Good solid crime procedural from Ireland during their “Troubles” in the 1980s with the Provisional (activist) IRA.

Back in 1988 in Belfast,  Ireland,  a man is found dead in his yard with a cross-bow bolt in his back.   Homicide detective Sean Duffy is called to the scene and gets involved in way more than a domestic dispute.   The opening scene,  a prologue of sorts,  involves Duffy being forced to dig his own grave in the forest and it pulls the reader right into the book.

*******
Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly
by Adrian McKinty
2017 / 322 pages
read by Gerald Doyle- 9h 49m
rating A+ /  crime – procedural (Ireland)
(#6 in the Sean Duffy series) 
*******
I’ve only read one of Duffy’s books prior (#2,  I Hear the Sirens in the Street – my review) and although it was jumping ahead,  the Police at the Station … title was so intriguing I had to put it on the wish list knowing I would be getting it.   Actually,  I nominated it for a group read at the 4-MA group.  And it was chosen  🙂

From what I gather this was supposed to be a trilogy,  but was so popular and McKinty  got involved with his characters,  it morphed into 6 books.  This is the 6th.

Duffy is a  hard-drinking and cigarette-smoking detective of the old order.  He’s a bit of a loose cannon sometimes.  He enjoys movies and literature and music which are referred to numerous times.  At work he’s  involved with the usual elements of criminal procedures and forensics which go along with murder.    The thing is he’s Catholic in Protestant Ireland and there are serious problems with associated with that  –  both personal and professional problems.  His relationship with the mother of his child is rocky as usual  – she’s Protestant! –  but they’re trying and I really appreciated Beth and her situation.

The Sean Duffy books are fast-paced,  harrowing thrillers – they can get gritty but never gratuitously so.  I would like to read the others and #1 is now on my Wish List.   🙂