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Detective Sean Duffy #2
I Hear the Sirens in the Street
A Barry Award winner and shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award!
A torso in a suitcase looks like an impossible case. But Sean Duffy isn't easily deterred, especially when his floundering love life leaves him in need of distraction. So, with Detective Constables McCrabban and McBride, he goes to work identifying the victim. The torso turns out to be all that's left of an American tourist who once served in the US military. What was he doing in Northern Ireland in the midst of the 1982 Troubles?
The trail leads to the doorstep of a beautiful, flame-haired, twenty-something widow, whose husband died at the hands of an IRA assassination team just a few months before. Suddenly, Duffy is caught between his romantic instincts, gross professional misconduct, and powerful men he should know better than to mess with. These include British intelligence, the FBI, and local paramilitary death squads, enough to keep even the savviest detective busy.
Duffy's growing sense of self-doubt isn't helping. But, being a legendarily stubborn man, he doesn't let that stop him pursuing the case to its explosive conclusion.
A torso in a suitcase looks like an impossible case. But Sean Duffy isn't easily deterred, especially when his floundering love life leaves him in need of distraction. So, with Detective Constables McCrabban and McBride, he goes to work identifying the victim. The torso turns out to be all that's left of an American tourist who once served in the US military. What was he doing in Northern Ireland in the midst of the 1982 Troubles?
The trail leads to the doorstep of a beautiful, flame-haired, twenty-something widow, whose husband died at the hands of an IRA assassination team just a few months before. Suddenly, Duffy is caught between his romantic instincts, gross professional misconduct, and powerful men he should know better than to mess with. These include British intelligence, the FBI, and local paramilitary death squads, enough to keep even the savviest detective busy.
Duffy's growing sense of self-doubt isn't helping. But, being a legendarily stubborn man, he doesn't let that stop him pursuing the case to its explosive conclusion.
319 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
440 people are currently reading
3251 people want to read
About the author
Adrian McKinty
49 books4,358 followersAdrian McKinty is an Irish novelist. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. He read law at the University of Warwick and politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York and from 2001 on, in Denver, Colorado, where he taught high school English and began writing fiction. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 822 reviews
December 30, 2019
I don’t think I’ve ever read a mystery series that does a better job of detailing time and place. McKinty’s Sean Duffy series takes place during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
In a time when most murders were from car bombs or gunshots, a cut up body in a suitcase is pretty unique. Especially when it’s determined the cause of death was from a rare poison. Sean’s investigation takes all sorts of twists and turns.
McKinty not only nails the atmosphere but also the characters. Sean is so wonderfully real. While everyone with any smarts is trying to find a way out of Northern Ireland, he stubbornly stays put, wanting to be part of the solution.
The narrator, Gerald Doyle, is spot on perfect. This is a great series to listen to. Fast paced and just convoluted enough to keep the listener constantly engaged. I can’t say I found all parts of the story believable but it was good entertainment. And the story ends with a bit of a cliffhanger concerning Duffy’s future, so I’ll be interested to see where it goes in the next book. I’m so glad there are quite a number of books in this series.
June 4, 2020
The second book in the series and Sean is growing on me. I still wish the author had not included his use of drugs but I managed to overlook those sections because the rest was so good.
The atmosphere of Belfast in the time of the 'troubles' is a perfect backdrop to this gritty police procedural. Sean Duffy is smart (in most ways), persistent and inclined to disregard authority when it suits him. He can either end up with a medal or a demotion. I will not spoil the book by saying which result he gets this time.
The humour was often laugh aloud funny. There was plenty of action and some gruesome deaths. There was also a lot of nostalgia for anyone who lived in Britain at that time - Margaret Thatcher (especially her hair), the Falkland Isles and frequent musical references.
Altogether entertaining and certainly worth reading. I will be continuing with the series.
The atmosphere of Belfast in the time of the 'troubles' is a perfect backdrop to this gritty police procedural. Sean Duffy is smart (in most ways), persistent and inclined to disregard authority when it suits him. He can either end up with a medal or a demotion. I will not spoil the book by saying which result he gets this time.
The humour was often laugh aloud funny. There was plenty of action and some gruesome deaths. There was also a lot of nostalgia for anyone who lived in Britain at that time - Margaret Thatcher (especially her hair), the Falkland Isles and frequent musical references.
Altogether entertaining and certainly worth reading. I will be continuing with the series.
August 9, 2017
Adrian McKinty's second novel featuring Detective Sean Duffy is set in 1982, during the time of the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland. As the novel opens, a man's torso is found abandoned in a suitcase. Duffy manages to identify the victim as an American tourist--a retired IRS employee who had come to Ireland to visit his roots.
The autopsy reveals that the man was poisoned by a very rare plant, and Duffy can't find a hint of it anywhere in Northern Ireland. His only viable lead comes when he discovers the identity of the man who owned the suitcase. But the investigation hits an apparent dead end when it turns out that the man who owned the suitcase has himself been murdered, apparently by IRA assassins. His widow gave the suitcase to the Salvation Army, and there's no way of knowing who might have gotten it from them.
Both cases effectively wind up on the back burner. But Duffy continues to be bothered by apparent inconsistencies in both murders and, even though he's been ordered off the case, he continues to poke and prod, antagonizing some very dangerous people in the process and putting himself at serious risk of life and limb.
This is another extremely well-told tale with a very likable and savvy protagonist. McKinty sets the stage beautifully, and the violence and the sadness of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland lurks behind virtually every scene. This book justly won the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original, and I can hardly wait to get my hands on the third book in the series. 4.5 stars.
The autopsy reveals that the man was poisoned by a very rare plant, and Duffy can't find a hint of it anywhere in Northern Ireland. His only viable lead comes when he discovers the identity of the man who owned the suitcase. But the investigation hits an apparent dead end when it turns out that the man who owned the suitcase has himself been murdered, apparently by IRA assassins. His widow gave the suitcase to the Salvation Army, and there's no way of knowing who might have gotten it from them.
Both cases effectively wind up on the back burner. But Duffy continues to be bothered by apparent inconsistencies in both murders and, even though he's been ordered off the case, he continues to poke and prod, antagonizing some very dangerous people in the process and putting himself at serious risk of life and limb.
This is another extremely well-told tale with a very likable and savvy protagonist. McKinty sets the stage beautifully, and the violence and the sadness of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland lurks behind virtually every scene. This book justly won the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original, and I can hardly wait to get my hands on the third book in the series. 4.5 stars.
March 23, 2017
I enjoyed reading this book and give it 4 stars for a fast moving plot, and intricate twists in who killed who. However, I give it 3 stars for an unrealistic character trait, i.e. Sean Duffy's regular use of marijuana and hashish. I am retired law enforcement and this is strictly prohibited by all police agencies. My agency instituted random drug screening in the mid 80s. Violators were given a choice: resign or be prosecuted. A few were allowed to retire. All US police agencies now do random drug tests.
Overall 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
Plot: It is book 2 in a trilogy about Sean Duffy, a Catholic police officer in Northen Ireland's RUC. Duffy is called to the scene of a suspicious incident and finds a dead body. There is just a torso--no head, arms, or legs. But they manage to identify him as an American tourist. The book is set in 1982. I read it in a 24 hr. period.
Overall 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
Plot: It is book 2 in a trilogy about Sean Duffy, a Catholic police officer in Northen Ireland's RUC. Duffy is called to the scene of a suspicious incident and finds a dead body. There is just a torso--no head, arms, or legs. But they manage to identify him as an American tourist. The book is set in 1982. I read it in a 24 hr. period.
January 10, 2020
EXCERPT: 'It was just out there where your Land Rover was parked. They must have been hiding behind the stone wall. Two of them, they said. Gave him both barrels of a shotgun and sped off on a motorbike. Point blank range. Dr McCreery said that he wouldn't have known a thing about it.'
'I'm sure that's the case,' I said and tried to let go, but still she held on.
'He only joined for the money. This place doesn't pay anything. We've forty sheep on twelve acres of bog.'
'Yes, the--'
She pulled me closer.
'Aye, they say he didn't know anything but he was still breathing when I got to him, trying to breathe anyway. His mouth was full of blood, he was drowning in it. Drowning on dry land in his own blood.'
ABOUT THIS BOOK: Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.
Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood-however faint-that always, always connects a body to its killer.
A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.
So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle. And wherever he goes, he smells a rat...
MY THOUGHTS: 1982 Northern Ireland. The Troubles. The Falklands war. The hope that the manufacturing plant for the De Lorean brings. This is the backdrop for the second book in the Sean Duffy series, I Hear The Sirens in the Streets'.
McKinty does a wonderful job of portraying the atmosphere...'the curling pigtails of smoke from hijacked cars, Army helicopters hovering above the city like mosquitoes over a water hole, heavily armed soldiers and policemen walking in single file on both sides of a residential street...', the smell, the sound, the taste of a country at war with itself, the grinding poverty, the hopelessness and despair of both the people and the situation.
But overriding all this is the body in the suitcase and the brick walls he keeps hitting during his investigation.
I initially read the third book in this series, In the Morning I'll be Gone, and fell in love with Sean Duffy, for all his faults, and so have gone back and am reading the series from the beginning. Loving it. McKinty has me reading late into the night, nails digging into palms, gasping, and laughing. Yes, laughing. Mr. McKinty has quite the sense of humour. Add to this his descriptive prowess and his brilliant ability to create characters far more human than I thought possible, and you have a winning combination.
I guess it helps that McKinty grew up in Carrickfergus, the setting for this series, but the whole time I am reading, I am also hearing the story in a lilting Irish brogue. Such is the strength of his writing.
If you haven't yet read any of this author's books, I urge you to give him a try. Highly recommended.
❤😯😳🤯.5
A few of my favourite lines from I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty:
'....that tea's too wet. I'll get some biscuits.'
'Even when you were completely wrong about something, the journey into your wrongness was always fucking interesting.'
'...the coffee itself tasted like it had been percolated through a tube previously used for stealing petrol from parked cars.'
THE AUTHOR: Adrian McKinty is an Irish novelist. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. He read law at the University of Warwick and politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York and from 2001 on, in Denver, Colorado, where he taught high school English and began writing fiction. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children.
DISCLOSURE: I borrowed my copy of I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty, published by Serpent's Tail, from Waitomo District Library. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
'I'm sure that's the case,' I said and tried to let go, but still she held on.
'He only joined for the money. This place doesn't pay anything. We've forty sheep on twelve acres of bog.'
'Yes, the--'
She pulled me closer.
'Aye, they say he didn't know anything but he was still breathing when I got to him, trying to breathe anyway. His mouth was full of blood, he was drowning in it. Drowning on dry land in his own blood.'
ABOUT THIS BOOK: Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.
Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood-however faint-that always, always connects a body to its killer.
A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.
So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle. And wherever he goes, he smells a rat...
MY THOUGHTS: 1982 Northern Ireland. The Troubles. The Falklands war. The hope that the manufacturing plant for the De Lorean brings. This is the backdrop for the second book in the Sean Duffy series, I Hear The Sirens in the Streets'.
McKinty does a wonderful job of portraying the atmosphere...'the curling pigtails of smoke from hijacked cars, Army helicopters hovering above the city like mosquitoes over a water hole, heavily armed soldiers and policemen walking in single file on both sides of a residential street...', the smell, the sound, the taste of a country at war with itself, the grinding poverty, the hopelessness and despair of both the people and the situation.
But overriding all this is the body in the suitcase and the brick walls he keeps hitting during his investigation.
I initially read the third book in this series, In the Morning I'll be Gone, and fell in love with Sean Duffy, for all his faults, and so have gone back and am reading the series from the beginning. Loving it. McKinty has me reading late into the night, nails digging into palms, gasping, and laughing. Yes, laughing. Mr. McKinty has quite the sense of humour. Add to this his descriptive prowess and his brilliant ability to create characters far more human than I thought possible, and you have a winning combination.
I guess it helps that McKinty grew up in Carrickfergus, the setting for this series, but the whole time I am reading, I am also hearing the story in a lilting Irish brogue. Such is the strength of his writing.
If you haven't yet read any of this author's books, I urge you to give him a try. Highly recommended.
❤😯😳🤯.5
A few of my favourite lines from I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty:
'....that tea's too wet. I'll get some biscuits.'
'Even when you were completely wrong about something, the journey into your wrongness was always fucking interesting.'
'...the coffee itself tasted like it had been percolated through a tube previously used for stealing petrol from parked cars.'
THE AUTHOR: Adrian McKinty is an Irish novelist. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. He read law at the University of Warwick and politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York and from 2001 on, in Denver, Colorado, where he taught high school English and began writing fiction. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children.
DISCLOSURE: I borrowed my copy of I Hear the Sirens in the Street by Adrian McKinty, published by Serpent's Tail, from Waitomo District Library. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com
This review and others are also published on Twitter and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
February 25, 2019
This series and especially its compelling protagonist are really beginning to grow on me. The stories are engaging, though not the real draw for me when reading these. No, the star of the show is the detective, Sean Duffy and the setting of the book, which McKinty illustrates so perfectly, it is almost like another character in itself. Looking forward to reading more in this series!
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
January 4, 2019
Ωραίος ο Αστυνόμος. Πίνει τα ουισκάκια και τις Γκίνες του, καπνίζει χόρτο (από τα κατασχεθέντα), ακούει τις μουσικές του, τον φλερτάρει μια γειτόνισσα, μπανίζει μια άλλη γειτόνισσα, πηδάει κατά σειρά μια ιατροδικαστίνα, την γραμματέα ενός μάρτυρα, την χήρα ενός θύματος. Και βρίσκει και τον δολοφόνο. (Πάντως από τον Αστυνόμο-Δημόσιο-Υπάλληλο-Χαρίτο που τρώει τα γεμιστά της γυναίκας του, ονειρεύεται να δει την κόρη του Εισαγγελέα να αγορεύει στην έδρα (ίου), και γκρινιάζει για τις περικοπές στους μισθούς, τον προτιμώ).
Και εκεί κάπου γίνεται...εξωπραγματικό. Όπως και στο πρώτο βιβλίο της σειράς (που του είχα δώσει 5αρι) τα πράγματα παίρνουν μια τροπή...κάπως με εκτός έδρας. Εκεί στο Κόμο της Ιταλίας, εδώ στην Αμερική. Και πάλι ένα υπερ-ηρωικό τέλος. Και θέλει να γίνει Χόλυγουντ. Γιατί Αστυνόμε ; Μέχρι και η κοπέλα που σου πουλάει εφημερίδες όταν της λες την (απίστευτη) ιστορία σου σε 3 γραμμές, σου λέει "το καλύτερο που άκουσα σήμερα" και σου πασάρει φαρμακευτική ηρωίνη. Αν μη τι άλλο, αυτοσαρκασμός του συγγραφέα.
Αλλά έχει ένα αναπάντεχο ώρες-ώρες χιούμορ με μια μαύρη καρδιά σε μια μαύρη εποχή για την Βόρεια Ιρλανδία. Εξακολουθώ όμως να θέλω να πιω μια Γκίνες μαζί σου Αστυνόμε Αρχιφύλακα Ντάφι.
Μόνο και μόνο που είπες το "να πάτε να γαμηθείτε όλοι σας" στην πειθαρχική επιτροπή,4αρι. Να μην στο κάνω 3αρι, έτσι ;
ΥΓ : θα θελα να βρω αβρό τον ευλαβή και αβρίνη. Για προσωπική χρήση.
Και εκεί κάπου γίνεται...εξωπραγματικό. Όπως και στο πρώτο βιβλίο της σειράς (που του είχα δώσει 5αρι) τα πράγματα παίρνουν μια τροπή...κάπως με εκτός έδρας. Εκεί στο Κόμο της Ιταλίας, εδώ στην Αμερική. Και πάλι ένα υπερ-ηρωικό τέλος. Και θέλει να γίνει Χόλυγουντ. Γιατί Αστυνόμε ; Μέχρι και η κοπέλα που σου πουλάει εφημερίδες όταν της λες την (απίστευτη) ιστορία σου σε 3 γραμμές, σου λέει "το καλύτερο που άκουσα σήμερα" και σου πασάρει φαρμακευτική ηρωίνη. Αν μη τι άλλο, αυτοσαρκασμός του συγγραφέα.
Αλλά έχει ένα αναπάντεχο ώρες-ώρες χιούμορ με μια μαύρη καρδιά σε μια μαύρη εποχή για την Βόρεια Ιρλανδία. Εξακολουθώ όμως να θέλω να πιω μια Γκίνες μαζί σου
Μόνο και μόνο που είπες το "να πάτε να γαμηθείτε όλοι σας" στην πειθαρχική επιτροπή,4αρι. Να μην στο κάνω 3αρι, έτσι ;
ΥΓ : θα θελα να βρω αβρό τον ευλαβή και αβρίνη. Για προσωπική χρήση.
March 10, 2017
Adrian McKinty and Sean Duffy strike again
Following up the cold cold ground
A suitcase
A torso
And an investigation all over Ireland
The writing is page turning and the reader looks at the world of a Catholic policeman in a Protestant station. His interactions and how he goes to solve the crimes and get what he wants.
Somehow I feel that Ken Bruen could have invented Sean Duffy and have him as a sidekick to Jack Taylor, who is an amazing character.
Off to book 3 in this trilogy that got 6 books haha
Following up the cold cold ground
A suitcase
A torso
And an investigation all over Ireland
The writing is page turning and the reader looks at the world of a Catholic policeman in a Protestant station. His interactions and how he goes to solve the crimes and get what he wants.
Somehow I feel that Ken Bruen could have invented Sean Duffy and have him as a sidekick to Jack Taylor, who is an amazing character.
Off to book 3 in this trilogy that got 6 books haha
February 2, 2019
As with the first book I loved the setting of Belfast in the 1980's and the atmosphere created by the troubles in Ireland. The main character, detective Sean Duffy is also a character I am drawn to more for his flaws than his successes.
However, the story just felt all over the place and the ending felt a little like The Cold Cold Ground deja vu.
But as I was assured that this one is not the best in the series, I will be trying book 3 at some point this year.
If you like Irish crime fiction you may also like this series.
However, the story just felt all over the place and the ending felt a little like The Cold Cold Ground deja vu.
But as I was assured that this one is not the best in the series, I will be trying book 3 at some point this year.
If you like Irish crime fiction you may also like this series.
April 6, 2022
. . . in Ireland you swam near the shore and you kept your mouth shut and you never made waves if you knew what was good for you.
D.I. Sean Duffy is back in all his music-loving, smartassed glory. Set in the war zone that was Belfast in the very early eighties, this one fairly vibrates with danger. (Don't ever forget to check under your car for bombs.) Duffy and company investigate two suspiciously similar killings that were blamed on IRA terrorists, but might have been the work of someone else. Of course, McKinty pretty much had me by page 13 with the discovery of a headless naked torso in a suitcase.
Yeah, I'm a cheap date, but I really enjoyed this one.
D.I. Sean Duffy is back in all his music-loving, smartassed glory. Set in the war zone that was Belfast in the very early eighties, this one fairly vibrates with danger. (Don't ever forget to check under your car for bombs.) Duffy and company investigate two suspiciously similar killings that were blamed on IRA terrorists, but might have been the work of someone else. Of course, McKinty pretty much had me by page 13 with the discovery of a headless naked torso in a suitcase.
Yeah, I'm a cheap date, but I really enjoyed this one.
February 3, 2021
I read the first book in this series The Cold Cold Ground and I didn't really enjoy it that much although found the recent Irish history fascinating! I was not going to continue the series but after some encouragement from some Goodreads friends decided to give it a whirl! Thank you.
This book was much better and I started to like the protagonist Sean Duffy a bit more. Again the setting of Belfast in the early 1980's just takes my breath away. I never (as a teenager) fully appreciated the violence and carnage that Northern Irelanders had to endure.
Sean does it hard in this book after finding a torso in a suitcase, dumped in a skip. It becomes all the more complicated when the body is identified as American.
Looking forward now to book 3.
This book was much better and I started to like the protagonist Sean Duffy a bit more. Again the setting of Belfast in the early 1980's just takes my breath away. I never (as a teenager) fully appreciated the violence and carnage that Northern Irelanders had to endure.
Sean does it hard in this book after finding a torso in a suitcase, dumped in a skip. It becomes all the more complicated when the body is identified as American.
Looking forward now to book 3.
May 21, 2018
3.5★s
Detective Sean Duffy wasn’t thrilled at the discovery of a headless body in a suitcase, especially after he and his offsider had been shot at by the clueless security guard. But it was the beginning of a perplexing investigation in the Irish back streets, which were filled with IRA who had no hesitation in pulling the trigger.
The partial tattoo was the first clue – there were others, but they were a problem to follow up on. Recovering from his previous case; his girlfriend quietly leaving town – Duffy was into the booze and cigarettes, his confidence at an all time low. Could he and his not-so-good team of officers discover the killer’s identity before more bodies turned up? Or was he in trouble once again?
I Hear the Sirens in the Street is the 2nd in the Detective Sean Duffy series by Aussie author Adrian McKinty, and is set in Belfast and the parish of Islandmagee, Northern Island in the 1980s at the time of the Troubles. And boy, is there trouble! Duffy seems to be the typical boozy, morose cop who eventually gets the job done, but not without dramas along the way. Plenty of twists, lots of seemingly irrelevant information, and plenty of violence – I Hear the Sirens in the Street is worth recommending.
Detective Sean Duffy wasn’t thrilled at the discovery of a headless body in a suitcase, especially after he and his offsider had been shot at by the clueless security guard. But it was the beginning of a perplexing investigation in the Irish back streets, which were filled with IRA who had no hesitation in pulling the trigger.
The partial tattoo was the first clue – there were others, but they were a problem to follow up on. Recovering from his previous case; his girlfriend quietly leaving town – Duffy was into the booze and cigarettes, his confidence at an all time low. Could he and his not-so-good team of officers discover the killer’s identity before more bodies turned up? Or was he in trouble once again?
I Hear the Sirens in the Street is the 2nd in the Detective Sean Duffy series by Aussie author Adrian McKinty, and is set in Belfast and the parish of Islandmagee, Northern Island in the 1980s at the time of the Troubles. And boy, is there trouble! Duffy seems to be the typical boozy, morose cop who eventually gets the job done, but not without dramas along the way. Plenty of twists, lots of seemingly irrelevant information, and plenty of violence – I Hear the Sirens in the Street is worth recommending.
April 3, 2016
Another enjoyable police procedural set in Belfast in 1982 in the throes of the Troubles. Soon after returning to duty after nearly dying during his last case, DI Sean Duffy finds a torso in a suitcase he pulls out all stops to find out who it is and who murdered him. After hitting several brick walls, the case is put on the back burner and Sean is told to get on with his more mundane police work. Sean really should have listened to his boss, as this case has a lot more riding on it than he realised and others beside the police are interested in it. But Sean is nothing if not tenacious and soon finds himself in a heap of trouble. Plenty of action and gritty characters, this is an entertaining read. I will be interested to see where the next episode takes Sean.
January 12, 2019
Ο McKinty ξέρει να γράφει, αυτό είναι το μόνο σίγουρο. Παρόλα αυτά κινείται σε χαμηλούς τόνους/ρυθμούς στα πρώτα 3/4 , το οποίο δεν είναι απαραίτητα κακό. Είναι όμως ασσυμετρο με την ταχύτητα που τελειώνει.
Έχει βάλει ψηλά τον πήχη κ στο συγκεκριμένο μένει από κάτω
Έχει βάλει ψηλά τον πήχη κ στο συγκεκριμένο μένει από κάτω
October 23, 2018
This is Irish crime writer McKinty’s 2nd book featuring Detective Inspector Sean Duffy. Here we have a headless torso found in a dumpster with a single clue—a tattoo that suggests he was an American war veteran. What was he doing in Ireland in 1982? Ireland is racked by violence due to The Troubles, so the victim was probably not a tourist. DI Duffy must weave through a multitude of jurisdictions—Irish and American; as well as a plethora of possible suspects to discover the killer.
McKinty delivers an excellently written police procedural with a well-paced plot (despite spinning out of control a bit at the end). The main character, Sean Duffy, is flawed, but profoundly likeable. Recommend.
McKinty delivers an excellently written police procedural with a well-paced plot (despite spinning out of control a bit at the end). The main character, Sean Duffy, is flawed, but profoundly likeable. Recommend.
March 29, 2020
The setting of Northern Ireland during the 1980s is interesting and feels authentic. The story is truly absorbing and I love the humanity of the characters, particularly Duffy.
Favorite quotes:
"Real snow not an asbestos simulacrum."
"Her words were frozen birds fallen from the telegraph wires. I responded with a vacuum of lies and banality, sick of my own material."
Favorite quotes:
"Real snow not an asbestos simulacrum."
"Her words were frozen birds fallen from the telegraph wires. I responded with a vacuum of lies and banality, sick of my own material."
September 17, 2019
I might try more by this author, but I doubt that I will continue with this series because I don’t care for the protagonist.
August 9, 2020
The second book in this enjoyable series about a Catholic detective in the mostly Protestant police force of Belfast in the early 80's, the height of the 'troubles'. Part of the fun of these books is the 80's nostalgia, and how the story weaves in historical events into what is otherwise a familiar police procedural. In this edition its the Falkland's war as a backdrop to the ongoing low-level civil war in Belfast that overshadows Sean Duffy's attempts to solve a murder. This book picks up the pace a little from the first one with a little more action, along with a 'femme fatale'. Familiar tropes of the police procedural are all present - the cantankerous boss, the hard-drinking, wise-cracking protagonist who can't let a case go, but it is all done quite well, and with good writing, pace and a great sense of capturing the era, this was an enjoyable read, and has me looking forward to the next in the series.
September 25, 2018
3.5*
Μου άρεσε λίγο λιγότερο απο το πρώτο βιβλίο αλλά και πάλι έμεινα ικανοποιημένη και θα συνεχίσω και με το επόμενο της σειράς.Αυτή τη φορά καποια πράγματα μου φάνηκαν τραβηγμένα και αυτο ήταν που με χάλασε λίγο.Αλλά και πάλι αγάπησα τον Ντάφι και την ατμόσφαιρα του βιβλίου και μου άρεσε που ο Ντάφι αυτή τη φορά ανακατεύτηκε σε μια υπόθεση που, όπως είδα όταν τελείωσα το βιβλίο ,υπήρξε στην πραγματικότητα.
Μου άρεσε λίγο λιγότερο απο το πρώτο βιβλίο αλλά και πάλι έμεινα ικανοποιημένη και θα συνεχίσω και με το επόμενο της σειράς.Αυτή τη φορά καποια πράγματα μου φάνηκαν τραβηγμένα και αυτο ήταν που με χάλασε λίγο.Αλλά και πάλι αγάπησα τον Ντάφι και την ατμόσφαιρα του βιβλίου και μου άρεσε που ο Ντάφι αυτή τη φορά ανακατεύτηκε σε μια υπόθεση που, όπως είδα όταν τελείωσα το βιβλίο ,υπήρξε στην πραγματικότητα.
July 1, 2016
Boreen to a Banshee, Poteen with Sleveen, Then to Smithereens*
Banshee
Boreen
Number 2 in "The Troubles Trilogy" by Irish writer Adrian McKinty takes a turn to more secular. Compared to #1, The Cold, Cold Ground, this one misses the edginess from the ever-present conflicts between the majority Protestant police force and the IRA/its supporters in Belfast, which surrounded the murder investigation in the first book. Still here is the early '80s setting in the period of "The Troubles" a/k/a Northern Ireland Conflict. If you haven't read the first, protagonist Detective Sean Duffy is one of the few Catholics on the police force.
Sleveen
Poteen
The mystery here surrounds the discovery of an American's torso in a suitcase, which may trace to the death on an Irish protestant paramilitant on a farm near the city and ultimately may connect to the Irish manufacturing plant of the DeLorean Motor Company and a pending drug deal.
DeLorean in Back to the Future
The plot was a bit hard to swallow and the action somewhat stodgy compared to The Cold, Cold Ground. Yet, this book had many intriguing Irish themes such as several trips by Detective Duffy down a boreen (rural road) to meet with a banshee, with whom he shared poteen before things all went to smithereens at the bloody hands of a sleveen.
Smithereens
*In case you didn't already figure it out, all these words are English words of Irish origin.
Banshee BoreenNumber 2 in "The Troubles Trilogy" by Irish writer Adrian McKinty takes a turn to more secular. Compared to #1, The Cold, Cold Ground, this one misses the edginess from the ever-present conflicts between the majority Protestant police force and the IRA/its supporters in Belfast, which surrounded the murder investigation in the first book. Still here is the early '80s setting in the period of "The Troubles" a/k/a Northern Ireland Conflict. If you haven't read the first, protagonist Detective Sean Duffy is one of the few Catholics on the police force.
SleveenPoteenThe mystery here surrounds the discovery of an American's torso in a suitcase, which may trace to the death on an Irish protestant paramilitant on a farm near the city and ultimately may connect to the Irish manufacturing plant of the DeLorean Motor Company and a pending drug deal.
DeLorean in Back to the Future
The plot was a bit hard to swallow and the action somewhat stodgy compared to The Cold, Cold Ground. Yet, this book had many intriguing Irish themes such as several trips by Detective Duffy down a boreen (rural road) to meet with a banshee, with whom he shared poteen before things all went to smithereens at the bloody hands of a sleveen.
Smithereens*In case you didn't already figure it out, all these words are English words of Irish origin.
May 29, 2017
I Hear Sirens in the Street, Sean Duffy #2, by Adrian McKinty, narrated by Gerard Doyle, Blackstone Audio. Sean Duffy is back as Sergeant Detective Inspector, Carrick RUC, just outside Belfast, 1982.
While this book brought back familiar characters, the author took too long to build the real excitement which came in the last 100 pages or so. Of course there is a murder victim, his headless, and appendage-less body found in a suit case. Only this time its an American, WWII vet. The FBI and high level British coverts are involved, and the savior of Belfast, John DeLorean, who has built a factory in Belfast to manufacture his sports car, and brought with it 3000 jobs to a dying economy.
If you liked In the Cold Cold Ground, Sean Duffy #1, you might be as i was a little disappointed with this one. However i liked the characters and setting so much, Im going for Sean Duffy #3. Go figure.
While this book brought back familiar characters, the author took too long to build the real excitement which came in the last 100 pages or so. Of course there is a murder victim, his headless, and appendage-less body found in a suit case. Only this time its an American, WWII vet. The FBI and high level British coverts are involved, and the savior of Belfast, John DeLorean, who has built a factory in Belfast to manufacture his sports car, and brought with it 3000 jobs to a dying economy.
If you liked In the Cold Cold Ground, Sean Duffy #1, you might be as i was a little disappointed with this one. However i liked the characters and setting so much, Im going for Sean Duffy #3. Go figure.
December 19, 2018
Τον Ιούνιο που μας πέρασε διάβασα και πραγματικά απόλαυσα το πρώτο βιβλίο της σειράς με ήρωα τον ντετέκτιβ Σον Ντάφι, τώρα διαβάζοντας και το δεύτερο, μπορώ να πω ότι το επίπεδο ποιότητας παραμένει υψηλό, τόσο από άποψη πλοκής όσο κυρίως από άποψη γραφής. Το καλό είναι ότι κατά τα φαινόμενα θα κυκλοφορήσουν και τα επόμενα βιβλία με ήρωα τον Σον Ντάφι, κάτι εξαιρετικά θετικό, μιας και καταλαβαίνω ότι είναι εξίσου καλά ή και ακόμα καλύτερα από τα δυο που έχουν ήδη κυκλοφορήσει.
Μπέλφαστ, Απρίλιος του 1982, και μπορεί οι απεργίες πείνας των μελών του IRA να έχουν τελειώσει, αυτό όμως δεν σημαίνει ότι το κλίμα είναι λιγότερο τεταμένο ή ότι έχουν σταματήσει οι τρομοκρατικές επιθέσεις και οι σκοτωμοί. Το τεμαχισμένο πτώμα ενός αγνώστου άντρα θα βρεθεί μέσα σε μια βαλίτσα, παραχωμένη σ'έναν κάδο σκουπιδιών σε κάποιο παρατημένο εργοστάσιο, και είναι μια υπόθεση που θα πονοκεφαλιάσει για τα καλά τον αντισυμβατικό Σον Ντάφι και τους συναδέλφους του. Πολλά εμπόδια θα βρεθούν για να ανακόψουν την πορεία των ερευνών, ενώ στο κάδρο θα μπουν αρκετοί άνθρωποι, από έναν ξεπεσμένο αριστοκράτη και μια νεαρή χήρα, μέχρι έναν αμφιλεγόμενο επιχειρηματία. Αλλά ο Σον Ντάφι, σαν ξεροκέφαλος που είναι, θα την βγάλει την άκρη, έστω και αν βρεθεί αρκετές φορές κοντά στον θάνατο...
Λοιπόν, πρόκειται για ένα πάρα, μα πάρα πολύ καλό αστυνομικό θρίλερ με νουάρ ατμόσφαιρα και μπόλικη ένταση, το οποίο προσφέρει δράση, μυστήριο και ανατροπές, όπως επίσης και κάποιες πολύ δυνατές εικόνες από την Βόρεια Ιρλανδία της δεκαετίας του '80. Η γραφή είναι εξαιρετική, κοφτή και αιχμηρή, με γλαφυρές περιγραφές και φοβερούς διαλόγους, με τον κυνισμό και το μαύρο χιούμορ να κάνουν έντονη την παρουσία τους. Όπως και να το κάνουμε, καλά αστυνομικά θρίλερ υπάρχουν πολλά, αλλά λίγα είναι αυτά που ξεχωρίζουν χάρη στο στιλ γραφής και το ύφος του συγγραφέα: Ε, τα βιβλία της σειράς αυτής σίγουρα ξεχωρίζουν. Για λεπτομέρειες δεν έβαλα στο βιβλίο πέντε αστεράκια. Ποιος ξέρει όμως, μπορεί να βάλω στο επόμενο...
Μπέλφαστ, Απρίλιος του 1982, και μπορεί οι απεργίες πείνας των μελών του IRA να έχουν τελειώσει, αυτό όμως δεν σημαίνει ότι το κλίμα είναι λιγότερο τεταμένο ή ότι έχουν σταματήσει οι τρομοκρατικές επιθέσεις και οι σκοτωμοί. Το τεμαχισμένο πτώμα ενός αγνώστου άντρα θα βρεθεί μέσα σε μια βαλίτσα, παραχωμένη σ'έναν κάδο σκουπιδιών σε κάποιο παρατημένο εργοστάσιο, και είναι μια υπόθεση που θα πονοκεφαλιάσει για τα καλά τον αντισυμβατικό Σον Ντάφι και τους συναδέλφους του. Πολλά εμπόδια θα βρεθούν για να ανακόψουν την πορεία των ερευνών, ενώ στο κάδρο θα μπουν αρκετοί άνθρωποι, από έναν ξεπεσμένο αριστοκράτη και μια νεαρή χήρα, μέχρι έναν αμφιλεγόμενο επιχειρηματία. Αλλά ο Σον Ντάφι, σαν ξεροκέφαλος που είναι, θα την βγάλει την άκρη, έστω και αν βρεθεί αρκετές φορές κοντά στον θάνατο...
Λοιπόν, πρόκειται για ένα πάρα, μα πάρα πολύ καλό αστυνομικό θρίλερ με νουάρ ατμόσφαιρα και μπόλικη ένταση, το οποίο προσφέρει δράση, μυστήριο και ανατροπές, όπως επίσης και κάποιες πολύ δυνατές εικόνες από την Βόρεια Ιρλανδία της δεκαετίας του '80. Η γραφή είναι εξαιρετική, κοφτή και αιχμηρή, με γλαφυρές περιγραφές και φοβερούς διαλόγους, με τον κυνισμό και το μαύρο χιούμορ να κάνουν έντονη την παρουσία τους. Όπως και να το κάνουμε, καλά αστυνομικά θρίλερ υπάρχουν πολλά, αλλά λίγα είναι αυτά που ξεχωρίζουν χάρη στο στιλ γραφής και το ύφος του συγγραφέα: Ε, τα βιβλία της σειράς αυτής σίγουρα ξεχωρίζουν. Για λεπτομέρειες δεν έβαλα στο βιβλίο πέντε αστεράκια. Ποιος ξέρει όμως, μπορεί να βάλω στο επόμενο...
July 9, 2013
A good read but some credibility issues…
This police procedural/thriller is based in 1980s Northern Ireland during the Troubles. When a torso is found in a suitcase, Detective Inspector Sean Duffy has to identify the victim before he can start to work out why he was murdered. The storyline allows the author to look at the divides in NI society and also at US attitudes to the Irish question. The author writes flowingly and the plot is interesting and complicated enough to keep the reader's interest, though I found it dipped a bit in the middle. Duffy and his colleagues Crabbie and Matty are on the whole likeable characters and their interactions allow for a fair amount of humour amongst the more serious stuff. The book is undoubtedly a page-turner.
However, right from the point at the very beginning where Duffy decides to overlook a security guard firing a shotgun at him because the guard 'was an old geezer with watery eyes', I found that the book had serious credibility issues that made it hard for me to believe in these characters or to be convinced that this was an accurate portrayal of NI and the Royal Ulster Constabulary of the time. Duffy is a Catholic working in the mainly Protestant RUC and living in a Protestant community - by choice, apparently. He spends half his time with his .38 stuffed in his belt as if he is in the Wild West rather than the police force. Sometimes he's preaching about the need for constant caution, such as checking for car bombs each time he gets into a car; then at other times he's taking ridiculous and unnecessary risks for no reason that I could see except to let the author move the story along. Then, of course, there are the women - he sees every woman he meets as a potential sex object and that's about as far as their characterisation goes.
A difficult one to rate since, so long as I was able to suspend my disbelief, I did enjoy reading it and will probably try another of the author's books in the future - so, on that basis, I'd recommend it overall as a reasonably good read.
NB This book was provided for review by Amazon Vine UK.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
This police procedural/thriller is based in 1980s Northern Ireland during the Troubles. When a torso is found in a suitcase, Detective Inspector Sean Duffy has to identify the victim before he can start to work out why he was murdered. The storyline allows the author to look at the divides in NI society and also at US attitudes to the Irish question. The author writes flowingly and the plot is interesting and complicated enough to keep the reader's interest, though I found it dipped a bit in the middle. Duffy and his colleagues Crabbie and Matty are on the whole likeable characters and their interactions allow for a fair amount of humour amongst the more serious stuff. The book is undoubtedly a page-turner.
However, right from the point at the very beginning where Duffy decides to overlook a security guard firing a shotgun at him because the guard 'was an old geezer with watery eyes', I found that the book had serious credibility issues that made it hard for me to believe in these characters or to be convinced that this was an accurate portrayal of NI and the Royal Ulster Constabulary of the time. Duffy is a Catholic working in the mainly Protestant RUC and living in a Protestant community - by choice, apparently. He spends half his time with his .38 stuffed in his belt as if he is in the Wild West rather than the police force. Sometimes he's preaching about the need for constant caution, such as checking for car bombs each time he gets into a car; then at other times he's taking ridiculous and unnecessary risks for no reason that I could see except to let the author move the story along. Then, of course, there are the women - he sees every woman he meets as a potential sex object and that's about as far as their characterisation goes.
A difficult one to rate since, so long as I was able to suspend my disbelief, I did enjoy reading it and will probably try another of the author's books in the future - so, on that basis, I'd recommend it overall as a reasonably good read.
NB This book was provided for review by Amazon Vine UK.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
August 30, 2020
Segunda entrega de la serie protagonizada por Sean Duffy, detective católico miembro de la RUC, fuerzas del orden en el Ulster. Como en el libro anterior The cold cold ground, Belfast es un campo de batalla para un conflicto no resuelto, y el enfrentamiento entre católicos y protestantes es el escenario en que Duffy tiene que llevar a cabo su trabajo.
En esta ocasión, un torso humano aparece dentro una maleta abandonada y la investigación del caso llevará al protagonista a recorrer las calles de Belfast y la campiña irlandesa para resolver un misterio que parece tener ramificaciones en la misma policía.
La trama es buena, pero también lo es la ambientaciónde la sociedad norirlandesa en los años 80. Pero sobre todo destaca la humanidad del personaje de Duffy, que nos hace asomarnos a sus conflictos personales y simpatizar con sus problemas.
Una buena lectura para los amantes del género.
En esta ocasión, un torso humano aparece dentro una maleta abandonada y la investigación del caso llevará al protagonista a recorrer las calles de Belfast y la campiña irlandesa para resolver un misterio que parece tener ramificaciones en la misma policía.
La trama es buena, pero también lo es la ambientaciónde la sociedad norirlandesa en los años 80. Pero sobre todo destaca la humanidad del personaje de Duffy, que nos hace asomarnos a sus conflictos personales y simpatizar con sus problemas.
Una buena lectura para los amantes del género.
January 10, 2022
'I hear Sirens in the Street' by Adrian McKinty is book two in the The Troubles Trilogy featuring Sean Duffy, Detective Inspector in the Carrick RUC. It's a tough time to be any kind of copper in Northern Ireland as there is a full-blown religious/political civil war going on - it's the 1980's. Much of this IRA/British/Protestant "Troubles" background is brought forward in the first novel in the series, The Cold Cold Ground. 'I Hear Sirens in the Street' is more of a straightforward noir mystery, but extra fun because of great writing, the interesting atmospheric setting of Northern Ireland and a lot of wisecracks. However, I did like the previous novel a little better.
This is an awesome series! The plots are twisty, Duffy sees a lot of black humor in his job of solving murders in between dodging paramilitaries, terrorists and various British secret service organizations. He is collecting a lot of scars because of the James Bond tactics he often indulges in! Love it!
I have copied the cover blurb below because it is accurate:
"Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.
Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood-however faint-that always, always connects a body to its killer.
A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.
So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle. And wherever he goes, he smells a rat... "
I plan to continue with the series, especially since the novel ends with a particularly suspenseful cliffhanger!
This is an awesome series! The plots are twisty, Duffy sees a lot of black humor in his job of solving murders in between dodging paramilitaries, terrorists and various British secret service organizations. He is collecting a lot of scars because of the James Bond tactics he often indulges in! Love it!
I have copied the cover blurb below because it is accurate:
"Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.
Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood-however faint-that always, always connects a body to its killer.
A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.
So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle. And wherever he goes, he smells a rat... "
I plan to continue with the series, especially since the novel ends with a particularly suspenseful cliffhanger!
October 28, 2020
The shotgun blast had sent the birds into a frenzy and as we ran for cover behind a disassembled steam turbine we watched the rock doves careen off the ceiling, sending a fine shower of white asbestos particles down towards us like the snow of a nuclear winter.
The second book in the Sean Duffy crime series - set in Northern Ireland during the sectarian violence known as “The troubles” - opens with DI Duffy and DC McCrabben of Carrickfergus Police Station attending a call to a break-in at a defunct factory, zealously guarded by an aging caretaker with a shotgun. When he is finally disarmed they are taken to a blood stain by the rubbish skips, where a man’s torso is found in a suitcase.
Forensics reveal the man was poisoned, with the body kept in cold storage for some time, a clue from a partial tattoo pointing to someone ex-military. Eventually, Duffy identifies the man as an elderly American, visiting Ireland to research his family roots. The suitcase produces another clue: the name and address of an UDR reservist, Captain Martin McAlpine, living on Islandmagee, killed by the IRA months earlier, a murder only briefly investigated, and Duffy harbours suspicions over the widow’s account.
Islandmagee was an odd place. A peninsula about six miles north-east of Carrickfergus with Larne Lough on one side and the Irish Sea on the other. It was near the major metropolitan centre and ferry port of Larne, yet it was a world away. When you drove onto Islandmagee it was like going back to an Ireland of a hundred or even two hundred years before.
It is 1981 and the decade-long conflict has taken a backseat in the press and TV coverage, now headlined by the Argentinian invasion/retaking of the Falkland Islands from the British in the South Atlantic. Few people had heard of the Falklands, fewer still could find it on a map - but it meant redeployment of British troops stationed in Northern Ireland.
DI Duffy, one of a few Catholics in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, lives in a predominantly Protestant area - and we are given insights into his neighbours – including Mrs Bridewell, with a husband ‘over the water’ looking for work, and Bobby Cameron – the local UDA commander who saved Duffy’s skin in the past (The Cold Cold Ground), who when confronted over a racial slur says: “I like you, Duffy. We’ll kill you last.”
Author Adrian McKinty captures the urban landscape, weather and the period, weaving fiction with figures from contemporary history. Laugh-out-loud lines are tempered with grim reality, sadness and at times, despair.
I drove through Carrickfergus’s blighted shopping precincts, past boarded up shops and cafes, vandalised parks and playgrounds. Bored ragamuffin children of the type you often saw in Pulitzer-Prize winning books of photography were sitting glumly on the wall over the railway lines waiting to drop objects down onto the Belfast train.
His investigation into the death of the American seems to be going nowhere, until an anonymous phone call draws him to a shelter overlooking the cemetery, finding a note with a biblical reference. And when the officer looking into the murder of the UDR captain on Islandmagee, meets with an untimely death, Duffy’s investigation points to someone high in the food chain, he is set to become a scapegoat.
Grittier than "The Cold Cold Ground", and laced with black humour, this was another satisfying, at times challenging, read.
The second book in the Sean Duffy crime series - set in Northern Ireland during the sectarian violence known as “The troubles” - opens with DI Duffy and DC McCrabben of Carrickfergus Police Station attending a call to a break-in at a defunct factory, zealously guarded by an aging caretaker with a shotgun. When he is finally disarmed they are taken to a blood stain by the rubbish skips, where a man’s torso is found in a suitcase.
Forensics reveal the man was poisoned, with the body kept in cold storage for some time, a clue from a partial tattoo pointing to someone ex-military. Eventually, Duffy identifies the man as an elderly American, visiting Ireland to research his family roots. The suitcase produces another clue: the name and address of an UDR reservist, Captain Martin McAlpine, living on Islandmagee, killed by the IRA months earlier, a murder only briefly investigated, and Duffy harbours suspicions over the widow’s account.
Islandmagee was an odd place. A peninsula about six miles north-east of Carrickfergus with Larne Lough on one side and the Irish Sea on the other. It was near the major metropolitan centre and ferry port of Larne, yet it was a world away. When you drove onto Islandmagee it was like going back to an Ireland of a hundred or even two hundred years before.
It is 1981 and the decade-long conflict has taken a backseat in the press and TV coverage, now headlined by the Argentinian invasion/retaking of the Falkland Islands from the British in the South Atlantic. Few people had heard of the Falklands, fewer still could find it on a map - but it meant redeployment of British troops stationed in Northern Ireland.
DI Duffy, one of a few Catholics in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, lives in a predominantly Protestant area - and we are given insights into his neighbours – including Mrs Bridewell, with a husband ‘over the water’ looking for work, and Bobby Cameron – the local UDA commander who saved Duffy’s skin in the past (The Cold Cold Ground), who when confronted over a racial slur says: “I like you, Duffy. We’ll kill you last.”
Author Adrian McKinty captures the urban landscape, weather and the period, weaving fiction with figures from contemporary history. Laugh-out-loud lines are tempered with grim reality, sadness and at times, despair.
I drove through Carrickfergus’s blighted shopping precincts, past boarded up shops and cafes, vandalised parks and playgrounds. Bored ragamuffin children of the type you often saw in Pulitzer-Prize winning books of photography were sitting glumly on the wall over the railway lines waiting to drop objects down onto the Belfast train.
His investigation into the death of the American seems to be going nowhere, until an anonymous phone call draws him to a shelter overlooking the cemetery, finding a note with a biblical reference. And when the officer looking into the murder of the UDR captain on Islandmagee, meets with an untimely death, Duffy’s investigation points to someone high in the food chain, he is set to become a scapegoat.
Grittier than "The Cold Cold Ground", and laced with black humour, this was another satisfying, at times challenging, read.
January 13, 2015
The Troubles series featuring Detective Inspector Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland continues to be one of the best reads in crime fiction. Not only does the plotting run deep, it's a series that envelopes the reader in period brimming with danger and death.
I HEAR SIRENS IN THE STREET starts off in similar fashion to the standard crime novel before morphing into something much more involved with Duffy stumbling upon the murder of a male - his remains found in a suitcase. From there it's a matter of Q&A and good old fashion detective work until the case is either solved or the peelers draw a blank.
What makes this series so good is the plot threads that formulate from this murder investigation and the glimpse into the lives of the peelers themselves; from suicide, marital problems, promotion, and demotion - Duffy's comrades in arms are as lively as the main character himself.
Like THE COLD COLD GROUND, the audio experience has brought a new feeling of continuity and familiarity with these characters that I think may not be as prevalent in print. Narrator Gerard Doyle once again proves he's the perfect fit for this series putting in another flawless performance. Doyle both compliments and enhances the novel.
I can't wait to read the next installment.
Review first appeared on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
I HEAR SIRENS IN THE STREET starts off in similar fashion to the standard crime novel before morphing into something much more involved with Duffy stumbling upon the murder of a male - his remains found in a suitcase. From there it's a matter of Q&A and good old fashion detective work until the case is either solved or the peelers draw a blank.
What makes this series so good is the plot threads that formulate from this murder investigation and the glimpse into the lives of the peelers themselves; from suicide, marital problems, promotion, and demotion - Duffy's comrades in arms are as lively as the main character himself.
Like THE COLD COLD GROUND, the audio experience has brought a new feeling of continuity and familiarity with these characters that I think may not be as prevalent in print. Narrator Gerard Doyle once again proves he's the perfect fit for this series putting in another flawless performance. Doyle both compliments and enhances the novel.
I can't wait to read the next installment.
Review first appeared on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
May 23, 2015
My favourite of a brilliant series
April 28, 2024
I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET by Adrian McKinly
Audo Version: Blackstone Audio 5/14/2003
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle … 9 hours and 39 minutes
This is the Second Book in the Detective Sean Duffy series which takes place in the tumultuous 1980’s era of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland’s Belfast. Once again Duffy is aided in his pursuit of justice by Constables McCrabben and McBride. Sean is called to the scene where an abandoned and locked suitcase is found in a trash bin. Upon opening, they discover a decapitated torso with a partial tattoo. This represents the remains of an American tourist, who served in the military and was in Northern Ireland to explore “his roots.” The twisted trail of discovery leads to the home of a beautiful red-haired widow. Her husband was recently assassinated by an IRA death squad. Autopsy reveals that the remains of the torso harbored a rare tropical poison toxin, and it was eventually identified by the FBI as William O’Rourke. He was an ex-IRS employee and veteran of the US military. Duffy’s investigation would be thwarted by multiple agencies … the Secret Service , the Brits MI5, and even the FBI. Duffy was continually checking the undercarriage of his car, always suspecting the presence of a bomb planted by the IRA. He was suspicious of the possible involvement of John DeLorean, who was involved in the local politics, while trying to put out his innovative auto in Belfast, even during this economic down-turn. Duffy refuse to back down from his investigation in spite of extensive pressure from the various agencies. His life would be in jeopardy as a consequence.
Adrian McKinly once again provides a gritty and evocative tale during this most turbulent time in Northern Ireland’s history of “The Troubles” … a dark tale of political corruption, religious intolerance and business corruption. Gerard Doyle provides the amazing narration. This famed actor, and multiple award winning narrator provides authenticity with his easily understood accent. He provides pitch perfect tone, not only during scenes of action and intrigue , but also during periods of poignancy. His wonderful skills brings to life this tale in the theatre of my mind.
This is my second foray into the world of Detective Sean Duffy, and certainly will not be my last. There are five more adventures to savior.
Audo Version: Blackstone Audio 5/14/2003
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle … 9 hours and 39 minutes
This is the Second Book in the Detective Sean Duffy series which takes place in the tumultuous 1980’s era of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland’s Belfast. Once again Duffy is aided in his pursuit of justice by Constables McCrabben and McBride. Sean is called to the scene where an abandoned and locked suitcase is found in a trash bin. Upon opening, they discover a decapitated torso with a partial tattoo. This represents the remains of an American tourist, who served in the military and was in Northern Ireland to explore “his roots.” The twisted trail of discovery leads to the home of a beautiful red-haired widow. Her husband was recently assassinated by an IRA death squad. Autopsy reveals that the remains of the torso harbored a rare tropical poison toxin, and it was eventually identified by the FBI as William O’Rourke. He was an ex-IRS employee and veteran of the US military. Duffy’s investigation would be thwarted by multiple agencies … the Secret Service , the Brits MI5, and even the FBI. Duffy was continually checking the undercarriage of his car, always suspecting the presence of a bomb planted by the IRA. He was suspicious of the possible involvement of John DeLorean, who was involved in the local politics, while trying to put out his innovative auto in Belfast, even during this economic down-turn. Duffy refuse to back down from his investigation in spite of extensive pressure from the various agencies. His life would be in jeopardy as a consequence.
Adrian McKinly once again provides a gritty and evocative tale during this most turbulent time in Northern Ireland’s history of “The Troubles” … a dark tale of political corruption, religious intolerance and business corruption. Gerard Doyle provides the amazing narration. This famed actor, and multiple award winning narrator provides authenticity with his easily understood accent. He provides pitch perfect tone, not only during scenes of action and intrigue , but also during periods of poignancy. His wonderful skills brings to life this tale in the theatre of my mind.
This is my second foray into the world of Detective Sean Duffy, and certainly will not be my last. There are five more adventures to savior.
April 24, 2020
Another excellent read. I think the Troubles setting with Belfast, The IRA, etc. on top of the whole police procedural mystery makes everything that much more interesting. I love how the author is constantly referencing the music that he is listening to. It makes if feel as if there is a soundtrack to the story. Onward to book three!
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