Islandbridge

Inspector Matt Minogue #8

by John Brady

A police widow’sthirst for revenge lives on decades after his death.

Dublin 1983 
Garda Declan Kelly is working his last off-duty shift outside of a nightclub when he witnesses a double murder in an alleyway. Spared a bullet in the back of the head, Kelly is snared instead by the crime family involved in the murders. They soon force him into an impossible position, and he kills himself. His note to his pregnant wife brings her not just grief but an overpowering rage, and the desire for revenge on all who let her husband down – including the police themselves. Before his suicide, Kelly had asked for help and advice from his Sergeant. The reply was a cold demand to turn himself in, as a criminal. 

Dublin 2005 
An uneasy Inspector Minogue sits in on an interview with a jittery addict, all arranged by his friend Tommy (‘Molly’) Malone of the Drug Squad. Minogue is wary. He wonders if a rumour that Malone has ‘lost it’ may be true. Malone is bitter, and vulnerable, after the drug overdose death of his own brother last year. There have been incidents of Malone roughing up suspects. Is Malone himself being played by these powerful crime families? As Minogue probes the Condon file, he discovers that a woman whom Condon briefly lived with, a Moldovan, cannot be found. There are rumblings of a territorial war brewing between the Irish crime families and their acolytes, and gangsters from Easter Europe flocking to Ireland.
Trawling the pubs and clubs in the Dublin area, they come in contact with a prostitution racket run by an affable, accented ‘George.’ The same ‘George’ is not helpful, and flees. Malone wants him badly and the teeming lanes and streets of central Dublin witness a chase and a violent confrontation. A very oblique follow-up Minogue hears is a mention of a ‘cop who topped himself years ago.’ Minogue must now follow up on this information. The story closes on betrayal and fury, and a detective who can only find rest in a remote windswept field facing the Atlantic.

Genres: Mystery, Ireland

345 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

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

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the dialogue and characters in this story. Some criticised the slow pace but I enjoyed it more than gun battles and car chases. One thing I didn't see was Declan killing himself as mentioned in the story outline. I saw it as murder to prevent him from telling what he saw in the alley. Not sure how it could be construed otherwise.

[The Villan]

Can’t recall my rating

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh! I struggled through 200 pages. Please read Stephen King's On Writing and edit! Too wordy, too slow, and at times I honestly had no idea what was going on.

[Macha · Rating 3 out of 5]

this one was disappointing, and i usually really like this writer.

[Alan Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the Irish jargon/slang which ade the story very interesting.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: a police widow’s thirst for revenge lives on for decades. In Dublin in 1983 her husband killed himself and she remembers why.