Beneath the Surface: An Inspector Tom Reynolds Mystery

by Jo Spain

Overview

They say politics is cut-throat, but nothing rocks the boat more than a personal vendetta.

Late at night, two powerful men meet in a secret location to discuss a long nurtured plan about to come to fruition. One is desperate to know there is nothing standing in their way—the other assures him everything is taken care of. Hours later, high-ranking government official Ryan Finnegan is brutally slain in the most secure building in Ireland—seat of parliament Leinster House. Inspector Tom Reynolds and his team are called in to uncover the truth behind the murder.

At first, all the evidence hints at a politically motivated crime, until a surprise discovery takes the investigation in a dramatically different direction. Suddenly the motive for murder becomes a lot more personal...but who benefits the most from Ryan's death?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643851846
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Series:	An Inspector Tom Reynolds Mystery Series , #2
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	614,582
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Jo Spain is a full-time writer and screenwriter. Her first novel, With Our Blessing, was one of seven books shortlisted in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller competition and her first psychological thriller. The Confession, was a number one bestseller in Ireland. Jo co-wrote the ground-breaking TV series Taken Down which first broadcast in Ireland in 2018. She’s now working on multiple European TV projects. Joanne lives in Dublin with her husband and their four young children.

Editorial Reviews

06/10/2019

In Spain’s intriguing sequel to With Our Blessings, Aiden Blake, Ireland’s Minister for State Resources and Energy Efficiency, appears well on his way to becoming the country’s next prime minister. When Ryan Finnegan, Blake’s political adviser, is found shot to death in the halls of Parliament clutching a compromising photo of the minister, the authorities order Det. Insp. Tom Reynolds, the head of the Dublin Murder Squad, to solve the case as quickly as possible and avoid scandal. The police investigation leads to an offshore drilling bill that Blake is supporting, along with evidence of backroom deals, blackmail, and payoffs. Meanwhile, Reynolds has to figure out who would profit the most from Finnegan’s murder, with greedy politicians the obvious suspects. Well-developed characters keep the reader engaged. Spain provides a timely look at the murky world of collusion between government and corporations. Agent: Nicola Barr, Bent Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for the Beneath the Surface:
"Intriguing...Spain provides a timely look at the murky world of collusion between government and corporations."
—Publishers Weekly

"Spain keeps up the pressure...Honest detection, layers upon layers of deception, and juicy revelations about high-flying pols. What’s not to like?"
—Kirkus Reviews

"Twists abound and there are surprises around every corner...Incredibly intoxicating."
—Suspense Magazine
 
"Jo Spain does an outstanding job of profiling each one of her characters...A must-read for fans of the genre."
—Manhattan Book Review

"Compelling...Jo Spain has hit the jackpot."
—WBAI

Praise for the With Our Blessing:
“Absolutely my comfort reading.”
—Ann Cleeves, Dagger Award-winning author of Vera & the Shetland series

“The novel is razor-sharp...The denouement is fiendishly clever, a climax in the old-fashioned Agatha Christie-esque sense...a big fat twist is lobbed into the ending like a hand grenade.”
—Sunday Independent

“Brilliant! Fast paced, well researched and sensitive. Jo Spain is a sparking new talent.”
—Irish Examiner

“In a very strong year for Irish crime-fiction debuts, Jo Spain’s With Our Blessing is among the most assured...[and] picks at the scabs of recent Irish history to reveal raw and gaping wounds.”
—Declan Burke Irish Times

“Jo Spain writes as good a procedural as you are ever likely to read.”
—Crime Review (UK)

From the Publisher

2019-06-17
It's open season on Ireland's government, with some intimates marked for violent death literally in the corridors of power and others slated for takedown by more insidious means.

DI Tom Reynolds, the head of the Dublin Garda's murder squad, is called to Leinster House, seat of the Irish parliament, in response to a grisly discovery. Ryan Finnegan, the political adviser to Aidan Blake, Minister for State Resources and Energy Efficiency, has been found shot to death in the arms of a statue inside an underground tunnel that connects the two houses of parliament. It's not clear which scandal is worse—the murder of a well-connected political hand inside the most heavily guarded building in the country or the discovery of a lurid photograph beneath Finnegan's body. Despite the apparently secure location, suspects are everywhere, from Carl Madsen, the powerful executive of the Danish energy company Udforske, who's been secretly working to shape a crucial piece of energy legislation Blake is shepherding, to Darragh McNally, chair of the majority Reform Party, whose elderly mother's death leaves him utterly alone despite the formidable political power he's amassed. But Reynolds (With Our Blessing, 2019, etc.) and the team of investigators he's assembled keep coming back to Blake, whom they catch in one lie after another. His meeting with Madsen on the night of the murder never happened. He's a member of a secret men's club devoted to discreet sexual encounters. He's one of the men pictured in the photograph police found at the murder scene. And he's been blackmailed to change that far-reaching energy plan. As the evidence against Blake mounts and his explanations become increasingly baroque, Spain keeps up the pressure on the other suspects and ends up indicting an entire generation of Irish politicians, whether or not they get arrested for murder.

Honest detection, layers upon layers of deception, and juicy revelations about high-flying pols. What's not to like?

Kirkus Reviews

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