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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
The best yet in this series. Laugh-out-loud funny, gripping and expertly paced. More, please!
Adrian McKinty, just keeps getting better and better! Duffy is a wonderfully human, but flawed hero. McKinty has a wonderful gift for setting the wider historical setting, creating great characters, developing dramatic tension and bringing the reader on an amazing ride. Possibly the best crime novel of the decade....
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
“Police at the Station and They Don’t look Friendly” is the latest in the Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty. Even if you have not read the others in the series, you will enjoy this one. The title grabbed my attention right away, and with chapters with titles such as “No Hay Banda” or “Daadd Knows Best” and “The Paper, the Scissors, and Michael Stone” I knew I was going to love this book.
Sean Duffy is a Catholic peeler in the most dangerous police force in the world in which to serve, RUC, The Royal Ulster Constabulary, in the 1980s, and hated by all sides. He does remind us “If you really have to get shot, Belfast is one of the best places to do it. After twenty years of the Troubles, and after thousands of assassination attempts and punishment shootings, Belfast has trained many of the best gun-shot trauma surgeons in the world.” He still diligently checks under his car for bombs every time before he gets in.
Throughout the series, we have watched Duffy grow and change. He is now struggling with very big changes. He has a girlfriend and a young daughter to consider. He still loves music, poetry, and movies, but he is trying to cut down on drinking, smoking and drug use. He has not lost his sense of humor and tells the crowd gathered around the dead body at a crime scene “Get back. There’s nothing to see here, he won’t be doing any tricks, he’s not frigging Lazarus.” In desperation, he also wonders, “Where was Miss Marple when you needed her?”
Duffy has made powerful friends over the years and powerful enemies as well, and these collide with catastrophic consequences. Throughout the book, he struggles to solve the complex case, keep his job, and cope with the unstable work environment while still maintaining some relationship with his child and his child’s mother. He struggles for answers, but find none that fit.
He is not one to give up and quotes Martin Luther “If the Apocalypse was coming tomorrow, today I would plant a tree.” even as his own world his world collapses. The case is solved in a surprising way and Duffy contemplates surprising change for himself as well. How will this complex arrangement work out for him? We will have to wait for the next book.
Sean Duffy is a Catholic peeler in the most dangerous police force in the world in which to serve, RUC, The Royal Ulster Constabulary, in the 1980s, and hated by all sides. He does remind us “If you really have to get shot, Belfast is one of the best places to do it. After twenty years of the Troubles, and after thousands of assassination attempts and punishment shootings, Belfast has trained many of the best gun-shot trauma surgeons in the world.” He still diligently checks under his car for bombs every time before he gets in.
Throughout the series, we have watched Duffy grow and change. He is now struggling with very big changes. He has a girlfriend and a young daughter to consider. He still loves music, poetry, and movies, but he is trying to cut down on drinking, smoking and drug use. He has not lost his sense of humor and tells the crowd gathered around the dead body at a crime scene “Get back. There’s nothing to see here, he won’t be doing any tricks, he’s not frigging Lazarus.” In desperation, he also wonders, “Where was Miss Marple when you needed her?”
Duffy has made powerful friends over the years and powerful enemies as well, and these collide with catastrophic consequences. Throughout the book, he struggles to solve the complex case, keep his job, and cope with the unstable work environment while still maintaining some relationship with his child and his child’s mother. He struggles for answers, but find none that fit.
He is not one to give up and quotes Martin Luther “If the Apocalypse was coming tomorrow, today I would plant a tree.” even as his own world his world collapses. The case is solved in a surprising way and Duffy contemplates surprising change for himself as well. How will this complex arrangement work out for him? We will have to wait for the next book.
An excellent series that begins, in this the latest, with Duffy's imminent death. That should get your attention.
Again the "Troubles" feature prominently, Sean noting at one point when trying to find a hotel room for a guest, that Belfast only had three hotels since they got blown up all the time by the IRA. One had been rebuilt four times after being bombed.
I would like to read more McKinty that feature Duffy, but I fear that this one may be the last given the peace accords around the corner and events at the end of the book.
Again the "Troubles" feature prominently, Sean noting at one point when trying to find a hotel room for a guest, that Belfast only had three hotels since they got blown up all the time by the IRA. One had been rebuilt four times after being bombed.
I would like to read more McKinty that feature Duffy, but I fear that this one may be the last given the peace accords around the corner and events at the end of the book.
I was getting kind of burnt out on Sean Duffy, but after a break, this was a good read.
I wanted to like this book so much. I’ve been a fan from the first book in the series, a series I completely fell into by accident. Duffy was endearing to me from the start and he’s evolved over the years. There were some bid changes going on in his world when this book takes place. I was worried the author wouldn’t be able to pull off such a huge shift from Duffy in book one to the current Duffy – the practically married dad.
I shouldn’t have been worried. For starters, as always, I found McKinty’s writing to be excellent. I’ve never been to Ireland but when I read this series, I feel like I have been. It’s real to me. The people are real, the places are. I see them and I feel the weather.
Duffy is still Duffy. He still has his admirable qualities. He still makes some choices that make me want to throttle him, but that’s some of what I like about him. It makes him human and believable.
I finished the book in one sitting. My heart raced for a good portion of it. This whole family thing adds a whole new wrinkle to things. It was done exceptionally well I think. He still has his flaws, but he’s also growing up and making an effort to be a better man. No, maybe that isn’t the right word because I happen to think he is at the core, a good and decent human being. Smarter maybe? Knowing when to take risks and when to rethink things seems to be developing more. He’s always been a smart detective, but he hasn’t always thought things out as fully as he could have. He’s getting better about that sort of thing.
This has been one of my favorite series of all time. I loved this book. I would really like to see what happens next.
I shouldn’t have been worried. For starters, as always, I found McKinty’s writing to be excellent. I’ve never been to Ireland but when I read this series, I feel like I have been. It’s real to me. The people are real, the places are. I see them and I feel the weather.
Duffy is still Duffy. He still has his admirable qualities. He still makes some choices that make me want to throttle him, but that’s some of what I like about him. It makes him human and believable.
I finished the book in one sitting. My heart raced for a good portion of it. This whole family thing adds a whole new wrinkle to things. It was done exceptionally well I think. He still has his flaws, but he’s also growing up and making an effort to be a better man. No, maybe that isn’t the right word because I happen to think he is at the core, a good and decent human being. Smarter maybe? Knowing when to take risks and when to rethink things seems to be developing more. He’s always been a smart detective, but he hasn’t always thought things out as fully as he could have. He’s getting better about that sort of thing.
This has been one of my favorite series of all time. I loved this book. I would really like to see what happens next.