{"id":4522,"date":"2015-06-16T06:56:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T10:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4522"},"modified":"2015-06-16T06:56:33","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T10:56:33","slug":"gun-street-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4522","title":{"rendered":"****Gun Street Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ireland,

Belfast street (photo: Recuerdos de Pandora, Creative Commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n

By Adrian McKinty, narrated by Gerard Doyle <\/a>— Gun Street Girl<\/em> takes place in Belfast, in the mid-1980s, and The Troubles provide a fine backdrop of tension and mayhem. It\u2019s the fourth (yes!) of a planned trilogy, because McKinty\u2014and his readers\u2014couldn\u2019t quite let Detective Sean Duffy go.<\/p>\n

The complex plot grows out of actual events of the era, including missile thefts from aerospace company Short Brothers (a convoluted affair in real life) and the hostile environment created by the Thatcher-FitzGerald Anglo-Irish agreement. In the novel, Duffy is out of step as usual with his confreres in law enforcement, especially for being the rare Catholic in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. When a murder investigation takes Duffy and a new recruit to Oxford, England, they encounter a more generalized anti-Irish prejudice. The British coppers apparently believe the Irishmen will be satisfied to sit in their cozy b&b in Oxford (unless my ears mistook, referred to as \u201cMorse-land,\u201d in a nice homage) and drink whiskey. They are, of course, mistaken.<\/p>\n

What has taken them to Oxford is the unraveling of a case that at first appears open-and-shut. A couple is found murdered, and it looks as if their son shot them then committed suicide. Under Duffy\u2019s supervision, Detective Sergeant McCrabban is technically in charge of this investigation and is ready to close the books on it, but something\u2019s not quite right. For one thing, no one really wants Duffy and McCrabban poking around in it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Duffy\u2019s future with the R.U.C. faces an almost-certain dead-end, and MI5 agent Kate tries to recruit him for her agency. All things considered, a change of employer is more than a wee bit tempting. She\u2019s the Gun Street girl, and, as Tom Waits would have it, Duffy will \u201cnever kiss a Gun Street girl again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyle has won numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile, and has a solid history narrating mysteries and thrillers. In this book, he must present various Irish and English accents and does so beautifully. I could listen to the book again just to hear him read it. Detective Duffy\u2019s voice is crucial, since the story is told in first-person narration, and Doyle captures him\u2014and McKinty\u2019s dry, self-deprecating humor\u2014beautifully.<\/p>\n

A longer version of this review is available on the Crime Fiction Lover<\/a> website.
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