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Black Irish, by Stephan Talty, is a disturbing novel exploring the pain we inflict on each other in the guise of loyalty. Abby Kearney is from the Irish section of Buffalo called the County. She is from the County but not of the County. She was adopted as a toddler and never quite fit in. Grown, she left to attend Harvard and become a cop in Miami. Now she's back. She has joined the Buffalo police force and a series of horrific murders challenges her ability to work within this closed community.
This suspenseful, tension-filled novel includes graphic depictions of violence which are integral to the plot. Although I felt some aspects of the resolution could have been better integrated into the story, it was an effective and satisfying conclusion.
I found the story as affecting the second time I read it as the first. It was worth both readings and I will be looking for the book's successor. The second Abby Kearney novel, Hangman, is due out this May.
This suspenseful, tension-filled novel includes graphic depictions of violence which are integral to the plot. Although I felt some aspects of the resolution could have been better integrated into the story, it was an effective and satisfying conclusion.
I found the story as affecting the second time I read it as the first. It was worth both readings and I will be looking for the book's successor. The second Abby Kearney novel, Hangman, is due out this May.
The ending wasn't as believable as I would have liked. It really kept me guessing, though.
The writing in this book is not the greatest, there were times that I thought I could do better (which isn't saying much). I also didn't really get invested in the characters, caring little for how their lives turned out (or ended for that matter). But there was enough suspense and it was an easy enough read that it was a quick and enjoyable book.
A woman comes back to her hometown of Buffalo as a police detective and her and her partner start investigating a brutal homicide. Their investigation leads to several other murders and a conspiracy in the Irish community that goes back to the IRA and the tunes of the 'troubles'.
Her father who is suffering from Altzheimers is involved. A one point it is thought by the police that she is responsible for the murders. As she delves further into the case she recruits the help of a local historian to learn more about Ireland's past and those who came to Buffalo.
She is also trying to deal with some personal issues including a rocky relationship with her father and attraction to a cop in another town and to an old friend. She ties her case in with a murder in another town in the recent past and the distant past.
An intricate plot with lots of twists and turns. Showcases some pretty gruesome murder scenes. The main character is a strong determined woman with some interesting flaws stemming from her past. The story brings in Irish history, social conditions in Buffalo, the subjects of loyalty and abuse.
Her father who is suffering from Altzheimers is involved. A one point it is thought by the police that she is responsible for the murders. As she delves further into the case she recruits the help of a local historian to learn more about Ireland's past and those who came to Buffalo.
She is also trying to deal with some personal issues including a rocky relationship with her father and attraction to a cop in another town and to an old friend. She ties her case in with a murder in another town in the recent past and the distant past.
An intricate plot with lots of twists and turns. Showcases some pretty gruesome murder scenes. The main character is a strong determined woman with some interesting flaws stemming from her past. The story brings in Irish history, social conditions in Buffalo, the subjects of loyalty and abuse.
This mystery novel is set in Buffalo, but some of the plot takes place on the Canadian side of the Falls too. Absalom Kearney has come home to Buffalo to look after her father, the legendary cop John Kearney, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. She has become a cop too, one every bit as good as her adoptive father. Kearney adopted her when she was just a toddler and even though she has tried to find out more about the mother who gave her up, she hasn't been able to discover anything except for the neighborhood she lived in, the East Side. She grew up in the County, the bastion of Irish Catholicism in the city. But now something is going on in the County, men are being killed, tortured in horrible ways, and no one is talking. Abby learns of a secret Gaelic Clan, the Clan na Gael, that she thinks is running a parallel investigation to her own and warning people against talking to her. But Abby is smart, quick to make connections, and determined to get to the bottom of things in this case. With a trail leading back to the unrest in Ireland, this case has a deep past and lots of twists and turns. This looks to be the first in a continuing series, and I look forward to seeing more of Abby.
3 for the story with a bump up because I enjoyed the Buffalo setting since that is my hometown. I might read the sequel.
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: In this explosive debut thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a city’s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage.
Absalom “Abbie” Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn’t keep Abbie’s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective’s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she’s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts.
When Jimmy Ryan’s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a message—one that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as “the County” understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wag—with desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killer’s mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own family’s past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the County’s hidden history—one bloody body at a time.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is to discuss one's favorite crime novel, in honor of some British crime-novel beano.
Despite there being naggingly annoying lapses in continuity at three or four points, I was sucked into the violent and rage-filled vortex of this book from the get-go. The story, a standard one, is told at a breathless pace in direct, unpretentious language. The setting is seared into my memory. I feel as if I could find the park, drive the streets, point to the places I'd read about. I'm sure as hell not stopping for the cops there, Absalom/Abbie excepted.
The family secrets, the community guilt, the larger and wider implications of the vicious and bloody killings, make this procedural far more than an afternoon's entertainment. It's not Art, it's excitement! It's brutal and tough and doesn't give a flying fuck if your girlie-girl feelies are all bent. It's too busy setting you up for the next bashing!
I liked the hell out of it. It's good, every now and then, to sluice the nicey-nice from one's brain with a bracing dose of mean as fuck because I wanna be. There is NO oxytocin released in the reading of this book. Adrenaline, yes; androgen, oh my yes. We won't go into the testosterone release figures. Post-menopausal women are cautioned that they might find themselves assuming male secondary characteristics.
The sensitive members of the party are STRONGLY cautioned not to so much as handle this book. Don't do it, don't even contemplate it. Not for yinz.
Fans of the 87th Precinct, we found you a new writer to follow!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Publisher Says: In this explosive debut thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a city’s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage.
Absalom “Abbie” Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn’t keep Abbie’s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective’s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she’s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts.
When Jimmy Ryan’s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a message—one that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as “the County” understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wag—with desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killer’s mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own family’s past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the County’s hidden history—one bloody body at a time.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is to discuss one's favorite crime novel, in honor of some British crime-novel beano.
Despite there being naggingly annoying lapses in continuity at three or four points, I was sucked into the violent and rage-filled vortex of this book from the get-go. The story, a standard one, is told at a breathless pace in direct, unpretentious language. The setting is seared into my memory. I feel as if I could find the park, drive the streets, point to the places I'd read about. I'm sure as hell not stopping for the cops there, Absalom/Abbie excepted.
The family secrets, the community guilt, the larger and wider implications of the vicious and bloody killings, make this procedural far more than an afternoon's entertainment. It's not Art, it's excitement! It's brutal and tough and doesn't give a flying fuck if your girlie-girl feelies are all bent. It's too busy setting you up for the next bashing!
I liked the hell out of it. It's good, every now and then, to sluice the nicey-nice from one's brain with a bracing dose of mean as fuck because I wanna be. There is NO oxytocin released in the reading of this book. Adrenaline, yes; androgen, oh my yes. We won't go into the testosterone release figures. Post-menopausal women are cautioned that they might find themselves assuming male secondary characteristics.
The sensitive members of the party are STRONGLY cautioned not to so much as handle this book. Don't do it, don't even contemplate it. Not for yinz.
Fans of the 87th Precinct, we found you a new writer to follow!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
You know how there are books which you like within the first few pages? There are others where it takes 50-100 pages to get into the book and enjoy it. Stephen Talty’s is an “I like this right away” book. Firstly, his writing is appealing to me; it’s easy and interesting and fresh feeling. Secondly, this book is based in the Buffalo, NY area where my wife is from, so I recognized a few of the things he references. I knew he was authentic as soon as he referred to I-90 as “the 90”. I love that slight weirdness about Buffalo people. I’ve been on “the 90” many times. My wife knew all of his Buffalo references that I didn’t know. The author was also right on with the Western New York obsession with Tim Horton’s and I loved that he mentioned my favorite pastry there, the French Cruller.
This was a very enjoyable first book, although I thought some of the plot at the end was slightly unbelievable. Stephen Talty reminds me of Harlan Coben somewhat, which is a good thing. This book is a 3 ½ for me.
This was a very enjoyable first book, although I thought some of the plot at the end was slightly unbelievable. Stephen Talty reminds me of Harlan Coben somewhat, which is a good thing. This book is a 3 ½ for me.