Dublin Dead

Dublin Dead
Author: Gerard O'Donovan
Sphere, 2011
418 pages

This book isn't available in the USA yet -- it's scheduled for release here in print and eBook on 13 March. I ordered my copy from Amazon UK, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. It's the second book in the Mike Mulcahy series (the first book was The Priest, which I haven't read). Normally, I don't read books out of order, but when I ordered Dublin Dead I didn't know it was a series. Fortunately, I was able to jump right in to Book #2.

When an Irish drug dealer is killed in a Spanish resort town, detective Mike Mulcahy and his special task force are asked to look into the dead guy's connections in Ireland. This leads to them learning about a similar murder in the UK of an English drug lord, and a missing shipment of cocaine that seems to have disappeared into thin air. In the meantime, key people in the investigation keep getting bumped off by a mysterious blonde assassin.

While Mulcahy looks for links between these events, journalist Siobhan Fallon is making a comeback. Apparently she was the victim of some brutal stuff in Book #1. We're given hints to explain why she hasn't worked in a while, why she has nightmares, and what her relationship with Mulcahy might have been at one time. Siobhan's looking into the suicide of a very rich Irishman (well, he had been rich, until the economy went bad) that took place in Bristol, England. Her investigation leads her to Cork, where she's approached by a woman who's adult daughter has gone missing.

There's a lot going on in these 400+ pages and it's a bit of a challenge to keep up in the beginning. There's a certain tension between Siobhan and Mulcahy that makes you want to keep reading about them.  I enjoyed the Irish setting, as well as the various side trips and mentions of other places. And it was kind of cool to read a book that's not available over here just yet.

All in all, I was quite satisfied with Dublin Dead and will be looking out for more books by Gerard O'Donovan in the future.