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In "Judashart" krijgt het speurdersduo Saxon en Grace in eerste instantie te maken met de geheimzinnige dood van een jonge actrice. Als Saxon in Dublin haar oude FBI-collega Leon Kaminsky tegen het lijf loopt, neemt hij direct de benen. Verbaasd over dit voorval besluit ze uit te zoeken waar Leon mee bezig is. Ze ontdekt dat hij op zoek is naar de ware toedracht rond de dood van zijn vrouw, die tijdens een overval is vermoord. Het begint erop te lijken dat die zaak en de moord op de actrice met elkaar te maken hebben. Voor Saxon en Grace staat het vast dat er ergens iemand aan de touwtjes trekt. Wie is deze kwaaraardige regisseur? Kunnen ze hem vinden voordat er meer slachtofers vallen?

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read

About the author

Ingrid Black

6 books23 followers
Ingrid Black is the pseudonym of Eilis O'Hanlon and Ian McConnel, a husband-and-wife writing team who live with their family in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They are the creators of ‘Saxon and Grace Fitzgerald’, former FBI agent and Detective Chief Superintendent with the Dublin Metropolitan Police’s Murder Squad.

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5 stars
9 (12%)
4 stars
20 (27%)
3 stars
32 (43%)
2 stars
7 (9%)
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6 (8%)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Profile Image for Grada (BoekenTrol).
2,292 reviews3 followers
December 15, 2018
An interesting book. Exciting, intriguing, not like other thrillers, so not really a standard whodunnit.
I entered the challenge to guess who did it. Too bad it's (partly) because I have read the Dutch version, that the given clue didn't work till very late in the book. But on the other hand that made it so fun to read :-)
1 review
December 12, 2018
Reasonable bed time read

Second Saxon book I have read, nothing remarkable but it kept me interested, good characters , I like the narrative of the book and how the author used Season's thoughts to lead the story.
Profile Image for Kees van Duyn.
1,075 reviews7 followers
July 24, 2018
Judashart is het derde boek van Ingid Black. Mijn eerste. Een vergelijking met haar eerdere boeken kan ik dus niet maken. Het boek speelt zich af in Dublin, Ierland. Dat vond ik wel aardig, want ik had nog niet eerder een boek gelezen dat zich daar afspeelde.

Het begin draait om de zoektocht naar een oud-FBI'er, Leon Kaminski. Waarbij ik me afvroeg of dit in het hele boek zo zou zijn. Gelukkig niet, want er komt een moord om de hoek kijken. Het worden twee verhalen in een boek. Afzonderlijk, zo lijkt het. Maar schijn bedriegt, want zowel de zoektocht als de moord hebben met elkaar te maken. Ingrid Black weet op een knappe manier van twee ogenschijnlijk afzonderlijke zaken één geheel te maken.

Zinderend spannend is het boek nergens, maar ondanks dat boeit het wel. Het leest gemakkelijk met op zijn tijd wat cynische humor. Een ijzersterke thriller is Judashart echter niet. Eerder gemiddeld.
Profile Image for Agnita.
5 reviews
June 8, 2025
heel spannend...verhaal zit goed in elkaar. ook met veel humor verteld.
Profile Image for Shuhan [On Leave].
33 reviews2 followers
October 7, 2013
*NOTE: This review contains some minor spoilers. I'll try to hide as many as possible. But, the ending is spoiled. I will make sure to hide that.

The Judas Heart was...an interesting read.
Being a fan of mystery, crime and thriller books, I have read better. It wasn't the most intense and exciting read. It never had me completely engrossed in it (Causing me to skip some pages. Don't worry, I didn't miss out much!)
Most times, I wanted to skip all the pages until something very relevant happens. It makes me so very frustrated.
At other times, I admire the author's imagination and actually start to think though the book doesn't hold as much suspension as I would like.

Synopsis Time!

What I think is the main quote of the book:
Murder is a business that never seems to go into recession...

Saxon is a former FBI agent who retired to become an author to write about some of her cases. Later, she moves to Dublin, to a flat. One day, an old colleague of hers appears on the streets of Dublin unexpectantly. Saxon falls for an old trick of his (The one like "look at that!" *Points at the sky* *Runs*)and lets him escape, once again. His name was Leon Kaminski and he obviously didn't want Saxon nosing into his work. But, Saxon, a paranoid, nosy, annoying woman (according to me) makes Kaminski's old friend track down where he was staying so Saxon can pretend to be his wife and break into his room just to find out about his personal business. (Now how annoying is that?!)

Finally, one day, Kaminski payed a homeless drunkard to give Saxon a note with his phone number seeing how desperate she was to find out about his business. (The homo thing was claimed to be a joke.)

It turned out Kaminski's wife had been murdered and several other women who seemed to follow a pattern.

One of the women was Marsha Reed who recently was a victim of brutal murder with her body tied to her bed and (What an unatural coincedence...) died in Dublin! She led Kaminski to Dublin.

Spoiling the ending-->

1,618 reviews26 followers
September 26, 2016
The emotion that torments everyone. And destroys some.

This is the third in this excellent series and it tackles the subject of jealousy - sexual jealousy and professional jealousy. Former FBI agent Saxon is still living in Dublin and still involved with Chief Superintendent Grace Fitzgerald of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. And both of them are ALWAYS involved in murder.

It starts when she catches a glimpse of former colleague Leon "J.J." Kaminsky. Why is he in Dublin and why is he avoiding her? When she tries to get answers, she learns that he also has left the FBI following the murder of his wife. And the only one who seems to have any interest in him is yet another former agent who now runs a security firm. Kaminsky is convinced that he knows who murdered his wife and he's determined to bring the man to justice. A Dublin woman connected to the case has been killed in a car accident. But was it accident or murder?

Meanwhile Fitzgerald and the Murder Squad are investigating a definite murder - the brutal killing of a young actress who liked to live dangerously. The detectives go about their jobs - all supposedly on the same team, but with undercurrents of jealousy and resentment. And then the City Fathers hire a new Assistant Commissioner of Crime. And she's a woman! Will woman-hating Detective Seamus Dalton implode? And will Grace Fitzgerald and the attractive newcomer become more than colleagues?

The new Assistant Commissioner is eager to take advantage of Saxon's expertise. Saxon is (as always) drawn back into police work, but every investigation is emotionally grueling, leaving her wondering if the scars of her childhood and her years with the FBI have left her unable to live a normal life.

Like the first two books in the series, it's a convoluted story and there are so many red herrings you wonder if there are any fish left in the North Sea. These are dark books. None of the characters is without flaws and the reader is led down some paths that most of us would avoid in real life. But Saxon and Fitzgerald and the DMP detectives (even obnoxious Seamus) have to be tough. As someone once said, they are the "thin blue line" that stands between society and lawlessness. Even those who bring death on themselves by their own folly deserve justice. Stripped of the frills, that's what police work is all about.

I continue to enjoy this series very much. The writing is beautiful, the Dublin setting is fascinating, and the characters get a grip on you and won't let go. I hope that the fourth (and last) in the series will be available on Kindle soon. I have my money ready.



Profile Image for Lizzie Hayes.
586 reviews32 followers
September 1, 2012
‘The Judas Heart’ by Ingrid Black

When former FBI agent Saxon sees the face of her colleague ex-agent Leon Kaminski in a bookshop she is transported back to the last time she had seen Kaminski, then as now he placed his finger to his lips in a shushing motion and then just disappeared. But this time things are very different because Saxon is in Dublin and a call to another ex-colleague elicits the information that Leon Kaminski is indeed missing not for the first time but following his wife’s murder he seems to have dropped completely out of sight. Saxon decides to track him down.

Meanwhile Superintendent Grace Fitzgerald, Saxon’s partner, has a new boss, one who is keen to tap into Saxon expertise in their murder hunt for the killer of Marsah Reed. Investigation into the death of Marsha Reed produces many lines of enquiry, some linked with the theatre world, and some disturbingly leading in the direction of Leon Kaminski.

I have enjoyed the books in this series.
--------
Lizzie Hayes
Profile Image for Anne.
Author 9 books63 followers
February 15, 2009
I love the relationship in this series between the main character and her lover, the female Detective Chief Superintendent. It is not angst ridden, full of conflict simply because conflict is required in fiction, or overly sweet. It is simply one element of these characters lives, lives that are challenged by questions of career, place, and, of course, murder. This is a murder mystery, after all.

After having now read three of Ingrid Black's books in this series, I think the strongest plot by far was in the first. While the complexity of the characters has grown through the books two and three, the plots themselves have been a let down. I can survive this type of disappointment, because I tend to be more interested in the characters anyway. For the more traditional lover of mysteries, the plots might not be intriguing enough to satisfy.

Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews

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