Poacher's Road

Inspektor Kimmel #1

by John Brady

Book by John Brady

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Canada

455 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

John Brady was born in Dublin, the fictional setting of his acclaimed series of Matt Minogue mystery novels. Brady immigrated to Canada at the age of 20, and has worked as a bank official, RCMP clerical officer and teacher. His seventh Minogue novel, Wonderland, taps into Dublin’s exploding economy and its aftershocks at every level of society. He lives in Toronto. He won the Arthur Ellis Award to the First Best Novel in 1989 for A Stone of the Heart.

Series:
* Inspector Matt Minogue

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is called an Inspector Kimmel novel, but Felix Kimmel is just out of police school, and is lost and bewildered for most of the book. Just 22 years old he is still not sure why he is a cop,except his mom guilted him into it.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the plotting, but found the short tempered, inexperienced and somewhat inept Inspektor Felix Kimmel somewhat annoying. It seemed like he would rather be spending time with his girlfriend than actually trying to work on his case.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not my favourite by this author. The glimpse into Austrian life, scenery and history was interesting, the characters were well developed, and the writing style a pleasure to read. But I felt let down when the mystery was "solved" only at the very end, in discussions between the characters. Disappointing after working my way through all the historical angles, obscure language and diverse geography.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Brady divides his time between Dublin and Canada, where his wife and children are at home, and his publisher is Canadian so I guess he qualifies and there's a Canadian reference as well as an American in this so there you are.
Austria has a lot of secrets and it seems that many families hope that if a thing isn't mentioned it will go away. Felix Kimmel has joined the Gendarmerie after his police officer father was killed in an accident on a steep country road. The Gendarmerie is responsible for traffic, road safety, 'beer brawls' and domestic disputes - local stuff. The serious matters are dealt with by the Polizei who also handle international matters so neither Felix nor his family and girl friend expect him to be working on a violent and dangerous case that takes him out of town and beyond his work shift. Accidentally Felix becomes involved in a murder case and finds himself under threat by persons unknown. The detectives who are doing the investigating suggest Felix send his girl friend to her parents in Italy while they deal with matters and things get thicker from there.
I think it helps if you have a rough idea of Austrian history from the thirties on through the 50's and 60's although Brady does give enough help to be going on with. He uses a fair amount of Styrian (eastern rural Austrian)dialect but has a pretty good glossary at the back. His Mother-in-law is from the area and he says she helps with the language but I think she has helped with the mind sets, too, because the people are real, full-blown, conflicted, with pasts and futures and with attitudes that reflect their geography and history more than anything else.

[Flo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

Gave it 2 stars for the excellent writing. Have read all of John Brady's books in the Inspector Minogue series and they are excellent. This one was well written but writing alone is not enough. Most of the story takes place in the house of a policeman's grandparents. It's repetitious and uninteresting. I love John Brady's writing but I could not get into this at all.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 2 out of 5]

i have read john brady books before and enjoyed them. This book was not my favorite.