Gun Street Girl: Sean Duffy 4 (Detective Sean Duffy 4): Sean Duffy 04 Paperback – 2 July 2015

Adrian McKinty is a master of contemporary North British writing. His descriptions of the topography and his characters are detailed and to the point and his stories have a good pace to them. He follows in the pace some very good writers in this genre who have emerged from the North in the last twenty odd years, Ian Rankin, DEnise Mina etc. It is worth starting the Sean Duffy books at the beginning but not essential.

This is the fourth Sean Duffy police procedural and it's the point where something really clicked for me.The series weaves real life, historic events into a parochial, Carrickfergus based crime spree. There is invention and, as Adrian McKinley notes in the epilogue, he has compressed events so they unfold quickly when in real life they were slow burning. But the effortless placing of these newsworthy events into a fictitious plot is really unusual. What felt uncomfortable in the first three novels now just feels right.So in this one, we find Inspector Sean Duffy investigating what appears to be a double killing and suicide in deepest East Antrim and quickly getting enmeshed in international sleaze and corruption. Duffy, as is his wont, is torn between personal corruption, doing the right thing and doing what the greater powers suggest. As he flip flops between these paths, he makes enemies and fails to take any path to its conclusion.Gun Street Girl has a great sense not only of time, but also of place. The locations are perfectly described and create a sense of history as so much has changed since the 1985 setting. There are also forays to Oxford and Ayr which capture the places perfectly.One thing that I had not fully appreciated from previous Sean Duffy novels is that the titles all come from Tom Waits songs. Gun Street Girl is too obvious to miss, especially when you know the fifth is called Rain Dogs. Knowing this makes you appreciate Duffy's musical taste all the more. A man who shares my tastes in music, whisky and literature can't be all that bad, even if he is a Peeler.I am glad to have read Gun Street Girl and look forward to reading Rain Dogs very much.

I have read all four of his books now. One problem for readers, (and authors) when the book is set in NI, during the troubles, so many people reading will have experienced the Troubles, both as a civilian and possibly also as a member of some security force, military or police.On the first book I was somewhat irritated by his use of the name FRU for an IRA unit; also the nonsensical use of the name Steak Knife ! In the later books there was lazy writing involving places, roads and units that didn't exist in the mid 80's, silly things like the proper Ballycastle to Rathlin ferry, motorways and dual carrageways he mentions weren't there, also as someone who worked in Carrickfergus, as a chemical analyst,in the early days I really doubt a known Catholic RUC man would be tolerated there, especially after Courtalds was blown up !! Suppose the reference to Chicksands was because the army's Intelligence Corps HQ is there now, however it didn't move there, from Ashford in Kent, until the late '90's. etc etc very pedantic I know. However the books are very enjoyable, the dialogue amusing and believable for those situations, (sometimes less skillful, or non-Irish authors have used awful comedy theatre Oirish dialogue, to be sure, to be sure !) - and a good story line - I look forward to any more.

This is the fourth in the Sean Duffy trilogy set in and around Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Adrian McKinty says that he had finished with what he planned to do with Sean Duffy after three books but the idea for this fourth book came to him in a dream. Well it was obviously a good dream for him and a great dream for us as this is the best of the series.Sean Duffy is struggling with burn-out and he leaves the investigation of a brutal double murder in Whitehead to DS McCrabban and the two new DCs as it seems all tied up when the prime suspect, the son of the deceased couple, commits suicide. But the question niggles at Duffy as to whether Michael Kelly really did shoot his parents at point blank range and then jump off a nearby cliff?My major issue with the first book (THE COLD COLD GROUND) of Duffy not being penalised for his hot-headedness has completely gone now and you are left with a very assured police procedural with a serious theme at its heart (the peace process) and great writing which is strongly literate but still keeps you engaged & turning the page.I really hope that there are more books down the line as I would love to see how Duffy handles the Patten Commission reforms and the shift to the PSNI as it looks like he is stuck in the RUC after this book.

The fourth Sean Duffy novel and perhaps the best so far. It's 1985 and, following events in 'In the Morning I'll Be Gone', Duffy is back on the force and back in Carrick, the Anglo-Irish agreement is about to spark riots and civil unrest, and Inspector Duffy and Sgt. McCrabban have a murder suicide which is not as straightforward as it initially appears.I love these novels. Adrian McKinty is a talented storyteller with a gift for language and rhythm which brings this period in Northern Ireland's history alive. I realise the fact that I grew up in 70s and 80s Northern Ireland - bought that Sam Cooke album, remember the confusion and uncertainty of the time, recall 'Ulster Says No' - perhaps predisposes me to liking the books but it's more than that. Yes, it's great to have a crime series set in places that I know well but I keep coming back because of the quality of the writing.This time round Duffy gets to Coleraine where I live, although he has to take a beating to bring him here, and he introduces me to Toru Takemitsu's 'Rain Coming' which can't be bad.Just one problem for me - who drove the Beemer back from the airport?

I know that being from Belfast and growing up in the 70s might mean that I love these books more because of the context. But I think even without the NI connection a reader will find the series incredibly enjoyable, witty and well written - worth reading. Cant wait for the next one to come out, its been a long wait.