Disappeared

Irish journalist Quinn's fiction debut kicks off a series featuring Northern Ireland police inspector Celcius Daly. This first installment manages to both entertain and enlighten, taking decades of sectarian violence that preceded present-day calm and using this as the background for a suspenseful whodunit.%C2%A0Former Special Branch informant Joseph Devine fails in his attempt to evade enemies who wish him dead for his betrayals of the IRA. The investigation of his brutal torture and death falls to Daly, who is already busy trying to trace David Hughes, a retired Special Branch agent. Hughes had been showing beginning signs of dementia in his ostensibly secure environment, complete with alarms meant to alert his sister in case he left. Before walking away from his home, Hughes believed he had been visited by Oliver Jordan, who had been killed 20 years earlier after being accused of being a traitor to the Republican cause. Quinn's knowledge of post-Troubles Northern Ireland effortlessly converts itself into an effective thriller. Agent: Paul Feldstein, Feldstein Agency. (July)