Customer Reviews

Death in Dublin (Peter McGarr Mysteries)

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For those of us who have shared Peter McGarr's life and his many professional challenges as Chief Superintendent of the Murder Squad of the Garda Siochana in Dublin, this novel comes as worthy sequel to Death of an Irish Sinner and a satisfying farewell to McGarr and his associates, with whom we have shared personal and professional tribulations. With the death of Bartholomew Gill this past summer, this series is at an end, though three out-of-print and hard-to-find early McGarr mysteries are now scheduled for reprinting.

This novel takes place two years after Gill's previous novel, Death of an Irish Sinner, in which McGarr and his associates investigated Opus Dei, an extremist Catholic group, and experienced profound changes in their personal lives as a result. Here we see how McGarr, Hugh Ward, and Ruthie Bresnahan have coped with their changed circumstances and how they have continued their lives. We also see the return of Charles Stewart Parnell Sweeney, an Agnus Dei supporter and tabloid owner whom McGarr believes is at the heart of much illegal activity in Dublin. Though this novel is fully able to stand on its own merits, those who have read "Sinner" first will more fully appreciate the intricacies and revelations in plot and character which this sequel provides.

Here McGarr and his squad are called to investigate the theft of the Book of Kells and two other illuminated manuscripts from their hermetically sealed cases at Trinity College. The manuscripts' importance in Irish Catholic culture, the history of the Celts before the arrival of Christian missionaries, and a growing political party called the New Druids, a gang of former IRA thugs involved in organized crime and the torching of churches, are well detailed and dramatically impact the exciting and unusual plot. Skinheads, the tabloid press and its excesses, the growing use of Oxycontin, and the political machinations of Irish politicians add contemporary complications to the efforts to retrieve the ancient manuscripts.

As always, McGarr remains a practical, no-nonsense investigator, willing to throw the niceties of procedure out the window, if necessary, to achieve justice. His loyal staff, familiar to McGarr fans, all appear here, and McGarr's obvious affection for them and for his daughter gives real warmth to this novel. As McGarr, wounded professionally, emotionally, and physically wraps up the case, the reader is left with the feeling that though the novels will not continue, that McGarr will continue to work his way out of difficulties, as always, and that, emotionally, he will be OK. After two years his nemesis has been destroyed, he has made some new friendships, and most tellingly, he has resumed work on his much-loved garden. Though I'm saddened that the series has ended, I'm confident that McGarr will endure. Mary Whipple

In Dublin, Trinity College Security Chief Raymond Sloan abets two felons in bypassing the protection afforded to one of Ireland's most precious treasures, the Book of Kells. The thieves take two of the four tomes plus two other priceless books and stuff their insider ally into the hermetically sealed vault so that Raymond dies from suffocation.

Chief Superintendent of Serious Crimes Unit Peter McGarr and his team work the murder investigation, but struggle with the interference of media darling Chief Superintendent Jack Sheard. The condescending Sheard provides news conferences that leave Peter in awkward situations. As the ransom becomes known, Peter believes that The New Druids, an anti Christianity group that blames that religion for destroying Ireland for over a millennium, is behind the theft and the murder. However, action must occur rather quickly as the group threatens to burn a page every day if they fail to receive the demanded cash.

This exciting police procedural works on several levels. First the obvious theft and murder investigation hooks the reader from the moment Raymond circumvents the security system. Second Peter's personal life is in shambles since the murder of his spouse two years ago seems on the verge of resuscitation due to a reporter and his daughter. Finally, the media comparison of darling Jack vs. pain in the butt Peter is quite a revelation as the former takes care of the press regardless of the impact on the victims while the latter considers the victims, his team, and the case over the journalists. Once again Bartholomew Gill humanizes his key cast so that sub-genre fans open the New Year with a triumph.

Harriet Klausner

Everyone has an inner voice, the voice of God. McGarr's wife Noreen had been murdered two years earlier. There was a theft at Trinity library of two volumes of the Book of Kells. The guard, Sloane, was killed. He had died with a sap in his hand. Raymond Sloane's son had a nose ring. Raymond had had a drug problem. In the end he had given his wife some money to cover having gone into their savings for old age. A bar owner recalls a meeting the deceased had with two people.

McGarr is superseded in the investigation by an officer of the Garda, a Trinity graduate, known as the communicator. This causes McGarr to mobilize his people to work all the harder. McGarr realizes that in one way he has been freed. He does not have to make himself available to the press. McGarr becomes involved with Kara Kennedy the assistant librarian notwithstanding the fact that she is technically a suspect until the investigation ends.

It turns out that the head librarian at Trinity is burdened with drugs and debts. McGarr gets into trouble with the Garda and is placed on administrative leave. The son of the murdered guard is involved in some fashion in the demands for ransom. The chief investigator from the Garda is compromised but with the chief librarian comatose he is not in much danger of having his corrupt conduct disclosed.

Gill was an American journalist and a graduate of Trinity College the book cover discloses. He died in 2002 and wrote this book in the McGarr series about five years earlier. This title has more violence in it than some of the other books in the series.

I thought this was one of his best McGarr series books. I could not stop reading it.

I usually like "cozies" but as it was St. Patrick's Day, I decided to try an Irish detective story for a change. And what a story! I read the whole book in one day. I found the writing taut and spell-like; I just kept reading and reading. Even though I felt that a lot of the plot was evident about halfway through, I was curious to see how McGarr would catch on. I am saddened indeed that this was Gill's last book and that he didn't know it was his last. I wonder how he would have ended the series. But, perhaps, he did have a "sight" that this WAS the last as there is a kind of "turning a new corner" element to it.

First Sentence: Peter McGarr stepped out of the laneway into Dame Street, at the end of which stood the granite eminence of Trinity College about a quarter mile distant.

Peter McGarr may have seniority, but he is pushed into a secondary role, and then suspended, during the investigation of the theft of the Book of Kells and two other priceless books, as well as the vicious murder of the night watchman.

I have a real problem with male protagonists who start out by saying how devastated the still are at the loss of their lover/wife, and how long it's been since they've been intimate with a woman, and then promptly leap into bed with someone or, in this case, two someones. It starts the whole thing off on such a false, insincere note for me. That aside, I loved the setting and learning more about Dublin, Trinity College and the Book of Kells. The villains were fairly obvious and there was plenty of violence. it was a good enough read but, as it is the last, or next to last, of the series, I doubt I'll go back and read the prior books.

This is not a bad book, and I only give it a half hearted review because I bought it believing I would get more of a historical thriller instead of detective novel. I know, my fault. The other thing is that even if I had loved the content so much of McGarr's past was given away in this book that I have no need to get the other books since I know their endings already. Overall not a bad book, but I thought the character of Orla Bannon was wasted. She was the best part for me and seemed underutilized, and I did not like the way she was portrayed just before the final act...., you will see what I mean when you read it. As I said, if you like a good detective romp get an earlier McGarr book (good writing, but somewhat dark wit), since you will have the answers to those revealed to you in this one.