When my friend Duffy recommended that I read A Man with One of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell, I knew I was in for a treat. Duffy has exquisite taste in crime fiction. But this time Duffy outdid himself because this novel is nothing short of fantastic.

The plot:

Paul Mulchrone is in a terrible jam. He performs community service every week by visiting terminally ill hospital patients. Unfortunately for Paul, a murderous criminal believes Paul heard incriminating evidence from a dying man’s lips. This same criminal is now determined to kill Paul to keep his secret a secret. Paul doesn’t understand the information he’s received, and he doesn’t know who’s trying to kill him. To save himself, he’ll have to solve a thirty-year-old mystery while dodging harrowing attempts on his life.

 

The characters:

Paul is a curious young man who remains unemployed by choice and lives on five hundred euros a month. When Paul figures out that really bad people are determined to kill him, his first instinct is to run. But with no money and no car, where will he go and what will he do when he gets there? Fortunately for Paul, he has two allies.

Nurse Brigit feels guilty because she introduced Paul to the dying man who got Paul into trouble in the first place. As an avid reader of crime fiction, Brigit desperately wants to help Paul solve the mystery. Her nursing skills come in handy more than once during the story, but it’s her quick mind and sharp tongue that endear her to the reader.

Bunny McGarry is perhaps the best tough-cop character I’ve ever encountered. He’s loud, crass, usually drunk, and always carries a hurley. (For non-Irish readers, a hurley is a wooden stick used in the game of hurling. Search for hurling up on Youtube. It’s awesome.) Bunny only cares about one thing: the citizens of his little corner of Dublin. Though they are at odds now, Bunny still counts Paul as one of those citizens, and Bunny will use his hurley however and whenever he needs to keep Paul safe.

Bunny trusts very few people, certainly not the police. Paul doesn’t trust anyone, although Brigit is growing on him. Despite nearly constant conflict between them, these three characters must work together to have any chance of surviving the next chapter let alone the end of the novel.

 

The writing style:

McDonnell never goes cheap on characters, even when they have only bit parts to play in the overall story. Each character gets their own backstory and emotions and most importantly, their own ax to grind. Oh, and the chief villain? He’s a worthy adversary you’re going to love to hate.

The author’s riveting prose kept me turning the pages. The dialogue and narrative are some of the funniest I’ve ever encountered in a crime story. I giggled. I chuckled. I laughed out loud.

The setting is blue-collar Dublin for the most part. I don’t know Dublin, but reading this novel makes me want to visit just so I can hear the locals talk. The dialogue is nothing short of genius. Witty. Crisp. To the point and always fresh.

Some popular crime novels are all about the plot. First, something happens. Then something else happens. Then this other thing. I keep turning the pages to find out what happens next, but occasionally, I wonder why I’m bothering. Not so with Caimh McDonnell. Reading this novel felt like having favorite guests over to my house for a long and entertaining visit. I never wanted it to end.

So, it was great to discover that McDonnell has written ten other novels I have yet to read, including four more in this series.

This is the best crime novel by a living author I’ve read in a long time. If you enjoy well-written crime stories with fascinating characters, I highly recommend that you read A Man with One of Those Faces. 

Check it out on Amazon
Join My Readers Club and get a free Bill O’Shea novella. NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

The black and white image above is called The murder of William the Silent from The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon, 1921.