There are few contemporary novels set in Western New York so when Stephen Talty’s Black Irish came to my attention, I read it for St. Patrick’s Day. It was fun to read about local sites like the Skyway, Mighty Taco, the Peace Bridge, and Chippewa Street. Much of the action of the book is set in Irish-dominated South Buffalo. Troubled Buffalo Detective Abbie Kearney finds herself investigating a series of ritual murders. The victims all were members of a secret society called The Clan which had links to the IRA in Ireland. This is Stephen Talty’s first novel so there are some excesses. Talty’s heroine, Abbie, has an ex-husband, a demanding retired father (who used to be a cop), and she suffers from depression. That’s a little too much to burden a character with. But I’ll be looking for Talty’s next novel. GRADE: B-
I want to thank the Youngstown Free Library for providing this book
Sounds a lot like Cagney.
Patti, you’re right about Abbie resembling Cagney only in Buffalo instead of New York City.
I really like reading books set in a place I know well, as long as the author gets it right. I’ve read a number of books set in Brooklyn for just that reason – some of Block’s Scudders, Gabriel Cohen, Jonathan Lethem, Thomas Boyle, Bob Randisi, etc.
Jeff, Dan Simmons wrote a trilogy of hard-boiled detective novels (Hardcase (2001), Hard Freeze (2002), Hard as Nails (2003)) set in Western NY and Thomas Perry has used Buffalo and its suburbs as the setting of some of his novels. Like you, I like it when the author gets my local area right.
I read the Simmons Joe Kurtz books and Perry’s too. Of course Joyce Carol Oates is from Western NY too.
Jeff, Joyce Carol Oates seldom sets her novels or short stories in Western NY. She went to school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and now teaches at Princeton so those settings are more common in her work.
Jeff-Gabriel Cohen has a novel coming out that Megan thought was fantastic.
I read his RED HOOK, THE GRAVING DOCK and NEPTUNE AVENUE, all featuring Brooklyn homicide cop Jack Leightner. They are all set in the grittier areas of Brooklyn. (Neptune Avenue is in Coney Island.)
Of course the granddaddy of them all was LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN by Hubert Selby, Jr.