Death In Dublin (Peter McGarr Mysteries) [Paperback]

Bartholomew Gill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2003 | Series: Peter McGarr Mysteries

The theft of the Book of Kells -- an exquisite ninth-century amalgam of Christian doctrine and Celtic legend -- from the Trinity College library is, in itself, a most shocking crime. But it is the brutal slaying of a night watchman that throws Peter McGarr of the Dublin Murder Squad into the mix. Forced to share investigative duties equally with a publicity-hungry co-Chief Superintendent, McGarr is soon entangled in a twisted web of murder, thievery, back-biting politics, and dark pagan rituals. And surely more blood will flow as secrets, deceptions, and well-guarded lies come to light -- forcing an intrepid detective to doubt the loyalties of even his closest compatriots -- in a chilling case that threatens to bring about nothing less than the destruction of contemporary Irish society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The eighth and sadly the last in Gill's Peter McGarr series (the author died last summer) is a complicated and gloomy foray into Ireland's relentlessly tragic political and social landscape. Unidentified criminals, striking at the heart of Irish culture and tradition, kill a security guard and abscond from Trinity College with the revered Book of Kells, for which they demand a huge ransom. McGarr, "chief superintendent of the Serious Crimes Unit of the Garda Siochana," takes on the case. Corrupt higher-ups in the Garda dismiss McGarr when he treads on sensitive ground, but guilty feelings stemming from the unsolved murders of his wife and father-in-law drive him onward. At times hard to follow, this deeply depressing story builds to a gripping, carnage-filled climax.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This is the sixteenth, and last, police procedural starring Peter McGarr, chief superintendent of the Serious Crimes Unit of the Garda Siochana, the Irish Police. McGarr's creator, Mark McGarrity, who chose the pen name Gill (leaving part of his surname in the name of his protagonist), died this past summer. In some series, the main character remains static, a mere calculating machine in the solution of mysteries. The Edgar-nominated McGarr series was special in many ways, but primarily in how McGarr grew and changed as a character and in the way Gill contrasted McGarr's personal life with his professional one. In the last of the series, a widowed and shattered McGarr finds surcease from his grief in his work and is faced with a case that demands all his cunning. Ireland's most valuable cultural icon, the Book of Kells, has been stolen from the Old Library of Trinity College. A terrorist group, the New Druids, holds the book for ransom, threatening to burn a page a day until their demand for 50 million Euro dollars is met. This is a spectacularly suspenseful book, skillfully leading the reader through the political crisis the kidnap of Kells ignites. It is also a wonderful exploration of Irish culture and, especially, the history and artistry of the Book of Kells itself. Gill's last case is a masterpiece. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins (November 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060008504
• ISBN-13: 978-0060008505
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #761,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthy sequel and a poignant goodbye., February 16, 2003

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Death in Dublin: A Novel of Suspense (Peter McGarr Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exciting police procedural, February 4, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death in Dublin: A Novel of Suspense (Peter McGarr Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Images are aids to understanding, April 11, 2004

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Death in Dublin: A Novel of Suspense (Peter McGarr Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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.