Hang on St. Christopher - (Sean Duffy) by Adrian McKinty (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Adrian McKinty continues the Edgar Award-winning Sean Duffy series with Hang On St. Christopher.

Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It's July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to "Shortbread Land." Duffy's a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It's an easy gig, if he can keep his head down.

But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protégé is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something's not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hit man and why?

This is Duffy's most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning "peace process" may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5, and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.

Review Quotes

"Duffy is attentive to both the gritty appeal of the city [of Belfast] and green beauty of the countryside. He invokes Ireland's ancient history as easily as recalling an anecdote...Hang On St. Christopher exceeds expectations in a full-throttle resolution...that is about more than just killing all the bad guys."

-- "The Minnesota Star Tribune"

"Hang On St. Christopher is highly recommended for readers who enjoy complex police procedurals with a touch of historical accuracy and for fans of writers like Ian Rankin and William Shaw."

-- "Mystery & Suspense Magazine"

"McKinty's Sean Duffy, policing the mean streets of 1985 Northern Ireland, tackles gun runners, arms dealers, MI5, and a mysterious double murder--or is it a triple?--in the fourth installment of this terrific series."

-- "The Boston Globe, praise for the series"

"Duffy is never one to take the easy route...An outstanding new installment in the award-winning police procedural series featuring lone wolf Sean Duffy and set during the Troubles."

-- "Library Journal (starred review)"

"McKinty is offering something special: a glorious reading experience. The novel is constant invention at a high level, in prose that blooms on the page. The staples of hard-boiled--chases, gunplay, capture, fist fights--are deployed in scenes that squirm with energy. And, yes, an abundance of dry humor."

-- "Booklist"

"Enriched by McKinty's brisk plotting, illuminating glimpses at a difficult period of Irish history, and poignant reflections on aging, this is a cracking good time."

-- "Publishers Weekly"

"[The Cold Cold Ground] is the best crime novel mystery that I've read in a long time...[McKinty is] a great writer."

-- "NPR, praise for the author"

"McKinty continues to astound me...[His] novels are, in my mind, already elevated to canonical status...McKinty takes the time-tested conventions of the mystery genre and builds a narrative utterly unique and compelling over them...In short, McKinty has learned from the masters, and in my opinion, now is one."

-- "Mystery People, praise for the author"

"Mixes a mordant wit and casual, unpredictable violence that vividly portrays a turbulent time...McKinty is in full command of language, plot, and setting in a terrifying period of history that sometimes seems forgotten."

-- "Library Journal (starred review), praise for the series"