And Now for Something Completely Different…

It’s a good idea to take a break from your genre and see what else is out there. This month, I’ve been reading the Detective Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty. The stories take place in Northern Ireland during the 1980s , which those of us old enough to remember as dangerous times. Duffy is an smart-ass Catholic cop in a Protestant culture which gets him into trouble regularly with his bosses but he has a knack for solving murders. Add in the violence between the IRA and Protestant militias, the British army helicopters buzzing at all hours, checking under your car every morning for bombs, or the odd riot, and the stories take on a new level of immersion. This is a gritty detective series with excellent writing, dialogue, and a deeply flawed main character that you can’t help but root for. Recommended.