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“This is Peaky Blinders territory. . . . Packed with dramatic action and unforgettable characters, it casts a hypnotic spell and stirs the blood.”—Daily Mail
Glasgow, 1933. Murder is nothing new in the Depression-era city, especially to war veterans Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn and his partner, “Bonnie” Archie McDaid. But the dead man found in a narrowboat on the Forth and Clyde Canal, executed with a single shot to the back of the head, is no ordinary killing.
Violence usually erupts in the heat of the moment—the razor-gangs that stalk the streets settle scores with knives and fists. But firearms suggest something more sinister, especially when the killer strikes again. Meanwhile, other forces are stirring within the city. A suspected IRA cell is at large, embedded within the criminal gangs and attracting the ruthless attention of Special Branch agents from London.
With political and sectarian tensions rising and the body count mounting, Dreghorn and McDaid pursue an investigation into the dark heart of humanity—where one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, and noble ideals are swept away by bloody vengeance.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 9, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593723340
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593723340
- File size: 4947 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 15, 2024
Glaswegian coppers Jimmy Dreghorn and Archie McDaid return (after Edge of the Grave, 2023), this time following a string of murders into a cat-and-mouse game between IRA assassins and Her Majesty's Special Branch. During a welfare check, Dreghorn and McDaid (assisted by steadfast constable Ellen Duncan) discover a man shot dead, and their only lead is that the killers have Irish accents. Later, Dreghorn spots newcomers meeting with gangland royalty and forces an introduction to Irishman Conall Tracy's group. Tracy's claim that he's visiting relatives is plausible, given Glasgow's rising Irish population, but incongruities, including the rarity of shootings in Glasgow, Tracy's meeting with gang leadership, and a recent theft of explosives, stoke Dreghorn's suspicions. These concerns are validated when Special Branch anti-terrorism operatives warn the coppers off. But there's no chance of that after an explosion at a tenement linked to Tracy kills five children. Dreghorn and McDaid link more deaths to Tracy and then to a massacre following the 1916 Easter Uprising. But is Tracy actually a killer? Morrison's pitch-perfect conjuring of interwar Glasgow evokes a volatile mix of poverty, modernization, and sectarian strife, with charming-as-ever duo Dreghorn and McDaid humanizing justice. A must-read series for fans of Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge and Rennie Airth's John Madden tales.COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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