From Publishers Weekly
Like stones enveloped in a thick Irish mist, Brady's images and characters take shape gradually. Gently placed between the harsh urban realities of Dublin and the harsh rural realities of an Irish farm community is Matt Minogue, the jaded homicide inspector of Brady's three earlier books, most recently Kaddish in Dublin . Minogue--with his brother disabled by arthritis and his nephew in trouble with the law--visits the family farm in County Clare, where the lands are in the grip of powerful business interests intent on driving farmers out and drawing rich tourists in. Minogue arrives near terminal burnout, but policing is never far away. A local solicitor wants him to investigate the plight of Jamesy Bourke who, once convicted of murdering a Canadian girl, has returned to the area after his release. Jamesy walks alone at night, talks to his dog and makes the natives nervous--especially the landowning families most eager to turn the place into a haven for yuppies. When Jamesy is killed, Minogue's investigations widen. Brady uses snatches of evocative language and a deliberately languid pace to bring County Clare into focus. For readers who bemoan the sometimes rudimentary literary skills of crime writers, Brady's Matt Minogue novels are a breath of air--occasionally pungent, but undeniably bracing.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
What distinguishes this book from the average well-written police procedural is not the riveting suspense, imaginative plot, or meticulous descriptions of police work; rather, it's the book's compelling combination of what may seem (at least to American readers) exotically foreign dialogue, landscapes, and lifestyles. It's the deeply affecting portrait of bleak hopelessness in present-day rural Ireland and the melancholy despair in the faces, voices, and lives of the characters, who only ever find warmth, it seems, in the local pub. Matt Minogue, a member of the Dublin-based Guarda, returns to his hometown in County Clare and finds himself caught up in a puzzling case involving one Jamesy Bourke, a convicted arsonist-murderer. IRA lawyer Alo Crossan believes Bourke was wrongly convicted and asks Minogue to reopen the 12-year-old case. What Minogue doesn't suspect is that the investigation will threaten his own life as he resurrects tangled motives, bitter emotions, and dark, long-kept secrets. Brady's writing is masterly and moving, and his commentary on Ireland's current political and social problems is affecting without detracting from the fine pacing of the story. Highly recommended.
Emily Melton
