Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* A headless torso found in a suitcase presents just the kind of case Detective Inspector Sean Duffy of the Royal Ulster Constabulary wants to pursue, even after he's ordered to let it go. When the victim is identified as an American poisoned with a rare plant, and the suitcase is found to have belonged to Martin McAlpine an army reservist and brother of a baronet killed months earlier, presumably by the IRA the case becomes even more interesting, especially after the detective who did a perfunctory investigation of McAlpine's murder reopens that case and is himself murdered. It's 1982, when violence in Northern Ireland threatens to escalate after Britain's invasion of the Falkland Islands pulls away troops that support the RUC. In this pitch-perfect sequel to The Cold Cold Ground (2012), the second in the author's Troubles Trilogy, Duffy is nearly overwhelmed by politics. This is crime fiction at its best: a police procedural with dialogue that's crisp and occasionally lighthearted; blistering action that's often lethal; McKinty's mordant Belfastian wit; and a protagonist readers won't want to leave behind when the trilogy ends.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in 1982, McKinty's uneven second outing for Belfast Det. Sgt. Sean Duffy shifts focus away from the IRA enforcers of the first installment, 2012's The Cold Cold Ground, toward Northern Ireland's Anglo-Protestant elite. While war rages in the Falklands, the brash, intelligent Duffy chases down cold leads after Irish-American tourist Bill O'Rourke turns up dismembered in a suitcase that just happened to belong to a Loyalist farmer, Martin McAlpine, a member of the landed gentry assassinated by the IRA. The only progress he makes is with Martin's beautiful young widow, Emma, while the only hope for the depressed country as a whole may rest with real-life high-flying American automaker John DeLorean. Punchy, pop culture-tinged prose and a charismatic hero help offset Duffy's slowly developing case, which fails to pick up any real momentum. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Creative Book Services. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
McKinty's second Sean Duffy thriller (after The Cold Cold Ground) establishes his place in the latest generation of Irish crime writers to take the genre by storm. The bleak and almost desperate conditions of 1982 Belfast and rural Northern Ireland are presented in a fashion that make the setting an equal character in this murder mystery in which a torso is found in a suitcase. Duffy just has a single clue-a tattoo-to go on to establish the torso's identity and solve the crime and must deal with interference from everyone from the IRA to the local gentry before he can get the job done. The twists of the case are brilliant, the characters complex. The rich Irish brogue of Gerard Doyle is magnificent but not overwhelming to American listeners. Verdict Highly recommended.-Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib. (c) Copyright 2013. 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.
