Customer Reviews

Bloomsday Dead

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this, which the dust jacket says IS the last of the Forsythe series, Michael Forsythe is forced to return to Ireland in order to help the woman he fell in love with and whose fiance he killed in the first book of the series.

When we first see Forsythe in this one, he is in Peru, heading up security for a hotel. For a moment--just one brief one--it seems he may have found some peace after all, a place where he can use his skills but not in overtly violent ways. But then, and quickly, it all goes to pot, and Forsythe is given a choice: return to help me look for my daughter, or die after this conversation.

Forsythe returns for more than one reason. He wants to help Bridget find her daughter, who has been kidnapped. He wants to see Bridget again. He wants a chance at getting rid of the albatross he's had hanging around his neck for years: Bridget wants him dead, revenge for the fiance he killed in her presence all those years ago.

The hunt for Bridget's daughter takes up a big part of the book, of course, but so do other things equally enthralling. For one, Forsythe is MUCH more in tune with who he is in this book. In the first book, he was an angel of death who didn't really much twig to the fact that he trailed doom wherever he went. Now, though, he's very much aware of it. Very much prepared to go where that takes him. He hurts people, kills them, and loses very little sleep over it. He's never lost a lot of sleep, but now he loses none.

The tension between Forsythe and Bridget makes this novel stand out even more than the previous two. Forsythe seems to encounter people who want him dead or in incredible pain every few pages or so, and it's a wonder he can keep his head straight through all the beatings and chases. I must admit that at first I thought "he can't possible be upright after that kind of beating" and "he can't possibly be thinking straight after getting the crap kicked out of him" several times in this one, but one of the things that becomes clear here is how Forsythe compartmentalizes and uses pain to move forward.

All in all, this was a satisfying third novel. I will miss Mr. Forsythe, but the end of this one seems natural, not contrived.

Now--on to another McKinty (a non-Forsythe one)!

Little spoiler bits alert...

I listened to this as an [...] download, as I had McKinty's previous books. Gerard Doyle continues to wear the skin of Michael Forsythe...he's amazing.

The first half of this book was vintage McKinty and it was wonderful. The conversation about Ulysses with a fellow plane passenger was hilarious; I was laughing out loud. The witty and sarcastic one-liners are very much in evidence, though some didn't seem as fresh this time around. Gerard Doyle even sounds older as he reads the older (but not much wiser) Michael. He's 40% of the magic of McKinty's books, IMHO. But by the second half, I had figured everything out. It was pretty plain what was going on, who the mystery person was, who Siobhan was, etc., but I still wanted to speed ahead to see if Michael makes it out alive. I was half-way hoping he'd go out in Bonnie and Clyde style, but instead, McKinty chooses to experiment with what would happen if Scorsese wrote a Harlequin romance. After it was over, I slumped in my chair and said, "What?! She's combing the kid's hair?!"

The wit, the lyrical language, the very graphic violence are the hallmarks of a McKinty book and they are fully evident here. Not as funny as the first book in the trilogy, not as bite-your-nails intense as the second book, but there were small chuckles throughout the book and a fair amount of pacing back and forth. The writing was just as beautiful. However, once Michael has his first conversation with Bridget, it's as if McKinty's mind was being pulled elsewhere and he just wrote to get it finished. Why did Michael not ask Slider who the boss was?

An unsatisfying end to the trilogy, but still some of the best books you'll ever read.

We were previously introduced to Michael Forsythe in "Dead I Well May Be" and "The Dead Yard". I would strongly recommend reading "Dead I Well May Be" before reading "The Bloomsday Dead", because there are a lot of references to (and plot twists involving) previous characters that will be better understood if you are familiar with these characters already.

"The Bloomsday Dead" is a highly entertaining novel, but in a slightly different way than the two previous Michael Forsythe books. This novel reads much like an episode of the television show "24", with plenty of fast paced action and numerous plot twists. But, as usual, Adrian McKinty adds a touch of poetry between action sequences, especially when describing the beautiful (and sometimes not so beautiful) scenery of his native Ireland. I found the conclusion of the novel to be a satisfying end for our hero (..I'm not sure if hero is the right word for him), but I wouldn't mind reading more about Michael Forsythe either, if given another chance.

This book was great it was just as good as Dead I Well May Be and i cant wait to read the dead yard, its the most violent books ive ever read and i love it

Adrian Mckinty is a great writer and i will read every book he writes

I had great misgivings about the third

(and final?) installment of the series

featuring Michael Forsyth, but am here

to report Bloomsday Dead was wonderful.

The audio narration was spot on, with

the suspense stretching me out until

the final scene. The ending seemed

abrupt, in the middle of the last CD

of the audiobook. I was surprised, as

normally the audiobook goes to the

very end of the last CD. Dare we

hope to see more of Michael in the

future?

He has been on the run for twelve years ever since he turned informer, killed her father and her lover. He broke up the New York mob and went into the witness protection program because there is a bounty on his head put there by Bridget Callaghan. Though he was her lover, Michael betrayed the mob and killed her loved ones but so far he has escaped these assassination attempts.

Now he is working as head of security for the Miraflores Hilton in Lima, Peru when two thugs grab him. They call Bridget who tells Micheael Foesythe that her daughter Siobhan disappeared and if he comes to Belfast and finds her, she will call off the hits. Although he doubts her sincerity, he travels to Dublin where two hits are made on his life. He escapes and gets to Belfast where he gets information he needs to begin a search knowing one of Bridget's men Marso will tell kill him regardless of whether he succeeds or not. His search takes him to many places where he kills in self-defense. What he doesn't know is that Bridget has an enemy she knows nothing about and Michael is the bait and her daughter is the prize.

Talk about action, THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD starts off at light-speed and swiftly goes to warp drive in a matter of a few pages. None of the characters are very likeable because they rationalize their actions by insisting the end justifies the means. Readers get a pulse for Northern Ireland where one misstep could break the truce and hostilities are still simmering. Adrian McKinty gives the audience a thrill a second which is better than the fastest twisting roller coaster.

Harriet Klausner

Michael Forsythe's transformation to the stone-cold killer without remorse is definitively and brutally completed in "The Bloomsday Dead", the stunning conclusion to the "Dead" trilogy - Adrian McKinty's epic landmark experiment in cross breeding violence and poetry with an unmistakably Irish brand of black humor.

This time around, our fugitive/hero Michael Forsythe, now early 30s, is running security for a luxury hotel in Lima, Peru. Seems that ex-lover and current nemesis Bridget Callaghan is now riding herd over the Irish mob in New York. But the deadly siren Bridget, vortex of Michael's odyssey into Hell and back, is in trouble. Her twelve year-old daughter has been kidnapped and, figuring Forsythe's knowledge of Belfast and by now legendary knack for survival uniquely qualifies him, sends a band of local thugs to collect him with an unambiguous "get my daughter back or die now". As usual, McKinty wastes no time in dialing up the action and bloodshed, and before 20 pages have turned, the three would-be assassins are colorfully dispatched at Forsythe's coldly efficient hand.

But old love dies hard, and thinking with the 'other' head, Forsythe defies logic and indeed returns to Northern Ireland with the not so unconscious thoughts of reuniting with the bewitching Bridget after rescuing her daughter. What follows is a predictable but nonetheless enjoyable page-turner of murder and mayhem brilliantly rendered in McKinty's patented palette of grays, blacks, and darker blacks. If Forstyhe weren't the "good" guy, we'd easily be comparing his rough vengeance to the sadism of "Touched" McGuigan of predecessor "The Dead Yard". Or the steely eyed and ruthless Chigurh of McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" - a boy scout by comparison. McKinty doesn't disappoint in slamming the lid on Forsthye's journey, throwing in a couple of twists and a genuine white-knuckled blockbuster of a finale that will leave you nearly as spent as the battered Forsythe, who after running the gauntlet through three McKinty novels has more holes in his body than a cheese grater.

In any event - pick your superlatives - McKinty is the real deal, an unrepentant writer who without apology spills blood and carnage across the pages intermingled with Homeric metaphor and poetic riffs, entertaining the reader with pleasures that would be merely guilty if not so beautifully written and cleverly plotted. Top of the class - an absolute must read for the action/thriller/suspense junkie.

I see a Gabriel Byrne movie in the future, the descriptions of the cities, buildings, andcountryside were dead on. The cadence made me think of a Dashiell Hammett story. 4 stars

I enjoyed this book very much, the nonstop action, the Irishness, Forsythe

is a likable character. The author has done a great job with making him human despite his penchant for violence.

As previously mentioned, the audio read is outstanding.

Would give 5 stars but for two aspects. First, the nonstop violence turns

Michael into a Rambo type action figure. He's smarter and more "real" than that.

Second, the Bridget character is not really explored. Why are so many so scared of her- she seems pretty mild through most of the book?

I would still highly recommend this book.

So... omg. This book was so intense, but really really really read the first one. Like everyone else, I think it's hideously sad that this is the last Michael Forsythe book but then again it isn't really. Apparently he pops up again in Falling Glass but based on how AMAZINGLY this book tied everything up i imagine it might spoil it a little. Like when you hear something you didn't really want to hear but then can't unhear. Yet... I'm going to read it because I know it's out there. Sigh. This book is so perfect. It really brings it all together. I cried. Adrian Mckinty is so extremely great.