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The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty (view source)
Revision as of 13:41, 11 March 2018
, 13:41, 11 March 2018no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=The Cold Cold Ground
|author=Adrian McKinty
|reviewer=Robin Leggett
|genre=Crime
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|isbn=9781846688225
|pages=352
|publisher=Serpent's Tail
|date=January 2012
|website=http://adrianmckinty.blogspot.com/
|summary=The first of a planned trilogy of police procedural stories set in 1980s Northern Ireland featuring Catholic cop Sean Duffy. Can he solve to seemingly unrelated cases while there's rioting on the streets?
|cover=1846688221
|aznuk=1846688221
|aznus=1846688221
}}
Duffy has two cases to solve, which may or may not be related. The main one centres on what appears to be a homophobic serial killer at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Northern Ireland while the second involves the disappearance of a young girl who is the ex-wife of one of the hunger strikers. Both appear to be unrelated both to each other and to the 'troubles' - but perhaps not. The serial killer story line involves a lot of homophobic language which was rife at the time which some may find offensive by today's more enlightened standards, but McKinty is very good at evoking the period and this is, to my mind, entirely justified.
McKinty is also good at what might be called 'locker room banter' within the police force. In fact, dialogue is always one of his strengths. He has a good ear for it and it's often very amusing. Moreover, the author has previous form in writing trilogies with his excellent series featuring the anti-hero, the hitman Michael Forsythe. Writing trilogies is not easy but there is evidence to suggest that McKinty will carry this off with aplomb. In fact this edition ends with a taster for the next in the series ''I Hear Sirens in the Street'' and it looks promising. Despite my reservations about ''The Cold Cold Ground'', I will still be first in the queue to read the next installment. This may not be his best work, in my opinion, but it's still highly readable and entertaining.
Out thanks as ever to the kind people at Serpent's Tail for sending us a copy of this book.
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