A Carra King

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An Irish-American antiquities collector’s son turns up dead, and a curator at the National Museum in Dublin is missing. Police Inspector Matt Minogue suspects a connection.From Publishers WeeklyTight plotting and subtle characterization distinguish this sixth Inspector Minogue police procedural set in Dublin. With the chief inspector on three-week leave, Minogue is in charge when Patrick Shaughnessy, an American tourist, is found dead in the trunk of his rented car at the airport. The victim was the son of an Irish-American millionaire, who believes his son was trying to connect to his Irish roots as well as to recover his father's favor after a stint in drug rehab and narrowly avoided charges of assault against several women at home. In tracing the victim's last steps, the police determine that a museum curator named Aoife Hartnett, possibly a key witness, is missing. Before she took a leave of absence from her job, the smart but lonely Hartnett had been putting in long hours setting up an interpretive center at the Carra Fields, a recently unearthed Stone-Age site that promises (or threatens) to rewrite Irish history. Minogue believes that at some time during her leave she converged with Shaughnessy, but with few clues to go by, the inspector is guided by instinct as much as evidence. The plot eventually involves stolen archaeological artifacts, an internationally famous rock band and the prior murder of a notorious gangland figure. Familiar landmarks, convincing dialogue and pungent slang contribute to a nuanced portrait of Dublin. Brady skillfully captures all the upheavals economic and social changes brought about by the Celtic Tiger phenomenon. (June 7)Inspector Matt Minogue mysteries in the coming months.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From BooklistThe sixth Inspector Matt Minogue novel is sure to please fans of the series, who have been waiting more than five years for another visit from the Irish inspector. A body is found in a car at Dublin Airport; the victim, Patrick Shaughnessy, is the son of a prominent Irish American millionaire. Apparently, Shaughnessy got himself in trouble over some valuable antiquities, though, as Inspector Minogue soon discovers, nothing about this case is as straightforward as it first appears to be. Like many recent novels set in Ireland, this one uses the country's politics as a backdrop to the mystery, but unlike some of his competitors, Brady doesn't use those elements merely as local color; instead, he shows us what daily life is like in a country where the simple act of opening an automobile door could be fatal. This is the kind of book for which the term literary mystery was coined; fans of crime fiction set in Ireland or followers of such Irish literary novelists as Irvine Welsh should be thrilled by Brady's tough, smart, unsettling novel. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved