The Bloomsday Dead

Starred review from January 1, 2007
McKinty finishes up his knockout trilogy featuring Irish mercenary Michael Forsythe with his most visceral, satisfying effort yet (after 2006's The Dead Yard
). Perennial fugitive Forsythe has drifted to Lima, Peru, where he's grabbed by a couple of strong-arm men who force him at gunpoint to take a phone call. Bridget Callaghan, a former lover and the one-time fiancée of Irish-American mobster Darkey White (whom Forsythe killed), has finally tracked Forsythe down and offers a modest proposal: come to Belfast and find her 11-year-old daughter, Siobhan, who's gone missing, or take a bullet. Our man arrives in Dublin on June 16, when the city is overrun with Joyceans celebrating Bloomsday. Dodging various assassins, Forsythe makes his way up to Belfast. Back on his home turf, he sets out after the girl, apparently kidnapped by a fringe group of IRA paramilitaries. McKinty writes masterful action scenes, and he whips up a frenzy as the bullets begin to fly. Devotees of Irish literature will also appreciate the many allusions to Joyce's Ulysses
.

May 28, 2007
Blood, bullets and death are served up in ample portions in McKinty’s final entry to his Michael Forsythe trilogy. The past 12 years have found Irish tough Forsythe hiding out in Peru looking over his shoulder in anticipation of being found by crime boss Bridget Callaghan, who has spent the last decade looking for Forsythe with the intention of killing him to avenge the killing of her fiancé. But things change, and when she does locate Forsythe, it is to beg him to help find her kidnapped 11-year-old daughter, Siobhan. Doyle brings a clean, well-articulated Irish lilt to his reading that works especially well with the book’s multiple characters, each of whom he renders with distinct individual voices. One might argue that he could have brought a bit more emotional resonance to McKinty’s rich first-person narrative, but overall Dole’s skillful narration draws the listener deep into this dark side of the emerald isle. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 1).