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The Cold, Cold Ground by Adrian Mckinty
The Troubles Trilogy Book #1
5★'s
From The Book:
Spring 1981. Northern Ireland. Belfast on the verge of outright civil war. The Thatcher government has flooded the area with soldiers, but nightly there are riots, bombings, and sectarian attacks.
In the midst of the chaos, Sean Duffy, a young, witty, Catholic detective in the almost entirely Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, is trying to track down a serial killer who is targeting gay men. As a Catholic policeman, Duffy is suspected by both sides and there are layers of complications. For one thing, homosexuality is illegal in Northern Ireland in 1981. Then he discovers that one of the victims was involved in the IRA, but was last seen discussing business with someone from the Protestant UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force). Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, this book is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles and a cop caught in the cross fire.
My Thoughts:
The story was very close to my heart as my grandparents left Northern Ireland with my 3 year old mother and her 5 year old sister in 1926. They decided that the The Troubles were not a time that they wanted to raise a family in and my grandfather was Scottish and that was another story.
The time is 1981. It was a time when the technology that we rely so much on today was in it's infancy and the police for the most part, had to rely on what we now nostalgically refer to as "good old fashion detective work". DNA analysis was just coming on the forefront in criminal investigation, Enter Detective Sean Duffy...a really likable, imaginative character. If you were to take the best of John Thaw's Inspector Morse , Ian Rankin's John Rebus and add a bit of Peter James's Roy Grace stir well with some unexpected humor...you'll begin to see what this man is all about. I can not recommend this book highly enough. I only hope the next two in the trilogy are as intriguing as this one.
