Book info

• Title Dark Dawn
• Author Matt McGuire
• Year 2012
• Genre Mystery

Belfast. January 2005. Acting Detective Sergeant John O'Neill stands over the body of a dead teenager. The corpse was discovered on the building site of a luxury development overlooking the River Lagan. Kneecapped then killed, the body bears the hallmarks of a punishment beating. But this is the new Northern Ireland - the Celtic Tiger purrs, the Troubles are over, the paramilitaries are gone. So who is the boy? Why was he killed? O'Neill quickly realises that no one cares who the kid is - his colleagues, the politicians, the press - making this case one of the toughest yet. And he needs to crack this one, his first job as Principle Investigator, or he risks ending up back in uniform. Disliked by the Chief Inspector and with his current rank yet to be ratified, O'Neill is in a precarious position.

Thoughts

It’s been a while since I read a proper crime book, these are the type that I would devour as they were handed to be from all different sources. Since I have a book list to get through, and the entire Kindle library has opened up to me, crime has fallen off my radar a little bit. I’m not sure where I picked this one up from, a sale or a promotion of some sort, but after just the first few pages I was hooked.

What’s good about it is the protagonist is not your traditional detective. There are exceptions, of course, but they tend to be either the aging cop who has seen it all and is one step ahead all the time, or the rookie who is fumbling his way through and getting results more by luck than judgement. This one is not brand new, is on the edge of toppling over the work/life balance cliff but isn’t quite the world-weary chief we often see.

Set against the troubled background of Belfast’s mean and drug-filled streets, there’s some violence but more tension than anything, and the story weaves through a host of characters. Somehow, despite the case being stagnant for most of the book, it remains intensely interesting. I couldn’t put it down.

Rating: 4 / 5