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Death In Dublin

by Bartholomew Gill

If you happen to be looking for descriptions of the beautiful Irish countryside along with a good dose of murder and mayhem, Death In Dublin isn't for you. Bartholomew Gill has instead given us a story to demonstrate just how convoluted relationships in the Garda (the Irish police) can be - as well as Irish politics - which, unfortunately, seem to be just as two-faced everywhere in the world. Death In Dublin is Bartholomew's final book; he died in the summer of 2002. Death In Dublin is his legacy. Whether or not it's a good legacy depends on what you expect from the writer. If you're a fan of Mr. Gill's former books, you probably won't be disappointed.

Death In Dublin starts right off the same way it continues throughout the book - that is, with betrayal and murder. Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr of the Irish Garda Soichana is brought in to face the problem of who murdered the guard (in an unfeeling, horrible way) and stole Trinity College's most historic treasures - The Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow, and the Book of Armagh. Impossible to sell, they were stolen only to obtain a huge ransom. A political party, Celtic United, merely a front for the New Druids, is suspected. The New Druids are composed of former IRA members and anti-organized religion zealots who seem to get off on any number of illegal activities - including torching churches, both Catholic and Protestant, protection schemes, holdups, and drugs. The New Druids have little in common with their historic counterparts. Instead, they recruit mainly from Ireland's growing immigrant population, especially hitting the unemployed or unemployable; full of young men impressed by a creed of getting something for nothing. The group seems bent on the destruction of contemporary Irish society.

Of the major cast appearing throughout Death In Dublin, few are what they appear to be in the public eye: Doctor Trevor Pape, a rather ancient gentleman who retains the post of head librarian at Trinity, is usually high on OxyContin, a drug purported to supply an even better trip than cocaine. Charles Stewart Parnell Sweeney, the wealthy, lugubrious owner of many businesses (including a scandalous newspaper) also boasts a rap sheet and is suspected of being behind the murder of Peter McGarr's wife, Noreen, as well as having secret ties to the New Druids. Kara Kennedy, the present keeper of old manuscripts at Trinity, is an attractive woman who seduces Superintendent McGarr, although she still happens to be married to another man - himself a member of the New Druids.

Ath Cliath evidently was the original organization from which the New Druids came. Now that it had been established, the originator is murdered, and his head severed from his body, spiked into the wall with an eighteen inch nail. The decapitations throughout Death In Dublin are the New Druid's way of showing the public what they think of those who might disagree with their ideologies. Mounting evidence suggests that there is more to the theft than might be apparent at first glance. Peter McGarr faces problems at home as well as those surrounding the burglary. Violence is predominant. Anyone reading Death In Dublin might think the novel was about Belfast instead.

Superintendent McGarr is suspended from the case. He's been wrongfully accused of shooting an innocent man due to political machinations, but continues to track down his suspects in order to clear his own name. Death In Dublin concludes with the unauthorized use of a police helicopter, a two hundred mile flight to a peaceful part of Scotland, another gruesome murder, and finally the discovery of the individual behind it all, with his own termination as sudden and immediate as those previously described in the book.

Tough and hard-boiled, Mr. Gill's protagonist is the epitome of a typical Irish male of that particular class. The writing is full of common Irish speech and idioms. Full of the words 'fookin' and 'feckin'
(replacing the American 'fucking') the content of Death In Dublin leaves the impression of crudity and undiscerning, obvious distaste for any kind of elegance. This is ameliorated by glimpses of Peter McGarr's sensitivity, made apparent only in the scenes involving sex or his children. Death In Dublin is nonetheless a good read, and in my own humble opinion, rounds out Mr. Gill's Peter McGarr series with a very favorable finish.

Alan Paul Curtis

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