Paperback, 320 pages
Published July 9, 2019 by Blackstone Publishing.
It's a shame that the other books in the series are not translated into Spanish. We'll have to go back to the times of the university and read again in English.
Great reading.
One of my all time favorite mystery series by one of my all time favorite crime authors returns for the third installment. Adrian McKinty, author of such tremendous books like the Michael Forsythe trilogy (start with #1, [b:Dead I Well May Be|21282|Dead I Well May Be (Michael Forsythe #1)|Adrian McKinty|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388484908s/21282.jpg|22463]), has crafted a fascinating series featuring Sean Duffy, the Catholic peeler on the mostly Protestant Irish police force during The Troubles, in 1980s Northern Ireland.
When we last left Detective Duffy, in [b:I Hear the Sirens in the Street|16162561|I Hear the Sirens in the Street (Detective Sean Duffy, #2)|Adrian McKinty|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358517561s/16162561.jpg|22004965], he'd been cashiered out of his detective job, busted down to street police when he stepped on some powerful toes. In The Morning I'll Be Gone finds Duffy helping out back at his old stomping grounds in Carrickfergus (the author's actual home town) after reports of a massive breakout by …
One of my all time favorite mystery series by one of my all time favorite crime authors returns for the third installment. Adrian McKinty, author of such tremendous books like the Michael Forsythe trilogy (start with #1, [b:Dead I Well May Be|21282|Dead I Well May Be (Michael Forsythe #1)|Adrian McKinty|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388484908s/21282.jpg|22463]), has crafted a fascinating series featuring Sean Duffy, the Catholic peeler on the mostly Protestant Irish police force during The Troubles, in 1980s Northern Ireland.
When we last left Detective Duffy, in [b:I Hear the Sirens in the Street|16162561|I Hear the Sirens in the Street (Detective Sean Duffy, #2)|Adrian McKinty|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358517561s/16162561.jpg|22004965], he'd been cashiered out of his detective job, busted down to street police when he stepped on some powerful toes. In The Morning I'll Be Gone finds Duffy helping out back at his old stomping grounds in Carrickfergus (the author's actual home town) after reports of a massive breakout by IRA prisoners hits the wires. One of the escapees is his old school chum, Dermot McCann, a gifted explosives man.
Not much happens then but The Powers That Be finally find a real excuse to boot him off the force and Duffy begins to think about his future after the police. But there are other official groups that look to him for help in finding McCann before he does something spectacular, so Duffy gets dragged back in.
As part of his search for McCann, Duffy gets an offer for more information on his whereabouts. But he needs to solve a classic "locked room" death, which everyone just assumes is an accident, before the information will be turned over. But the clock is running, Duffy's leash is getting shorter and the mystery, if it is one, doesn't seem to be unraveling fast enough. Can Duffy solve the mystery, track down McCann and prevent something spectacular from happening?
Wow, what a great read! McKinty mentioned on his blog, The Psychopathology Of Everyday Life, that In The Morning I'll Be Gone had won the 2014 Ned Kelly award, given to the best crime fiction by an Australian writer (he lives in St. Kilda, Melbourne now). It reminded me of how much I just loved this series so far, so I took the plunge and picked it up for my Kindle. I started the day I bought it and finished it 2 days later, as I just couldn't put it down.
The Troubles are brought to life with startling clarity. As I mentioned in my review of I Hear Sirens In The Street, there still isn't a good, unbiased history of The Troubles (I even asked Mr. McKinty on Twitter if there was), although the BBC pages work pretty well. How Duffy checks under the car every time for tilt bombs, the offhand discussions of bombings, the truly depressed nature of everything around, really bring it home.
But it isn't all gray. Duffy has strongly held tastes in music (he feels the early 80s are a real wasteland for music), likes to toke, and can't avoid being insubordinate. And I liked the resolution of this book much more than the previous book, which felt rushed. And I really loved the nearly completely unconnected "locked room" mystery, which he works at for most of the book, before getting back on McCann's trail.
According to Goodreads, there's another book in the series, [b:Gun Street Girl|22551891|Gun Street Girl (Detective Sean Duffy, #4)|Adrian McKinty|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421011905s/22551891.jpg|40265576], due out next year, so I can hardly wait!
