Publisher Description
A mysterious suicide and double murder are at the heart of this powerful thriller set in Northern Ireland amidst the Troubles, from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Adrian McKinty
“McKinty is in full command of language, plot, and setting in a terrifying period of history…” —Library Journal (starred review)
Belfast, 1985. Amid the Troubles, Detective Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop in the Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, struggles with burnout as he investigates a brutal double murder and suicide. Did Michael Kelly really shoot his parents at point-blank and then jump off a nearby cliff? A suicide note points to this conclusion, but Duffy suspects even more sinister circumstances. He soon discovers that Kelly was present at a decadent Oxford party where a cabinet minister's daughter died of a heroin overdose, which may or may not have something to do with Kelly's subsequent death.
New evidence leads elsewhere: gun runners, arms dealers, the British government, and a rogue American agent with a fake identity. Duffy thinks he's getting somewhere when agents from MI5 show up at his doorstep and try to recruit him, thus taking him off the investigation.
Duffy is in it up to his neck, doggedly pursuing a case that may finally prove his undoing.
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“Gerard Doyle gives a stunning narration of…the beat-down, highly complex Royal Ulster Constabulary inspector. Simultaneously, Duffy’s protégé, Alexander Lawson, possesses the unrestrained wonder and eagerness of an optimistic youth. Doyle portrays these opposites with an elegant grace that makes listeners forget he’s even there. From the subtle changes in dialect to McKinty’s distinct writing cadence and dark humor, Doyle hones in on the details that make this procedural a joy to listen to. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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AudioFile
About Adrian McKinty
Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles. His father was a welder in Harland and Wolff—the shipyard where they built the Titanic; his mother was a school lunch lady and secretary. Adrian went to Oxford University on a full scholarship where he studied philosophy.
Emigrating first to America and then Australia he found work as a door-to-door salesman, a driver, a bookstore clerk, a barman, a high school English teacher, and a semipro rugby player.
His debut crime novel, Dead I Well May Be, was shortlisted for the 2004 Dagger Award and was optioned by Universal Pictures. He is the author of more than a dozen crime novels that have been translated into over forty languages. He has won the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Barry Award, the Macavity Award, the International Thriller Writers Award, and is a three-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award.
His 2020 novel The Chain was a New York Times bestseller and appeared on twenty-five best-of-the-year lists. His 2022 novel The Island was an instant New York Times bestseller and made five best-of-the-year lists including those of the London Times and the New York Times.
Adrian is a member of the Linnean Society and the National Audubon Society. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
About Gerard Doyle
Gerard Doyle, a seasoned audio narrator, he has been awarded dozens of AudioFile Earphones Awards, was named a Best Voice in Young Adult Fiction in 2008, and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He was born of Irish parents and raised and educated in England. In Great Britain he has enjoyed an extensive career in both television and repertory theater and toured nationally and internationally with the English Shakespeare Company. He has appeared in London’s West End in the gritty musical The Hired Man. In America he has appeared on Broadway in The Weir and on television in New York Undercover and Law & Order. He has taught drama at Ross School for the several years.