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Black Irish

ebook
3 of 4 copies available
3 of 4 copies available
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this explosive debut thriller by the author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a city’s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage.
“The captivating start of a brilliant thriller series.”—Tess Gerritsen
Absalom “Abbie” Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn’t keep Abbie’s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective’s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she’s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts.
When Jimmy Ryan’s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a message—one that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as “the County” understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wag—with desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killer’s mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own family’s past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the County’s hidden history—one bloody body at a time.
With Black Irish, Stephen Talty stakes a place beside Jo Nesbø, John Sandford, and Tana French on the cutting edge of psychological crime thrillers.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 10, 2012
      Talty’s first foray into crime fiction, a memorable story of betrayal and vengeance, centers on a working-class Irish enclave in contemporary Buffalo, N.Y. The macabre killing of gas-meter reader Jimmy Ryan brings Det. Absalom “Abbie” Kearney to South Buffalo (aka “the County,” as in the 27th county of Ireland), where “ancestry was everything.” As the adopted daughter of legendary cop John Kearney, Abbie is both an insider and an outsider. More gruesome, carefully staged deaths occur, pointing to members of the secretive, powerful Clan na Gael as targets. Hampered by community distrust, Abbie must dig deeply into long-buried secrets that could endanger her father’s life and reputation as well as her own life. Talty (Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day) does a fine job portraying the cohesiveness of the Irish, their loyalty to one another, and their obsession with their history. Agent: Scott Waxman, Waxman Leavell Literary.

    • Kirkus

      January 1, 2013
      Talty harnesses his nonfiction skills to craft a novel that's centered on a feisty female cop in a history-rich Irish enclave in upstate New York. Absalom Kearney, adopted daughter of legendary Buffalo police detective John Kearney, has returned home to care for her rapidly declining father. Abbie, as she's known, worked as a police officer in Miami. She's been back for a year and has already established herself as the best homicide investigator in the BPD. When Abbie and her partner, "Z," catch a missing persons' case that turns out to be the tip of a serial killers' iceberg, she gets a chance to prove how good she is. The victim, Jimmy Ryan, a perpetual nonachiever who was tortured and left dead in an abandoned church, was discovered with a toy plastic monkey near his body. When someone tries to enter the home Abbie shares with her dad and leaves a similar toy on the doorknob, the female cop realizes that she's up against more than simply a clever killer. She tracks members of a secret Irish organization while chasing the murderer across her county and into neighboring Niagara Falls, all the time putting herself in harm's way. Talty shows his chops when recounting the area's Irish roots, but the first half of the story is sluggish. The relentless grimness of the setting, hopelessness of the local economy and general ineptness of other police officers combine to create a lackluster atmosphere populated by characters that lack both depth and vitality. That in itself could be forgiven if Talty's plot revealed brilliant detective work, but it doesn't. Instead, Abbie comes across as unreasonable, dismissive of her co-workers, and abusive to both other cops and suspects alike. Readers can be forgiven if they find Talty's story stretches credulity a bit, especially in the bloody second half. This Buffalo-based novel turns out to be more notable for its area history, moody setting and occasional smart turn of phrase than for the thuggish heroine.

      COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2012

      Best-selling nonfiction author Talty sets his first novel in his hometown, South Buffalo, called Ireland's 27th county by its residents. Absalom Kearney, who has returned home to care for her father, follows in his Da's footsteps and joins the police force, immediately encountering a twisted serial killer and a secret Gaelic organization called the Clan na Gael.

      Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from December 15, 2012
      Detective Absalom Kearny of the Buffalo (NY) PD is caring for her aged, adoptive father, John, a legendary, former detective himself. Smart and driven, Abbie is seen by fellow cops as a rising star. But she may be too driven, and the savage torture-murder of Jimmy Ryan, a resident of the city's clannish Irish enclave, the County, drives her toward obsession. More grisly murders occur, and even though Abbie grew up in the County, no one will talk with her, even though many know what is happening; the County avenges its own. Talty, author of several lauded nonfiction books (Agent Garbo, 2012), has produced a suspenseful debut novel with a circuitous plot. Abbie is a wonderfully complex and conflicted character, but it is the Countywhich may exist in Buffalo and certainly exists in other northeastern citiesthat shines brightest. It's a place where a boy whose people came from Mayo isn't allowed to date a Kilkenny girl, and its residents share an ancestral memory of being oppressed in a country they'd never been to. Economically ravaged Buffalo is portrayed in broader brushstrokes, but the sense of place is palpably evocative. Black Irish is simply a riveting read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

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