The Death of an Irish Lover

Peter McGarr #14

by Bartholomew Gill

Crime runs rampant in the picturesque town of Leixleap -- and onIreland's famed River Shannon, where brazen thieves illegally harvestthe gourmet-prized eels that flourish there. But while poachingmay be something the local Eel Police division is well-equippedto handle, murder is wholly another matter.Chief Inspector Peter McGarr has been called out from Dublin to investigate a troubling double homicide. The nude body of young, pretty, and,recently married Eel Policewoman Ellen Gilday Finn has been discoveredin the bed of a hot-sheet inn -- wrapped around the equally unclothedcorpse of her much older boss, Pascal Burke. A crime of passion, perhaps, pointing to Ellen's cuckolded newly wedded husband as the perpetrator. But conflicting clues and false confessions are leading McGarrinto dangerous hidden corners where greed, corruption, IRA terror andradical, possibly deadly, environmentalism are but a few of the,dark blooms secretly nourished in the rich loam of the Irish countryside.

Genres: Mystery, Ireland, Fiction, Irish Literature, Mystery Thriller

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Bartholomew Gill is the pen name of Mark McGarrity.

Mr. McGarrity was born in Holyoke, Mass., and graduated from Brown University in 1966. He studied for his master's degree at Trinity College, Dublin, and never tired of mining the country for material.

''One of the things they gave me,'' he once said of his books, ''is a chance to go back to Ireland time and time again to do research.''

He was also an avid outdoorsman, and since 1996 worked at The Star-Ledger of Newark as a features writer and columnist under the McGarrity name, specializing in nature and outdoor recreation. While continuing to produce McGarr novels, sometimes at the rate of one a year, Mr. McGarrity produced several articles a week for the newspaper. He wrote about a variety of topics ranging from environmental issues to the odd characters he encountered in his travels, like an Eastern European immigrant who grew up watching cowboy movies and found his dream job playing Wyatt Earp in an amusement park in rural New Jersey.

Mr. McGarrity also published five novels under his own name.

Series:
* Peter McGarr Mystery

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars because I liked other books in the series and was sometimes amused by missteps of regular characters. This book does not compare to the quality of The Death of a Joyce Scholar.
What I liked- the setting of a fictional town on the Shannon River, one of the areas I visited.
What I did not like - overall moral tone as well as the lack of proper police procedure.

A man from McGarr's childhood calls for help to keep a murder quiet at his Inn. Since we are supplied with McGarr's remembrance of this bully we can easily predict discretion will not be on the menu.
A nude couple seems to have been executed in a hotel room by one bullet to temple of the woman who is on top, with the bullet supposedly going downward to the man's heart. The repeated descriptions of this scene of crime grates and proves to be misinterpreted anyway.
We get the IRA as a leading presence in the plot due to the value of eel fishing. Really? More to that story.
McGarr has a daughter Maddie, age 10, carted out to the fishing resort by mother Noreen since she enjoys murder investigations. After McGarr comes close to drowning saving another little girl, the daughter of one of the IRA goons, he hopes to stay in bed a minute or two trying to recover from the previous night's exertions.
He gets set with a cup of coffee..."Now, all he needed was: 'A smoke--you don't happen to see my smokes about?' he asked Maddie, who was still in the room somewhere behind him. McGarr didn't dare turn his neck more than a few degrees to either side. 'Even if I did,' she informed him, 'I would not be your enabler.'...'Well, I suspect I'll just have to get them myself.' McGarr had to rock back and forth, just to test his legs and his arms--holding the tiny tray out before him--to rise off the bed. Which was when a packet struck the tray with a suddenness that rather frightened him. Ditto, the matches. 'There--have your death,' said Maddie, her tone as histrionic as a television advisory condemning smoking."
The murder investigation and general involvement with most of the employees at the resort was quite challenging to follow since new crimes were popping up like a game of Whack-a-mole! The personal lives of McGarr's crew were also more than a mess.
Ahhh, but...the opening:
"Pulling his car onto the shoulder of the dual carriageway, McGarr peered down into the valley of the Shannon.
Below him stretched a vista that had remained unchanged at least since Ireland had been cleared of its forests in the seventeenth century--a patchwork of green fields, iridescent under a pale sun and bounded by a web of gray-stone walls.
The pattern stretched in every direction as far as the eye could see, dotted here and there with bright bits of black-and-white cattle that were feeding on the last green grass of the year before being confined to barn or haggard the winter long....
The Shannon itself divided the idyllic scene, as in many ways it did the country, east from west. A wide and sinuous strip of silver, the river had overflowed its banks in places, rushing to the sea."

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this about 15-16 years ago. I didn't remember a lot about it. It was almost like reading a new book.

I liked it then and I like it now. Some of the books I have re-read have let me down the second time around. But not this time.

[Irene Grumman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A double murder is not what it at first appears. The detective in this series, Peter McGarr, muses on philosophy and Ireland's twentieth century history, which often helps him solve the crime. Each book in this long series explores his relationships, showing him to be a decent, fallible man and a fine policeman. Peter, his wife, and his colleagues, continue developing character in each book.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, solid mystery, set in a small Irish town. Gruff cop, plenty of eccentric village characters, really detailed setting.

[Edana Cichanowicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irish wit without the cliches. Like this...and it's a SERIES!!!

[Terry Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides good insight into local color with several quirky characters as well.

[LeAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. My first time to read this author. This was book 14 of 16 of his Peter McGarr series. Sadly, Bartholomew Gill died in 2002 at the age of 59. His stories take place in Ireland. McGarr is a police officer in Dublin, Ireland. His characters and their lifestyles in present-day Ireland were interesting. His first book was published in 1976. I plan to read more of this series. I recently found one of them on clearance - #12 "Death of an Ardent Bibliophile".

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Peter McGarr mystery. For a middle-aged family man, McGarr is quite physical as he investigates the death of Pascal Burke, who has far too many affairs to keep track of. The illegal harvesting of eels forms an interesting backdrop.

[Sharyn Grimm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not complete. Too gruesome for my tastes.

[Margaret Capozzolo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to believe that the most valued commodity in the area surrounding Leixleap on the River Shannon is the eel that swims in its waters. Hard to believe, too, that the job of Eel Policeman is so dangerous that two of Leixleap’s finest are found dead in a local hotel. This is more than local law enforcement is able to handle, so a frantic phone call is made to Dublin’s Chief Inspector Peter McGarr for assistance. The instigator of that call is an old school mate of McGarr, one whose bullying ways made him widely disliked. Although the murdered couple were shot “in flagrante delicto,” McGarr’s investigation uncovers clues that lead in a different direction. The IRA? eel poachers? a betrayed spouse? possibly even disgruntled environmentalists? McGarr will sort it all out, of that the reader has no doubt.

[flo · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting story - not quite the page turner I was hoping for.

[Amyem]

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5...

[Harry Lane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overwrought plot, murky action, difficult dialog.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

this one was really good, quite a different premise!
Read it again, thought it was great, a cliff hanger 9/27/13

[Linda Chrisman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better know your Gulliver's Travels to really enjoy this one.

[International Cat Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mystery tied up neatly with a solution that wasn't predictable... but I just couldn't get into it.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing as always. Interesting local characters and history. Was surprised McGarr took his daughter into a dangerous situation.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little different style of writing from what I'm used to. Good story.