4 out of 4 stars
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i]The 11:05 Murders
[/i]Brian O’Hare
The 11:05 Murders falls into the genre of crime/thriller and although part of the Inspector Sheehan Mysteries series, it easily reads as a standalone. The prologue, set in October 2002, immediately engages the reader with a graphic description of sexual abuse of a young Queen’s University student at an undergraduate party in Belfast. The events of that evening, resulting in the suicide of the young victim, were never reported and remain only in the haunted memories of a few.
Chapter One fast forwards the reader by fourteen years to October 2012, and two gruesome murders that occur one week apart, both on Tuesday, at exactly 11:05. The investigation into the murders is conducted by the Crime Unit of Strandtown District in Belfast, led by Detective Chief Inspector Sheehan. New to the team is Woman Detective Denise Stewart, who has been transferred from the Lisburn Station where she was instrumental in convicting a senior police colleague for malfeasance. The gender harassment she was subjected to by the staff at Lisburn, because of her perceived betrayal, leaves Detective Stewart wary, standoffish and very sensitive to her new position at Strandtown. However, Stewart, as she is mainly referred to, soon becomes part of the team, and is convinced that the event of 2002 and the murders of 2012 are connected; but how to demonstrate this, when there are so many other confounding and distracting factors thrown into the mix that are also possibilities?
The 11:05 Murders is well written; the pace is tempered between the emergence of urgent and new evidence that relentlessly comes to the attention of the investigation team, and some pause for the reader to see into their private lives. For example, when Sheehan feels overwhelmed by his inability to understand the mysteries, let alone solve them, he goes to St Malachy’s Church on Alfred Street: “from time to time, he would drop into St. Malachy’s just to sit there. He didn’t pray. He did not engage in any serious meditation. He would just sit there.”
Detective Stewart is a likable and interesting combination of vulnerability and strength, and occupies centre stage in this novel. The main characters are well developed and easy to recognise. I particularly admired the author’s excellent mastery of dialogue, and not once did I have to re-read a section in order to figure out who was doing the talking. As a reader not familiar with Northern Ireland, I would have preferred the acronyms to be embedded in the text, and not added in a glossary at the end. Having to look up what PSNI, WDS, SOCO and others stand for whilst in the midst of a riveting read, is distracting.
On one level this book is a classic crime/thriller, but on another level, the author addresses the serious issue of violence against women. In one of the stories within the story, we are graphically reminded that getting out of an abusive relationship is easier said than done, and in some cases, is well-nigh impossible. For this reason, and the fact that this is a jolly good yarn, I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars.
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The 11.05 Murders
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