Rain Dogs (Sean Duffy Series #5)

by Adrian McKinty

Overview

WINNER! EDGAR® AWARD and BARRY AWARD® for BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL! It’s just the same things over and again for Sean Duffy: riot duty, heartbreak, cases he can solve but never get to court. But what detective gets two locked-room mysteries in one career? When journalist Lily Bigelow is found dead in the courtyard of Carrickfergus castle, it looks like a suicide. Yet there are just a few things that bother Duffy enough to keep the case file open. Which is how he finds out that she was working on a devastating investigation of corruption and abuse at the highest levels of power in the UK and beyond. And so Duffy has two impossible problems on his desk: Who killed Lily Bigelow? And what were they trying to hide?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633881303
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	03/08/2016
Series:	Sean Duffy Series , #5
Pages:	329
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Adrian McKinty is the author of eighteen novels, including the acclaimed Detective Sean Duffy novels. Rain Dogs won the 2017 Edgar® Award for Best Paperback Original. Gun Street Girl was shortlisted for the Anthony, Ned Kelly, and Edgar® Awards. The Cold Cold Ground won the Spinetingler Award. I Hear the Sirens in the Street won the Barry Award and was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award. In the Morning I'll Be Gone won the Ned Kelly Award and was selected by the American Library Association as one of the top-10 crime fiction novels of 2014. McKinty is also the author of the standalone historical The Sun Is God. Born and raised in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, McKinty was called "the best of the new generation of Irish crime novelists" in the Glasgow Herald.

Table of Contents

1. The Most Famous Man in the World2. The Theft That Wasn’t3. Lizzie Fitzpatrick Redux? 4. Mr. Underhill5. The Strange Suicide of Lily Bigelow6. The One Shoe7. Interviewing the Finns8. The Killing of the Chief Super9. Wiping the Whiteboard10. The Preliminary Autopsy Report11. Interviewing Mr. Underhill Redux12. East to the Smoke13. Jimmy Savile’s Caravan14. Kinkaid15. Tony McIlroy’s Detective Agency16. The Brothel17. Ed McBain’s Notebook18. Finlandia19. Constable Hornborg’s Story20. On the Ice21. Mercury tilt22. Closing the Net23. The Famous Carrickfergus Fifteen-Pub Crawl24. The Ministry Man25. Breaking the Case26. Lifting the Prime Suspect27. How He Did It28. The Oakman Surprises Everyone29. Kami No Itte—The Divine Move30. What Defeat Tastes Like31. It’s Not the Leaving of Liverpool That Grieves Me32. The Helsinki Times (Five Months Later)Afterword

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/25/2016
Det. Insp. Sean Duffy must solve the equivalent of a locked-room mystery in McKinty’s scorching fifth installment in his Troubles-set Northern Irish crime series (after 2015’s Gun Street Girl). It’s 1987 in Carrickfergus, and Duffy, a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, is constantly on the lookout for mercury tilt switch bombs planted underneath his car, the calling card of the IRA. Meanwhile, the body of Financial Times journalist Lily Bigelow is found in the courtyard of Carrickfergus Castle. The only way in or out of the centuries-old structure, now a tourist attraction, is through a heavy gate, and CCTV footage proves that no one entered or exited the castle at the time of Bigelow’s death, making Duffy think that she likely threw herself off one of the high walls inside. But the forensics experts conclude someone murdered Bigelow, whom Duffy soon connects to a delegation of Finnish businessmen visiting Northern Ireland to perhaps bring new jobs. McKinty expertly balances Duffy’s tense and suspenseful investigation with the political tensions of the region. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Creative Book Services. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

WINNER! EDGAR® AWARD for BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL!

2017 BARRY AWARD FINALIST

A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF 2015 

PRAISE FOR THE DETECTIVE SEAN DUFFY NOVELS:

“When it comes to Northern Irish crime fiction, Adrian McKinty forged the path the rest of us follow. The Sean Duffy series is the culmination of a career spent examining our darkest moments, and McKinty is the only crime writer who can do justice to our singular history.”

—STUART NEVILLE, author of Those We Left Behind
 
“Shot through with a smart, crackling humor that manages to be both dark and witty. . . . [Sean Duffy] is utterly and pleasurably human.”

—BOSTON GLOBE
 
“Exceptionally smart police procedurals.”

—BOOKLIST FOUR STARRED REVIEWS!
 
“A great writer. . . . Don't miss any of the [series].”

—NANCY PEARL, NPR commentator and bestselling author of Book Lust
 
“Dark, intriguing, but still somehow witty novels. . . . A thrilling, thoroughly fantastic murder mystery with countless twists and turns that take readers to the darkest parts of Belfast.”

—RT BOOK REVIEWS

From the Publisher

2015-12-23
During the Irish Troubles, a discouraged detective tackles a murder oddly similar to a past crime. The excitement of meeting Muhammad Ali on his Belfast visit quickly fades for DI Sean Duffy. He'd thought he and his girlfriend were doing fine, but she's determined to walk out on him, and he's depressed to be left behind. He's pushing 40, his career with the Royal Ulster Constabulary is stalled, and he has nothing to look forward to but checking for bombs under his car on his way to the Carrick station and pursuing a case of a missing wallet. But Duffy's superiors want him to take the case seriously because the victim is a visiting Finnish businessman who can bring money and jobs to Northern Ireland. After privately writing off the robbery as a prank, Duffy meets Lily Bigelow, a young reporter from the Financial Times, who's hoping for a few words about the case. Duffy's hoping for a date with her, and his disappointment that she doesn't take him up on it turns to shock when he sees her dead body in the courtyard of Carrickfergus Castle the next day. Lily had come for a tour and stayed behind when the caretaker locked up the castle for the night, and the only logical conclusions are that she jumped or the caretaker pushed her. Even though it seems impossible for anyone else to have entered the locked castle, neither Duffy nor his two junior colleagues are content to go with the obvious answers. And there's still the matter of Lily's missing journalist's notepad. When a violent murder turns the station upside down, Duffy can't shake the feeling that it's connected to Lily's death, and he won't give up the case, no matter how far it takes him or what the danger. Duffy (Gun Street Girl, 2015, etc.) is taking no better care of himself than he ever did. But his copper's instincts are as sharp as ever in this fifth installment.

Kirkus Reviews

McKinty’s story opens with a visit to Belfast by “sporting royalty” Muhammad Ali—a challenge narrator Gerard Doyle meets with a gravelly, rhythmic delivery. Even better are Doyle’s varied Irish accents, which help differentiate the various Northern Irish policemen who work with Detective Sean Duffy to solve an international case of murder in an Irish village. The death of a young English reporter involves politicians and wealthy Finnish investors. Duffy’s journey to Finland to investigate poses an interesting vocal challenge that Doyle handles admirably. His delivery further ratchets up the tension when the threat of IRA bombings and the death of a high-ranking police official add to the mayhem. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

JULY 2016 - AudioFile