Customer Reviews

The Four Courts Murder

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

"...for the rest of the day, Front sat in court, silent and immobile, like a vampire in his coffin, awaiting the evening." The only problem with living alone is not having anyone to whom I can read wonderful passages aloud. I loved the writing and that the story is told from the perspective of the different characters. The characters are well done and even have personal lives. The case unfolds in layers, each increasing my interest and involvement. I didn't identify the killer--although looking back, I should have-but loved the final resolution. I really enjoyed this book.

I am not a mystery reader; when I try one (even classics, like Christie and Sayers) I usually lose interest after 50 pages or less. But not this one! My wife pressed it on me, and after devouring it, we sent a copy as a gift to my lawyer brother.

Often very funny, and apparently written by one knowledgeable about the Irish legal system. If you are interested in the courts, the Irish, or just good writing, try it!

The most detested person in Dublin's judicial system is Justice Sidney Piggott. Police Inspector Denis Lennon would agree that the Four Courts judge is a nasty person, but how widely disliked the man is he has no idea until someone murders His Honor. Denis heads the investigation with an assist from Sergeant Molly Power, but the list of suspects from Piggott's employment circle with motive seems like much of the city.

The two cops have one potential lead; several individuals mentioned that an unknown young man hung around the courtroom while Piggott worked on a particularly minor case. No one could say who this person is or why he would want to observe a tedious trial. Could he have waited for the right moment to kill Piggott? Denis plans to find out.

This is a fabulous Irish police procedural in which the audience sees different perspectives; These include those of the two cops and interestingly the negative muses of the missing man who seemingly stalked the victim and is now undecided whether he dreamed or actually killed Piggott. The story line grips the audience as the case widens beyond Dublin to the Irish countryside where another related death occurred. With a fully developed support cast enhancing the official inquirie, readers will enjoy this powerful who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

After reading this book's description I really looked forward to sitting down with it . . . and was terribly disappointed when I did. Unfortunately this tale runs out of gas in less than 100 pages, which is doubly unfortunate as the book goes for over 200 pages. There really isn't much of a mystery, the plot is contrived and simple, the characters are wooden and one dimensional and the flavor of Ireland advertised on the cover is no more than a few scenes in a few pubs. To me this read more like a made for TV movie script, (How to Write a Mystery in 3 East Steps), rather than a novel. This one didn't work for me.

It's hard to believe that this is the author's first mystery novel. It is so expertly written that I would have assumed that Andrew Nugent had had long practice at constructing plots and fleshing them out. It is a police procedural and follows, more or less, the established rules of such mystery novels, but it is salted with hilarious Irish humor, lovely satirical slaps at the judiciary, at boozers, crooks and layabouts, but saving its deftest jabs for grandiose self-deluded windbags. The conclusion is unusual but entirely satisfying.

We're told that Nugent, a former lawyer who is now a Benedictine monk, is writing another murder mystery. I, for one, can hardly wait.

Scott Morrison

A judge is murdered in the supposed security of his chambers. An 'obvious'suspect is soon identified and pursued. We meet an array of intriguing characters in a fast-paced mystery.