From Publishers Weekly
This brilliant Irish police procedural follows Garda Sgt. Matt Minogue (last seen in Unholy Ground ) on a murder case as it updates the troubles in the isle of saints and scholars. In Joyce's Dublin, now dingy and polluted, women remain subservient under traditions of church and state, while outlanders are labeled "bog-trotters"; 500,000 of the jobless and hopeless young flee to the U.S. each year, and the country seems to be run by tribes rather than political parties. An anonymous caller to the press identifies the corpse washed up on the beach at Killiney as that of Paul Fine, son of Billy Fine, chief justice of the Irish Supreme Court, and claims responsibility for the murder on behalf of the hitherto unknown League for Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Another body is discovered burnt beyond recognition after being doused with petrol. Mayo man Minogue establishes a connection between the Jewish Paul Fine (Irish Jews total 2000 North and South) and the second victim, who had been a member of Opus Dei, the mysterious Catholic organization founded in Spain to oppose communism. All signs point to a political conspiracy reaching into the Garda, the army and the government. Thoughtful, likable Matt is a man to watch.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Sergeant Matt Minogue, of Dublin's Murder Squad (Unholy Ground, etc.), and his superior, Inspector James Kilmartin, are lobbed a political hot-potato: the possibly religiously motivated killing of the son of Chief Justice Fine, a prominent Irish Jew. After Paul Fine's body washed ashore, the League for Solidarity with the Palestinian People called the press and claimed responsibility. No one, however, has ever heard of the group, and Minogue focuses instead on who erased the late newsman's computer files: What story did someone want to disappear? A librarian remembers Fine calling up information on Opus Dei, a Catholic organization with a secret membership list and zealous political ambitions; and Minogue ties them in with two more incidents--the firebombing of the small Jewish museum/synagogue and the incendiary demolition of a former Opus Dei man in his Volkswagen. Before a leading MP and various others are toppled, the Murder Squad will investigate IRA factions and rabid ecology groups--plus delicately pressuring the Archbishop of Dublin for privileged information. Finely written, intellectually complex--and further proof of Brady's ear for dialogue and skill in pricking the conscience of a country. --
Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
by John Brady
by John Brady
by John Brady
