The killer has
people terrified, and it’s up to him to navigate the
tricky waters of the time and bring the murderer to justice.
Joe Swallow is one of the really good guys, and I enjoyed
getting to know the character.
This is a cleverly
written thriller, which at times lulled me into complacency,
only to draw me back into the drama of unfolding events as
I tried to solve the crimes along with the good detective.
The dialogue is
crisp and suits the time period perfectly. As a police-procedural,
it was clearly well-researched, and I learned quite a bit
about how police investigations were done in Ireland at the
latter part of the 1880’s.
Interestingly,
the author worked for many years as a journalist, and he was
able to put those years of experience into some really good
books. This is the first of the Joe Swallow mysteries that
I have read, but I will be adding the previous two onto my
to be read list.