Book review – The Nameless Dead by Brian McGilloway

This is the fifth Inspector Devlin book.  I read the first two but stopped following the series as the books were OK, but didn’t seem to have enough pull for me.  If that’s because it takes writers time to get in their stride, McGilloway has unquestionably pushed his way to the front of the race.

You could say the book is about cover ups, injustice and how the lives of ordinary, honest people have been overshadowed by the past.  

Devlin is involved with a painful part of Northern Ireland’s reconciliation process. Tasked with finding the bodies of “The Disappeared” (those who got on the wrong side of the IRA and were tortured, murdered, then buried so their bodies would never be found), Devlin discovers the skeleton of a baby in an unmarked grave.  Because of the rules governing the discovery of the disappeared, Devlin isn’t allowed to investigate the baby’s’ death further – a restriction that Devlin simply can’t accept.

If that isn’t all enough, Devlin also has to deal with his daughter wanting to assert her independence and a son feeling marginalised by a father who puts work and the other members of the family first.

McGilloway skilfully weaves together a number of threads of Ireland’s difficult history from the civil war in the north to the misdeeds of the Catholic Church.  And just so we don’t think the bad things are all in the past, we see glimpses of the way that the criminal underbelly in Ireland continues to grow, skilfully adapting and taking advantage of the economic collapse.

I strongly recommend this book.

Roman crime blogger