Book review: Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty. The fourth and perhaps the best so far in the fantastic Sean Duffy series

I’ve been working away from home a lot since Christmas, so blogging has taken a back seat.  Although I’ve got a huge backlog of reviews piled up, my first post of 2015 has to be a review of Gun Street Girl - the fourth book in the Sean Duffy series by one of my favourite authors, Adrian McKinty. 
 

Duffy has made it through to 1985, with the latest novel set against a background of border gunrunners and riots on the streets of Belfast.  The plot starts with DS “Crabbie” McCrabban calling Duffy up and asking for his advice on a double murder – a wealthy couple found shot dead whilst apparently watching television.  The dead couple’s son, Michael Kelly, is missing and it soon looks like he has a likely motive for the murder – what else would you expect from a disgruntled university dropout?  After Michael Kelly is found dead in an apparent suicide Duffy’s even more reluctant to get involved.  He’s far more interested in some “off the record discussions” with Sara Prentice, a reporter from the Belfast Telegraph.

 

However, when Duffy realises that the suicide of Michael Kelly’s girlfriend has been staged, he knows that Michael Kelly must have been murdered too.  The scope of the plot widens to include Kate Albright, who offers Duffy a job working for MI5; the mysterious “Mr Connolly” a shadowy and forceful American presence in Northern Ireland, as well as Tommy Moony, a former UFF enforcer, now a peaceful shop steward at the Short Brothers plant where a number of surface to air missiles are unaccountably missing.  Just for a little variety Duffy and his new sidekick also take a short break in Oxford to run down a lead relating to Michael Kelly’s suicide/murder, which uncovers a scandal that is tied into the heart of the British establishment - Phew!

As we expect, Duffy correctly puts all the pieces together, but despite his detective genius everything doesn’t go the way he expects.  Real life gets in the way of Duffy’s career ambition – no plot spoilers, just to say that the final tie in with real life events made me sad for the fictional Duffy, but especially so for the real people and families touched by the tragedy on a misty day off the coast of Western Scotland.

My verdict?  Well I have to admit that I get fussier and more demanding of authors the longer their series goes on.  McKinty hasn’t let me down! In this book he’s cracked it again, with good characterisation of both established and new characters, a sophisticated and believable plot, and finally the way he blends fact and fiction together in such a plausible way to produce a brilliant story.  See how many real life tie in’s you can spot before reading McKinty’s crib sheet at the end.  If you’re a Sean Duffy fan – you have to read the book.  If you’ve never read a McKinty novel before – you have to read the book.  It’s as simple as that.

Romancrimeblogger