My first Adrian McKinty book (and it won't be my last).McKinty is a stylist and his protagonist often muses on the ironies and complexities of human existence. It is both beautiful and astonishingly well grounded in history.
What this book does better than anything else is show how complicated life in that time (1981), in that place (Northern Ireland)could be. How the politics of power, hate and influence played themselves out, how a copper in a small town could hang on and try to make a difference in a world that had gone completely and utterly mad.
This is a novel that made me think. What is the relevance of a police force investigating a murder or a disappearance when so much death and destruction is happening everywhere as the result of terrorist activities? Here are policemen who never knew if they were going to come home after a day’s work. Ignoring procedures such as checking under your car before starting out could well be fatal. It's mind boggling to see how people accepted the chaotic situation as normal.
"The Cold Cold Ground" was an outstanding read. What made it so special was not only the story which was really ingenious, but also the prose which was filled with delightful local colour.
I was totally drawn into the character, plot and the dark, frightening atmosphere of 1981 Belfast.
McKinty's expressive use of imagery elevates what could have been a common whodunit to a work of serious fiction.
Recommended.
