CSI Reilly Steel and the Garda Forensics Unit are thrust into the spotlight when Ireland’s most revered sportsman is attacked in his Dublin home and his TV-presenter wife comes upon the attack. Reilly is worried that celebrity is blinding everyone involved, including her team, to the fact that that nothing is what it seems, including the victim’s famous wife.
Reilly is still an American fish in Irish waters in Book 6 of this well-written, tightly plotted Irish police procedural. She doesn’t quite get the national obsession with rugby, or the deference people are displaying toward her famous victim. She’s also struggling with how she will be able to do her job once her baby is born. She has trouble taking care of herself, let alone a tiny, vulnerable being. She’s on the outs with her police officer partner, she’s irritated with her team for viewing every move she makes through a pregnancy hormone filter, and she’s trying to decide how much or whether the baby’s father will be involved in her life, and her child’s life.
Reilly is a fascinating character for me. She’s headstrong, almost always right, driven by perfectionism, and yet still vulnerable and human. Her struggles with anxiety and insomnia ring true to me. “Still, Reilly’s heart was racing. In episodes like this, it felt like the damned thing was going to break out of her chest like some rabid weasel breaking through a shoebox.” I love that image. I admire her consistent professionalism, even when things are going to hell in a handbasket.
The plots in this series are always engaging, but it’s the characters that keep me coming back for more. I like how Reilly’s team supports each other, and how she and Detective Chris Delaney still manage to work together even when they are on the outs. These characters are like real people to me, people I‘d like to have over for dinner, or hang out with. If you like police procedurals, or you are a fan of Joy Ellis, Celina Grace, Faith Martin, or Charlie Gallagher, I’d give this one a go. As usual, I do think series are best read in order, particularly if you like to watch the characters and relationships develop. I notice there are only two more books in the series. It will be a sad occasion when I finish them – I made a real connection with these characters, and I will miss my “friends.”