cover image DEATH IN DUBLIN

DEATH IN DUBLIN

Bartholomew Gill, . . Morrow, $24.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-06-000849-9

The eighth and sadly the last in Gill's Peter McGarr series (the author died last summer) is a complicated and gloomy foray into Ireland's relentlessly tragic political and social landscape. Unidentified criminals, striking at the heart of Irish culture and tradition, kill a security guard and abscond from Trinity College with the revered Book of Kells, for which they demand a huge ransom. McGarr, "chief superintendent of the Serious Crimes Unit of the Garda Siochana," takes on the case. Corrupt higher-ups in the Garda dismiss McGarr when he treads on sensitive ground, but guilty feelings stemming from the unsolved murders of his wife and father-in-law drive him onward. At times hard to follow, this deeply depressing story builds to a gripping, carnage-filled climax. (Jan.)