The Cold Cold Ground: A Detective Sean Duffy Novel (The Troubles Trilogy, Book 1)(Library Edition) (Sean Duffy Thrillers) (Sean Duffy Series Lib/E)

About the book

About The Cold Cold Ground: A Detective Sean Duffy Novel (The Troubles Trilogy, Book 1)(Library Edition) (Sean Duffy Thrillers) (Sean Duffy Series Lib/E)

Product Description [Library Edition Audiobook CD in Vinyl case.] [Read by Gerard Doyle] Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles--and of a cop treading a thin, thin line. Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman's suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things--and people--aren't always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It's no easy job--especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force. Add to this the fact that, as a Catholic policeman, it doesn't matter which side he's on, because nobody trusts him, and Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation. Review Praise for Adrian McKinty: ''McKinty is a streetwise, energetic gunslinger of a writer, firing off volleys of sassy dialogue and explosive action that always delivers what it has promised.'' --Irish Times (Dublin) ''A master of modern noir, up there with Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy.'' --Guardian (London)''If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland, The Cold Cold Ground is what he would have written.'' --Times (London) ''The Cold Cold Ground confirms McKinty as a writer of substance . . . What makes McKinty a cut above the rest is the quality of his prose. His driven, spat-out sentences are more accessible than James Ellroy's edge-of-reason staccato, and he can be lyric . . . The names of David Peace and Ellroy are evoked too often in relation to young crime writers, but McKinty shares their method of using the past as a template for the present. The stories and textures may belong to a different period, but the power of technique and intent makes of them the here and now. There's food for thought in McKinty's writing, but he is careful not to lose the force of his narrative in introspection. The Cold Cold Ground is a crime novel, fast-paced, intricate and genre to the core.'' --Guardian (UK)''McKinty is a streetwise, energetic gunslinger of a writer, firing off volleys of sassy dialogue and explosive action that always delivers what it has promised.'' --Irish Times ''Detective Sergeant Sean Duffy . . . could well become a cult figure . . . McKinty has established a good track record in the genre and in his return to his native sod for he shows that he has not lost his touch or his eye for the bizarre and the macabre, or his ear for the Belfast accent and argot . . . McKinty creates a marvelous sense of time and place; an evocation of darkness and horror, of corruption and collusion, of the fraught life of a policeman, of the domination of areas by paramilitary groups at war with each other and with the British state but colluding on drugs and criminality, the immediacy of death and the cheapness of life . . . A ripping yarn . . . There will be many readers waiting for the next adventure of the dashing and intrepid Sergeant Duffy.'' --Irish Independent ''A journey into a terrifying and almost dreamlike labyrinth of violence and betrayal, The Cold Cold Ground certainly won't let the reader go. It's the first novel of a trilogy that promises to be a superb read.'' --Shots, crime and thriller e-zine''If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland, The Cold Cold Ground is what he would have written.'' --Times (London) ''The Cold Cold Ground confirms McKinty as a writer of substance . . . What makes McKinty a cut above the rest is the quality of his prose. His driven, spat-out sentences are more accessible than James Ellroy's edge-of-reason staccato, and he can be lyric . . . The names of David Peace and Ellroy are evoked too often in relation to young crime writers, but McKinty shares their method of using the past as a templ

Reader conversation

Discuss this book