4 out of 4 stars
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In reading The 11:05 Murders, by Brian O’Hare, I had the wonderful experience of encountering a book which was cleanly written, in a clear and entertaining style, with an most excellently conceived plot and beautifully drawn characters. Ok, you guessed it. I loved this book!
The story opens with the relation of a brutal (yet not graphically detailed) sexual assault on a female college student told largely through the eyes of the antagonist - an event that becomes important later in the main story, but which is not explained or referred to for about the first third of the book. The action then moves to modern day Dublin, Ireland and the introduction of a newly minted detective to the squad run by Detective Chief Inspector Jim (James) Sheehan. The new character is Denise Stewart, promoted to the rank of detective and moved from another precinct after her work in uncovering corruption among her superiors and being brave enough to act on it. The only female in the squad, she is welcomed by all, especially by Sheehan, who seems to see potential in her and works to help her develop into an effective investigator. Of course, from the start, the reader sees the beginning of what may be a future office romance between Stewart and one of her coworkers, but this does not dominate the story and, in fact, helps to develop the two characters.
The crimes with which Sheehan, Stewart and the squad must deal begin with a grisly murder showing definite psychosexual overtones. The victim, upon research by the squad, proves to be a man who very few people like and whose livelihood, however legal, makes him a good potential target for people affected by his work. Stewart, who has attracted the attention of a prosecuting attorney, (which she tries repeatedly not to encourage), does yeoman’s work in finding clues and motives for the murder, along with the next one, which fits the same pattern. The recounting of the investigation is brisk and entertaining, not allowing itself to get bogged down in too much (or too little) detail, and the reader is made privy to all the clues as the characters discover them.
In the end, after several unexpected twists and surprises, along with the mental gymnastics and uncanny abilities of Sheehan to put together pieces of disparate information to arrive at a solution, the murderer is caught and the whole story is unveiled. What is makes all of this so interesting is the fact that this is one of those wonderful stories where nothing is withheld from the reader that is needed to solve the crime. All the facts are presented and visible, yet it takes the Sherlock Holmes-like mind of Sheehan to actually put it all together.
As mentioned above, the book is cleanly written, with no easily discovered typos of any kind. What catches the eye, at least of an American reader such as myself, is the use of several British spellings - such as tyre for tire. These are not true errors and are infrequent enough that an uninformed reader (which has not encountered such before) should have no problem with understanding the usage.
I look forward to reading more by this author and, in fact, am going to see about getting a copy of the first book he wrote about Sheehan. This is a wonderful character that I hope to get the chance to see a lot more of in future books. This book is a definite 4 out of 4 stars and well worth the time of anyone interested in the genre.
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The 11.05 Murders
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