A woman’s body is found outside an Irish castle. It looks like she jumped to her death. But her shoes are on the wrong feet. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy investigates this “locked room” mystery and is confounded for most of Rain Dogs. I’ve read Adrain McKinty’s series about Ireland in the 1980s. You can read my reviews here, here and here. If you’re a fan of police procedurals and locked room mysteries, you’ll find a lot to like in Rain Dogs. GRADE: A-
Seems to me there was another mystery about a corpse with his or her shoes on the wrong feet!
Bob, you’re right. But I can’t recall which mystery that is. Maybe a Harry Stephen Keeler?
One of my favorite novelists!
Patti, Adrian McKinty keeps getting better and better with each book.
McKinty’s great but he’s never quite broken in the U.S. market. RAIN DOGS appears to be his most visible title in this country and it’s been up for just about every award I can think of. In his next book, he opens with a section that uses the word “lepidopterously” in regards to Mohammed Ali. How he got away with that I’ll never know but he’s a writer’s writer in addition to being a helluva an entertaining one.
Rick, you are absolutely right about Adrian McKinty being a “writer’s writer.” Part of his problem with reaching a mass market is his setting: Ireland in the 1980s. Bombs, riots, and religious strife might not appeal to the causal reader.
George, you’re probably right that the Duffy books are at least perceived as being perhaps too parochial in this country, but you have the earlier Michael Forsythe series and other books. I think Irish crime fiction is too much overlooked, and I point to Declan Hughes’s Ed Loy series as a worthy successor to the American PI tradition. People got too caught up with Scandinavian crime fiction, possibly….
Rick, I totally agree with you. For all of Stieg Larsson’s flaws, he created a compelling character in Lisbeth Salander that made his books compulsive reading. Despite the darkness of much Scandinavian crime fiction, the audience continues to grow.
I like McKinty a lot and enjoyed RAIN DOGS, though it wasn’t my favorite of the series. This is the first book I’ve read that deals fictionally with the Jimmy Savile sex scandal. I just got the new Peter Robinson book and at first glance there seems to be a similar celebrity sex scandal at the heart of that book too.
Art imitates life? Either way, McKinty has become a must-read for me.
Jeff, the sex scandal played an important part of RAIN DOGS. McKinty also adds on a “relationship” issue which I’m not too sure works in this context.