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Sometimes I worry that I read too much crime fiction. My heart sank at the start of THE DEAD when it became clear the leading character is a dysfunctional former FBI agent who ran away from her former life and now lives in Dublin where she has a relationship of sorts with a senior policewoman and where the search is on for a serial killer. But in the end the quality of Ingrid Black's writing won me over. This is a dark, sinister Dublin where the city provides a wet and freezing backdrop to the action. Five years ago Dublin was being terrorised by a serial killer known as the Night Hunter. But prime suspect Ed Fagan disappeared, and everything went quiet. Suddenly, though, a newspaper receives a letter from someone claiming to be Fagan and who says the killing is going to start all over again. And once the body of prostitute Mary Lynch is found, it's the usual race against time to root out the murderer. Saxon (and that's the only name we know her by) was writing a book on Fagan when he disappeared, and she has her own reasons for knowing that the killer can't be him. She's drafted in to help her partner Detective Chief Superintendent Grace Fitzgerald and her colleagues, and to try to persuade them that Fagan hasn't returned. This is the first mystery from Black, an Irish journalist, and she shows bags of talent when it comes to atmosphere and plotting. There's some good hairpin twists, including one at the end which I certainly didn't see coming. I was less sure about the characterisation, and I also couldn't quite decide how to take the relationship between Saxon and Grace. On one hand it was refreshing to have a lesbian relationship portrayed in a matter-of-fact way. But in the end I couldn't believe that colleagues -- many of them shown to be boorish -- would accept the relationship with very little animosity, especially given Saxon was somewhere near the back of the queue when they handed out charm. This aside, THE DEAD kept me hooked from beginning to end and I shall eagerly await anything else Black might produce.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, May 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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