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Kerrigan is an award-winning Irish journalist (ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS) whose crime fiction (A MIDNIGHT CHOIR; LITTLE CRIMINALS) has an authenticity born of a socialist worldview, great writing, and a feel for the criminal and paramilitary gangs operating in urban Dublin. He deals here with “tiger kidnappings,” the post-Celtic Tiger miasma of ruin, the recently published reports on clerical abuse, police collaboration with politicians, etc. The protagonist is Detective Tidey, a complex, flawed, but humane individual. Tidey is dealing with a surfeit of domestic and work pressures while pursuing his investigations, using unorthodox measures if required, including perjury. The novel centers around his attempt to solve the murder of a high-flying banker, which eventually links to an Ordinary Decent Criminal (ODC) operation that goes awry. The rage that follows is visceral and lethal. It is also a metaphor for the suppressed rage of many Irish from years of abuse, exploitation, greed, and negligence of bankers, speculators, and politicians.
VERDICT For authenticity, narrative, plot, writing skill, the gritty noirish crime milieu setting, and the post-Celtic-Tiger-Ireland toxicity, Kerrigan's latest well deserves its CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year.
