Dirty Old Tricks

by Pat Gray

A chilling noir novel set in the Belfast of The Troubles in which Pat Gray introduces us to the flawed but dogged and honourable policeman McCann. It is a welcome return to fiction after an eighteen year silence by one of Ulster's finest novelists. Eight years in C Division was a long stretch for any man to be in one of the worst posts. That would break the toughest fellow. That would make you wonder if McCann was really the man for the job. Inspector McCann is called to investigate the brutal murder of a teenage girl, at first assuming it is a sex crime or sectarian tit-for-tat killing. But another girl is killed and then his prime suspect castrated and murdered. He finds himself trapped in vicious old rivalries, unsupported and alone. Are the murders connected to 'Dirty Tricks' by the combatants in Ireland's war, or has McCann lost the plot, as his boss suggests? Following the success of The Political Map of the Heart, Pat Gray's second Belfast novel is detective fiction that is bloodier and darker than anything he has previously written.

270 pages, Paperback

Published February 14, 2021

Reviews

[Daniel Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

As ever with Pat Gray, the book was thought provoking, insightful and above all exciting. Finished this great crime thriller in a week. Hopefully there is a sequel!