Customer Reviews

Borderlands

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

 

 

The body of a young girl is found in the Borderlands, the area between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. The only clues found with the body are a ring and a photograph. The girl's father, a well-known petty criminal, is more hindrance than help in Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin's investigation. Suddenly Devlin isn't handling one case; he's handling three, as an elderly VIP in a local nursing home complains of an intruder in his room and the body of a young accounting student is discovered in the wreck of a burned out car. Do these cases somehow tie themselves together?

I didn't find all that much new under the sun as far as the plot of Borderlands was concerned, but there were elements that I did enjoy very much. The setting brought home how tricky things can still be along the border between the Irelands. I also enjoyed the character of Ben Devlin, a man of determination, compassion, and the ability to make mistakes...and learn from them.

What came shining through in this book to me was the overwhelming feeling of humanity and compassion. As Devlin stands beside the body of young Angela Cashell, he notices that "Snowflakes settled on her body as gently as kisses and did not melt." People are what matter to Ben Devlin. People are the reason he's a Garda inspector:

"While Kathleen Boyle wept, Long and I sat in that room, drank tea and did not speak. We could not leave her-- not as police officers, not as fellow human beings."

As compassionate as he is, Devlin is also a man of anger, and he understands how easy it can be for the police to do the wrong thing. Although Borderlands may not have much new in the way of plot, McGilloway has a talent for writing, for setting and for characterization.

First Sentence: It was not beyond reason that Angela Cashell's final resting place should straddle the border.

When a body is found on the border between Northern and Southern Ireland, in an area known as the Borderlands, it is the identity of the victim that places the investigation in the hands of Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin. The investigation starts out looking for the killer based on events in the present. When a second body is found, the motive for the case turns to the past and the disappearance of a prostitute twenty-five years earlier.

This may be Brian McGilloway's first mystery, but I sincerely hope it won't be his last. Devlin is an interesting character. He's married with two small children and a dog and put into a realistic dilemma when faced with an old girlfriend. The story is very well plotted and definitely kept me interested all the way through. The story isn't set in a city, but in a rural area where the loss of livestock is a serious issue. It's a human story dealing with families and the sins of the fathers. One small note commending the publisher, it's also a physically nice book; printed and bound in China and includes--when is the last time you saw this?--a sewn-in bookmark. I enjoyed it, recommend it and eagerly await McGilloway's next book.

Other reviewers have summarized the setting and character elements. I read this because I greatly enjoyed Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series, which is set in Scotland. I like my genre novels with a little extra thrown in, such as the possibility of learning about the customs and culture of another place. I am giving McGilloway high praise when I say I was not at all disappointed. The plot was crisp and moved quickly, and I felt compelled to read the whole book in less than 24 hours.

This book has a few things going for it, namely an interesting location, characters who are often very well described, and a perplexing but not incomprehensible plot. What works against it is too many characters (they're well-described, but not always well-delineated) and a protagonist who can be pretty obtuse. I'm not all that great at figuring out mysteries/procedurals as I read them, but for once I was (mentally) yelling at the hero to stop being such a dolt.

I went back and forth between 3 and 4 stars, but if the question is "will I read the next one in the series?" the answer is "yes," so I think that tips it over to a 4. That 4 is also a recommendation for you to go check it out, though with some reservations.

Detective Benedict Devlin has three recent murders and one old one going back 25 years to solve. It seems that a police colleague is implicated in the whole affair.

Set in Ireland right on the border with the north we have a great wee whodunit, full of totally dis-likeable characters, lots of red herrings and a good plot.

This is the first outing for McGilloway and is recommended it continues to surprise right to the end.

Fifteen-year-old Angela Cashell's nearly nude body lay in the brambles by a secluded lane in an area known as "the borderlands" where an invisible line separates the Irish Republic in the south from Northern Ireland. An autopsy reveals she died from a seizure after taking Ecstasy laced with poison. Inspector Benedict Devlin, stationed in Lifford on the southern side of the border where Angela lived, finds himself leading an increasingly complex investigation into the teenager's death. Angela's family, having a long tradition of poverty and distrust of the police, close ranks against the detectives. Whitey McKelvey, the prime suspect, is one of a band of "travelers" encamped outside a nearby town, and they quickly become targets of vigilante justice delivered by Angela's father and uncles. When a second murder ocurs--this time a young man home on holiday from college--the two cases at first appear unrelated but certain clues later suggest otherwise. And to complicate Devlin's life even more, an old flame from his youth who married into a wealthy and politically powerful family begins making advances which does not set well with Debbie, Devlin's wife. Then there's the neighbor who threatens to shoot the family's dog for killing his sheep. And what should the Inspector do when the investigation suggests that his own Superintendent might somehow be implicated in at least one of the deaths he's charged with solving?

Author Brian McGilloway brings his setting and story alive with vivid descriptions of the natural landscape that surrounds the unfolding events of his narrative. His characters, with all their fallibilities, practically walk off the pages and sustain the plot through all its twists and turns. As the first shot fired in the Inspector Devlin series, "Borderlands" is a gritty tale where police, petty criminals, and aspiring politicians find the past is always present and will come back to haunt them as surely as that nebulous devide between the two Irelands.

Brian McGilloway's debut novel, BORDERLANDS, is another highly entertaining book set in Ireland in the area between County Donegal (the republic of Ireland) and County Tyrone of the north. An Garda Siochana (the Guardians of the Peace) of the republic and the police service of Northern Ireland have come to work together when events straddle the border. The body of a young girl is found in the fields and she is recognized as coming from a town in the Irish republic so Inspector Benedict Devlin takes charge of the case. The people of the town of Lifford have inhabited the area for generations and, like small towns everywhere, there are no secrets and everyone knows everyone else's histories. McGilloway knows the Irish and captures the nuances that grow out of shared memories, faith, and community. It is December and as Christmas approaches another body surfaces and Devlin realizes that there is a connection between the two deaths and a disappearance 25 years before. The characters are drawn clearly and the conclusion is satisfying. I look forward to the next book featuring Devlin and the town of Lifford.

E. Crowley