are no miracle revelations or unlikely insights to move the story along and all the clues are in the story for the reader to find, provided they pay close attention (which this reader obviously didn’t).

Joe Swallow is an interesting and realistic main character. He is not without faults or above abusing his situation when he feels the need. At the same time, he has a strong sense of justice and is driven to solve his murders and see the killers brought to justice.

There is a lot of historical detail in this book. And while on the whole both the time and the setting are fascinating, I did find that at times there was maybe too much of it. In an ideal book, the historical facts would play a background role, painting a picture without taking over the story. In this book though it felt as if the author tried to get so many of such details in that it interrupted the flow of the story.

Very interesting though are the references to the early advances in the forensic sciences. While fingerprints are being hinted at, nobody is prepared to take them seriously yet. But facial reconstruction based on bone structure does play a vital part in the solution of the mystery in this book.

Overall this was a good historical mystery with an interesting main character and full of wonderful insights of Dublin in the 1880’s. If this turns out to be the first book in a series I will definitely read any sequels too.

Finally I want to share the following quote about Dubliners and their attitude to the weather. Since the weather has suddenly turned quite warm over the past few days, these lines made me smile. The rumblings about the heat are already starting:

“Dublin’s northerly latitude and prevailing westerly airflow ensure that it rarely enjoys any sustained elevation of barometric pressure or more than a few successive days of sunshine. When that pattern is broken the citizens are likely to take it as an aberration, an unnatural occurrence. Deprived of the rain and damp as their daily topics of grievance they turn irritable and fractious.”