Review of The Trafficking Murders

[Thafheema Zaroony]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Trafficking Murders" by Brian O'Hare.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The trafficking murders is the 5th Book in the series 'The inspector Sheehan mysteries' by Brian O'Hare. This book is a mystery crime thriller which emphasize on a very relevant topic, Modern slavery and human trafficking. The story begins with the murder of a Chinese student, Cheung Mingzhu arrived at Queen's university, Belfast after winning a scholarship from Shenzhen university, China. Her friend Lin Hui who was always by her side was gone missing. Later two young lectures Redmond grant and Liam Flannery, who might have had involvement with both of them at some point, is also found murdered in the same way.

Alina Balauru a poor farm girl from Romania was tricked by a businessman who promised to give her a job in Ireland and thereby she could help her family. Alina was so excited about this unexpected chance, and she accepted his offer. But she ended up in a steamship which was chosen for the voyage. Later, she was raped and force-fed with drugs. She was also used as a sex slave. Matei Barbu a psychology student from Romania who was also tricked the same way offering job opportunities abroad end up being a savior of Alina, giving constant advices and helping her to come out of her brutal dreams.

Detective chief inspector Jim Sheehan and his team unravel the mystery about the murders and human trafficking unpredictably. They found that there is a mysterious villain called 'The shadow' who does all these murders and finally set up a trap to get the villain red hands.

I'm sure this book is written after an explicit research into the people trafficking industry in Northern Ireland. I loved the way the detectives dealt with the different clues and how all of them put their equal efforts and skills to solve the cases. Each of them have their own unique talents. I am also impressed about DCI Sheehan's approach to his colleagues. The dialogue was so realistic. And the humor in between was amazing. This story also reflects the dark reality of life. How easily innocent human being are trapped and made slaves. How the circumstances of life leads them to chose opportunities and believe everyone who comes to help them without knowing their real intentions. O' Hare had done a good job in showing the character's emotions. We readers could feel what the character is going through. It's really heart-wrenching.

There is nothing I didn't like about this story. Everything is wonderful. But if I'm pushed to say something, I would say, initially I was so confused about DCI Sheehan's team members. As there were many of them, I should go and look at the list of character and their details which was given at the starting of the book everytime I read.

From everything I mentioned above, I would like to rate The trafficking murders 4 out of 4 stars. I barely found any typos or grammatical errors, may be one or two which will never interrupt the flow of the read. This book is well edited.

Any readers who enjoy reading detective novels, mysterious thriller will definitely enjoy this story. I highly recommend this to young adults and parents who should be aware of the darker side of our globe. However, those who are so delicate to topics like adult language, inhumane torture, ruthless murders must be cautious while reading. All others will definitely enjoy this read.

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The Trafficking Murders
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[markodim721]

I think it is good to write about such topics, even in the form of a novel, in order to acquaint readers with the dangers of modern slavery and human trafficking.