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Ed Loy #3

The Price of Blood

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What's in a name? Apparently everything for Ed Loy, because that's the only information Father Vincent Tyrrell, brother of prominent racehorse trainer F. X. Tyrrell, offers when he asks for Ed's help in finding a missing person. Even the best private eye needs more than just a name, but hard times and a dwindling bank account make it difficult for Loy to say no.

He is not without luck, however. While working another case, Loy discovers a phone number that seems linked to F.X. found on an unidentified body. Thinking it more than a coincidence, he begins digging into the history of the Tyrrells—a history consumed with trading and dealing, gambling and horse breeding—and soon realizes there is more to the family than meets the eye, a suspicion confirmed when two more people with connections to the Tyrrells are killed.

On the eve of one of Ireland's most anticipated sporting events, the four-day Leopardstown Race-course Christmas Festival, all bets are off as Loy pursues a twisted killer on the final leg of a reckless master plan.

In The Price of Blood, Declan Hughes once again paints an arresting portrait of an Ireland not found in any guidebooks. Deadly passions beget dark secrets in a chilling story that will have readers on edge right up to its shocking conclusion.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

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About the author

Declan Hughes

25 books61 followers
Declan Hughes has worked for more than twenty years in the theater in Dublin as director and playwright. In 1984, he cofounded Rough Magic, Ireland's leading independent theater company. He has been writer in association with the Abbey Theatre and remains an artistic associate of Rough Magic. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Series:
* Ed Loy Mystery

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5 stars
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82 (25%)
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33 (10%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
Profile Image for Janebbooks.
97 reviews37 followers
August 2, 2016
In a recent interview, Shamus-winning Irish author Declan Hughes talks about his Ed Loy mystery series. The books, he says, are family gothic. "Despite the impression Irish people give that we're open and friendly and candid, there's a lot we don't want to tell you -- a lot of skeletons in our closets."

In this third installment, Ed Loy is asked to solve the disappearance of a jockey who worked for the prominent racehorse trainer, F. X. Tyrell. The Tyrells are well known in the region around north Wicklow and the Dublin Border. They, two brothers and a sister, are the usual rich Irish Catholic family: elder brother inherits the farm, younger becomes a priest, and unmarried sister comes home and keeps house for her older brother. Along the way Ed works closely with boyhood friend Dave Connelly, a detective sergeant with the Garda, as they try to solve three murders by the Omega Man, a vicious killer who cuts out the tongues of his victims. (Dave and Ed's trip to the morgue in Chapter Seven explains their camaraderie with a bit of humor.)

This powerful tale takes the reader into the midst of contemporary Irish life in Dublin and features one of Ireland's most anticipated sports events, the four-day Leopardstown Racecourse Christmas Festival.

And reveals the secrets of the industrial schools of yesterday. It seems F. X. Tyrell recruited his jockeys from the lads at the not-quite-an orphanage for wayward boys. After a chilling contemporary visit to the remains of one such school, Hughes comments:

...The basic components were all in place: half-educated Christian Brothers, some of whom had themselves been physically and sexually abused, inflicting that abuse on others; abuse among the boys themselves as the old turned on the young; a collective disbelief among the wider community, including priests, teachers, the Guards, a justice of the peace, and even journalists on the local paper, that amounted to denial...

Hughes has written another fascinating Irish tale of family blood, betrayal, and secrets.

Postscript: My copy of this Ed Loy novel is the UK edition titled The Dying Breed. After you read this story, you may hope that the fictional Tyrell Irish family is truly a "dying breed."
Profile Image for Lukasz Pruski.
986 reviews146 followers
May 12, 2014
Declan Hughes' "The Price of Blood" is the third novel in the series that features Ed Loy, a private detective, who - after spending 20 years in Los Angeles - returns to Dublin, the place of his birth and youth. I have reviewed the first two books here and here. I like them more than the current book, mainly because they are more reminiscent of Ross Macdonald's work and because the writing is better. In "The Price of Blood", the sins of the past also cast a long shadow upon the present, but the plot is ridiculously complicated and the premise ends up being quite implausible.

Ed Loy is summoned to Father Vincent Tyrrell who hires him to... - neither Ed nor we are sure what Father Tyrrell wants Ed to do. He just mentions a name and implies that he is bound by the seal of the confessional. When Ed begins working the case, it quickly grows to include several murders with cruel mutilation of victims' bodies. It also involves shenanigans in horse racing and severe abuse in the so-called "industrial schools", institutions for wayward youth.

What I particularly dislike about this novel are passages that detail savage beatings that do not seem to serve any purpose. A man breaks another man's nose, and a fountain of blood erupts. They talk for a while, and then the other guy breaks the nose of the first one, and blood spurts again, along with fragments of bone. Finally, one drives the other to an emergency room. Of course we all know that there are many people who love inflicting pain on other people. It is just that the scenes of beatings in this novel do not make much sense - both parties are deeply unhappy about the incident, and no one gains anything. I hope I am not just unaware of some secret rituals of Irish culture.

I also do not like the increased reliance on Tommy Owens in furthering the plot. Tommy is not an interesting character at all. The fragments of plot with a bad cop, Geraghty, are cartoonish. I find the entire climax of the plot, including silly theatricals, and the change of narrative mode when the major parts of denouement are revealed, quite disappointing.

"The Price of Blood" has little in common with the artistry and depth of Ross Macdonald. There is almost nothing original in this novel, which reads as a weak rewrite of the previous books, with inane plot and artificial characters

One and a half stars.
Profile Image for Chris.
2,160 reviews29 followers
November 21, 2013
Ed Loy in a familiar theme is getting beat up, beating up others, sleeping with women who he shouldn't be, and walking the line between legal and illegal and life and death. This time a priest hires him to find a jockey who has been missing for over 10 years. After all is said and done I'm left wondering why the priest hired him as Ed always seems to find out everything and cross the Rubicon that the client doesn't want crossed. This is another sordid family tale with greed and sex and lots of taboos are broken in this one. Ed deserves some happiness but you can be sure it won't be coming anywhere near him soon. Great descriptions in here of Ireland both physically and figuratively. My favorite line on page 141 about a pint of beer-"I dont' know about Tommy's, but mine tasted like the first pint God made."
1,961 reviews107 followers
September 17, 2008
THE DYING BREED is the third book in the Irish PI Ed Loy series from Declan Hughes, Ed being an Irishman who went home after living in the US for many years. A broken marriage and the tragic death of his young daughter are events that shaped him there, but his childhood in Ireland shaped him even more firmly, and a large number of the characters that he works with on a daily basis are connections from the past. But he's a PI (in a place where that's still a bit of a novelty) and he's ready for his next case (and pay cheque), so he takes on a very odd investigation in THE DYING BREED. Father Vincent Tyrrell wants him to find a missing man, although there's not a lot for Ed to go on. It takes him into the world of horse racing, and a rapid build up of dead bodies and family skeletons.

Ed Loy is the very epitome of the classic Private Investigator. A loner, a tough man, a man who always manages to pick the wrong woman, Ed's very reminiscent of so many of the well-known PI's of the genre, although with a very Irish twist. There's a constant tension between Ed and the Catholic Church - very much a love / hate relationship, complicated in earlier books by his difficult relationship with his very devout mother - and her confessor priest.

There's something not quite right about the early stages of THE DYING BREED, which made the first half of the book a struggle. It was hard to get involved, hard to be engaged; the story just seemed to float along with no connection to the society in which it was happening. The long-term characters held up their parts fairly well, but there were too many new entrants - part of the horse world - who were underdone. The action does ramp up later in the book, and things do get more interesting, but the resolution lands on the reader, told as opposed to revealed or shown, leaving the reader feeling rather short-changed.

If you haven't read any of the Ed Loy series, you'd be well served starting out with the first two books - they give you a lot of background to why Ed is where he is (which is just nice to know, not necessary). For this avowed fan of the first two books, THE DYING BREED simply wasn't as good as them.
1,916 reviews21 followers
April 6, 2016
The writing was better than the story - if that makes sense.
1,480 reviews22 followers
April 27, 2025
I have read two other books in this series and this one was the best, all of them have been great.
Dublin Ireland in the early 2000’s. A horse racing family, with many secrets, the atrocities committed by the Catholic Church with the running boy’s schools and orphanages. This story gets darker and darker as it goes.
Profile Image for Mary Crawford.
910 reviews3 followers
May 6, 2017
Ed Loy is a man on a mission to find a missing jockey. The lead up works well but then in one chapter all the pieces are put together and with a bit of violence that's it sorted. I do like this series and will continue to read it.
Profile Image for Mike.
557 reviews3 followers
April 10, 2020
Another excellent entry in the series. This time Ed Loy gets mixed up in an investigation about horse racing, a jockey who disappeared, a Catholic orphanage and the affairs of the various families involved. Well executed twists and turns, with a conclusion I didn't see coming.
Profile Image for Theodore Kinni.
Author 11 books39 followers
July 25, 2018
Think Chinatown set in Dublin among Ireland's horse-racing set. A good, tough, dark detective novel
Profile Image for Rich Graves.
28 reviews
September 3, 2019
I'm disappointed in myself for finishing this book. Life is too short, there are better books.
Profile Image for Gerald.
108 reviews1 follower
June 14, 2021
Another winner from Hughes. Excellent private eye fiction based in Dublin.
Profile Image for Janebbooks.
97 reviews37 followers
March 16, 2012
In a recent interview, Irish author Declan Hughes talks about his Ed Loy mystery series. The books, he says, are family gothic. "Despite the impression Irish people give that we're open and friendly and candid, there's a lot we don't want to tell you -- a lot of skeletons in our closets."

In this third Ed Loy P. I. novel, Hughes relates a family saga full of family blood, betrayal, and secrets. Keeping the secrets is THE DYING BREED.

Ed Loy, a private investigator, is asked to solve the disappearance of a jockey who worked for the prominent racehorse trainer, F. X. Tyrell. The Tyrells are well known in the region around north Wicklow and the Dublin Border. They, two brothers and a sister, are the usual rich Irish Catholic family: elder brother inherits the farm, younger becomes a priest, and unmarried sister comes home and keeps house for her older brother. Along the way Ed works closely with boyhood friend Dave Connelly, a detective sergeant with the Garda, as they try to solve three murders by the Omega Man, a vicious killer who cuts out the tongues of his victims. (Dave and Ed's trip to the morgue in Chapter Seven explains their camaraderie with a bit of humor.)

This powerful tale takes the reader into the midst of contemporary Irish life in Dublin and features one of Ireland's most anticipated sports events, the four-day Leopardstown Racecourse Christmas Festival.

And reveals the secrets of the industrial schools of yesterday. It seems F. X. Tyrell recruited his jockeys from the lads at the not-quite-an orphanage for wayward boys. After a chilling contemporary visit to the remains of one such school, Hughes comments:

...The basic components were all in place: half-educated Christian Brothers, some of whom had themselves been physically and sexually abused, inflicting that abuse on others; abuse among the boys themselves as the old turned on the young; a collective disbelief among the wider community, including priests, teachers, the Guards, a justice of the peace, and even journalists on the local paper, that amounted to denial...

Hughes has indeed written another Irish tale of suspense. You'll want to rush out to read his previous Ed Loy books.
Profile Image for Tom Carrico.
182 reviews37 followers
May 3, 2009
The Price of Blood
By Declan Hughes

This novel has all of the makings of a great Irish mystery story: family secrets, beautiful red-heads, lots of whiskey, an alcoholic private investigator, crooked cops and a priest with a tawdry history. If you add in the bonus of the story being set around a stable for thorough-bred race horses this book can’t miss, right? Wrong.

The story opens with Father Vincent Tyrell hiring Ed Loy to find a jockey, Patrick Hutton, who has been missing for several years and has been officially declared dead. Patrick’s widow (one of the afore-mentioned gorgeous red-heads) is one of his parishioners. Hmm. The good father’s brother, F. X. Tyrell is a prominent horse breeder was not only the missing man’s employer, but a father figure for him as well.

Ed has few clues to start with, but soon begins to unravel a tale of horror involving a local boarding school for orphaned boys, false identities and race fixing. The novel’s dust jacket boasts: “In The Price of Blood deadly passions beget dark secrets in chilling story that will have readers on edge right up to its shocking conclusion.” These dark secrets include child abuse, larceny and, last but not least, incest.

The book has a few redeeming values. The character of Ed Loy is well developed. He is despondent over his divorce and absence from his only daughter who lives with her mother in California. This, of course, leads to indulgence in binge drinking (Jameson’s: at least he’s a sophisticated drunk) and a tendency to fall in bed with Patrick’s widow. The dialogue is generally well written and moves the story along, although some of the attempts at humor fall way short in this dark story.

If you really want to read well written modern Irish mysteries, skip this and read anything by Ken Bruen, Ian Rankin or Benjamin Black.



Profile Image for Al.
945 reviews11 followers
April 12, 2013

What's in a name? Apparently everything for Ed Loy, because that's the only information Father Vincent Tyrrell, brother of prominent racehorse trainer F. X. Tyrrell, offers when he asks for Ed's help in finding a missing person. Even the best private eye needs more than just a name, but hard times and a dwindling bank account make it difficult for Loy to say no.
He is not without luck, however. While working another case, Loy discovers a phone number that seems linked to F.X. found on an unidentified body. Thinking it more than a coincidence, he begins digging into the history of the Tyrrells—a history consumed with trading and dealing, gambling and horse breeding—and soon realizes there is more to the family than meets the eye, a suspicion confirmed when two more people with connections to the Tyrrells are killed. 


On the eve of one of Ireland's most anticipated sporting events, the four-day Leopardstown Race-course Christmas Festival, all bets are off as Loy pursues a twisted killer on the final leg of a reckless master plan. 

Profile Image for Sandra.
Author 12 books33 followers
January 3, 2016
Declan Hughes just gets better, as we get to know Ed Loy better in all his sadness and drinking and loyalties and ability to see through, see into other's hearts and heads and motivations. And this complex, twisty, desperately sad tale is dealt with clarity and no happy endings. All related in language, in writing so spot on perfect I despair of ever following it.
[Best bit though, I still have 'All the dead voices' still to read but will hang onto that for a while, enjoying the anticipation.]
19 reviews
June 8, 2013
This is an interesting book, but it was let down by the writing style in my opinion. Lots of long sentences that were broken up with an overuse of semi-colons. Also I found it a bit hard to keep track of all the characters involved, though I'm not sure if that was a problem with the book, or just a problem with my memory.

The actual story itself was interesting, though a little too disturbing for my tastes. Bottom line: there's certainly worse books you could be reading, but there's also better books you could be reading.
Profile Image for Sandi.
1,648 reviews48 followers
June 30, 2009
Dublin PI Ed Loy is hired by a priest to find a missing person. This series specializes in the the family secrets type plot and while I did like it the ending was totally over the top (though what do I know since it was nominated for a best mystery Edgar this year). I thought the first two books in the series were much better.
Profile Image for Susan W. Waflart.
91 reviews1 follower
July 26, 2009
A good juicy detective story involving what else....the rich and famous. Through in the world of horse racing, murder, incest, abuse by the catholic clergy and you can sum up this novel. Since the author is Irish and the main character is Irish I struggled at times with some of the dialogue but got through it okay. I liked it enough that I may check out other books in the series by this author.
63 reviews2 followers
February 18, 2011
I was disappointed. Started off great -- he's a good writer, interesting characters, strong on setting -- but then the story just got way, way over the top into soap opera. Relied on a single character "confessing" in detail, sure sign of a writer having to explain his own plot at the end, rather than build a strong plot that can be revealed through the narrative.
Profile Image for Ann.
510 reviews3 followers
February 28, 2016
A bit of a slow start for me, mostly because it took me a while to get all of the characters straight. Very exciting once I got into it, though; as the cover promises, lots of twists and turns. Oh, and you'll get a hangover just reading it...Ed Loy drinks Jameson all day long, and most of the night.
Profile Image for Ann.
510 reviews3 followers
March 3, 2016
A bit of a slow start for me, mostly because it took me a while to get all of the characters straight. Very exciting once I got into it, though; as the cover promises, lots of twists and turns. Oh, and you'll get a hangover just reading it...Ed Loy drinks Jameson all day long, and most of the night.
Profile Image for Joe.
672 reviews6 followers
November 3, 2009
Not a bad 3rd installment of the Ed Loy series, slightly similar is style to the previous book 'the colour of blood' will be interested to see what the series holds from here on in as to date each of the 3 books are all based on large families and their secrets..
490 reviews
September 4, 2011
A very dark tale of secrets, abuse, and brutality. I would give Hughes 5 stars for his exceptional writing, characterization, dialogue, and creation of an ominous, foreboding atmosphere. But I found myself unable to be engaged by or care much about the very complex plot.
Profile Image for Karen Douglass.
Author 14 books12 followers
March 26, 2013
The sort of book I put off work to finish reading. Hughes does not disappoint. His plotting is convoluted but satisfying. And the contemporary Irish settings delight me. I'll probably read anything he ever writes.
Profile Image for GK.
417 reviews
June 9, 2010
A pretty great mystery/thriller with a noir-ish detective and a good look at Dublin. Well worth the read.
Profile Image for Tequila.
Author 3 books2 followers
April 8, 2011
Excellent book with a twisted plot. So - why isn't the 5th book in the Ed Loy series "The Color of Blood" not available in the DC Public Library?
Profile Image for Jane.
2,682 reviews67 followers
August 15, 2011
Tell no one. Say nothing. That's the Irish creed in this dark tale of crime, abuse, horses, drink, and . . . I better say nothing, or I'll spoil it.
248 reviews
December 8, 2012
This is my first book of a planned exploration into the "modern Irish detective story" genre. Pretty good, and I'll try some more in the ("Ed Loy") series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews