Marilyn's Mystery Reads

It’s July 1992 in Northern Ireland, and The Troubles continue.  The Good Friday Agreement is six years away, and riots persist.

For Sean Duffy, a Detective Inspector in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, his job doesn’t hold quite the terror that it had previously.  He is now in the last stages of his career, working the minimum of six days a month to get his full benefits and pension until he retires in two years.  His girlfriend and their daughter are safely across the water in Scotland, and although he still checks under his BMW for a mercury tilt switch bomb before starting his car, he’s feeling good about his life.

He’s just a few hours away from boarding the ferry to Scotland when his chief inspector turns up at Sean’s house.  It appears that Sean is the only detective available at this late hour to investigate a car highjacking that turned into a murder earlier that evening.  Although he pretends reluctance, Duffy is actually not unhappy to have a murder to investigate after months of doing boring paperwork at his part-time job.

The victim of the carjacking was shot at close range by a double-barreled shotgun.  There’s no identification on the body, but it appears obvious that the man was well-to-do.  His neighbor tells Duffy that the stolen car is a gold Jaguar, the man’s jacket is a custom made one by a Dublin firm, and his wallet contains Irish pounds and French franc notes.  But there is no ID, no driver’s license, no credit cards.

A further search shows no record of a passport or driver’s license issued to anyone at the man’s address, but Duffy recognizes what he believes are two original Picassos hanging above the fireplace in the living room.  The next day he brings a friend of his, an expert forger, to the victim’s house.  His friend tells him that the aquatints are, in fact, the work of the famous artist and are worth about 10,000 pounds each.  Now it’s obvious to Sean that this is more than a simple carjacking gone wrong.

Who is this mysterious victim, and what was he doing in Northern Ireland?

Adrian’s McKinty’s Sean Duffy series is an outstanding one.  Sean is a fascinating, multi-faceted character, a Roman Catholic who is a detective in the Constabulary (a Protestant police force loyal to the Crown), a man who goes to poetry readings, and who is not afraid of administering tough physical punishment when he believes it is necessary.

The books all take place during the upheavals when the Unionists, predominantly Protestant, and the Nationalists, predominantly Catholic, waged battles to decide whether the six counties of Northern Ireland would remain as part of the British Empire or join the separate Republic of Ireland.  Each novel is beautifully written and heartbreaking as well.

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Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novel.