A first-time father at fifty-one, Irish police chief Peter McGarr takes his infant daughter and feisty wife to a country resort, where he is commissioned to investigate the murder of a high-powered banker.
March 2, 1992
The ninth Peter McGarr mystery ( The Death of a Joyce Scholar ) offers a stylish, literate look at Ireland today. When banking tycoon/philanthropist/political aspirant Paddy Power dies on the eve of an economic conference he's called in Kerry, his doctor cries murder, and head of the Irish homicide squad middle-aged, first-time father McGarr is put in charge. Rumors of scandal are whipped up with the appearance of portions of Power's diary. A wealth of suspects includes Power's ex-partner at Eire Bank; his perfectionist assistant/ex-lover; his coarse, melodramatic physician; and his ex-wife, an Eire Bank shareholder. Plot twists abound--one turns on a mass political assassination. But the main joy is Gill's distinctive voice and viewpoints: ``What good is it being Irish . . . if you can't make fun of the little you allow yourself to know of the rest of the world.'' With some lovely set pieces--a rural funeral feast, for one--Gill gives us a sympathetic, warts-and-all glimpse of Ireland and lifts his latest above more commonplace novels in the genre.
August 30, 1993
In the ninth Peter McGarr mystery, a stylish look at Ireland today, suspicions are aroused when banking tycoon/philanthropist/political aspirant Paddy Power dies on the eve of an economic conference.