Review by J Gordon -- The 11.05 Murders by Brian O'Hare

[J Gordon]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The 11.05 Murders" by Brian O'Hare.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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I loved Brian O'Hare's deftly paced page-turner The 11:05 Murders. This police procedural with thriller instincts has assured pacing and style. O'Hare's sentences frequently surpass the straightforward necessary one-two punch of the genre and land a gentle stylish kiss: "Dawn was beginning to pull the edges of darkness away from the sky." This book grabbed me very early and never let go, so I give it a 4 out of 4.

Set in contemporary Belfast, the seriousness of a brutal crime investigation is occasionally relieved by mild local color. In one scene an interlocutor asks the bartender,
"Were they here last night?"
"Sure, they're always here, aren't they?"
"Are they?"
"Aye! They are."

The 11:05 Murders also finds humor in the collegiality and one-upmanship of the investigative team meetings at the heart of this police procedural featuring the recently transferred Detective Denise Stewart, who must combat male prejudice and chauvinism to establish herself as an equal on Sheehan's team. Gestures can achieve more than dialogue when it comes to her characterization in such meetings: "[Stewart] clenched her fists under the table and gave the air a little punch." At times she finds herself in a silent contest with past or present fellow officers, "their stares resentful, their faces hostile." O'Hare's uses such absolute phrases deftly, sparingly, to develop the strain she undergoes in both her personal life and professional life under this close scrutiny within the investigation.

The conflicts are clearly drawn in early chapters and developed throughout, including envy within the ranks of law enforcement, male/female sexism, and a criminal whose lack of conscience permits hiding in plain sight. The focal characters are Sheehan, chief of the investigation, Denise Stewart, the recent transfer, and Tom Allen, their colleague. Their main task is to find and bring to justice a mystery perpetrator who seems to prey at 11:05pm, leaving only a single clue at the crime scene. Complicating their project are a chief prosecutor, a bevy of thugs, several red herrings, and a 12-year-old death which seems to be related. Part police procedural - part suspense novel, The 11:05 Murders features good match-ups between police and attorneys during interrogations and between suspects or witnesses and the interviewing officers. A net of suspicion is cast narrowly, but includes both known criminals such as "The Bat" Weir, and corrupt persons within the department itself. In this case, internal corruption substitutes for the human internal conflicts we all have, and which are felt most deeply by Sheehan himself as he questions a God he ponders a closer relationship to, even though that deity allows pain and suffering.

The strengths of Brian O'Hare's novel stem from the team work which enhances partnerships. This is a classic mystery which also delights readers with cloak 'n' dagger elements, informants, surveillance, and false leads. Despite a few gory and unsettling details, on this side of the Pond we fans of the contemporary mystery procedural thriller are still quite enchanted with the regionalisms of Belfast, pub culture, and village life.

The only drawbacks to diminish pleasure in this read were an unnecessary prologue (even if obligatory to the genre) and an ambiguous treatment of women. The opening sequence suggests a gratuitously violent and misogynistic storyline, which is dispelled by further reading, if you can get past the blatant sexism and the victimization of women. O'Hare earns our trust and respect but, for the first third of the work, keeps readers unsteady about the narrator's understanding of the equality of women. Is Woman Detective Sergeant Stewart a complex human being and equal in the mind of her male inventor? We are told that "The feminist in her could forgive easily". This sounds like male fantasy. But it is not the author's fault that Ireland has a title "Woman Detective Sergeant". Today I am particularly sensitive, as we all ought to be, to the way language perpetuates or removes gender stereotypes.

And O'Hare understands this, clearly writing Stewart's role to evince dialogue between characters and among readers about equality for women. Yet he makes her physical appearance so irresistible that no one is immune to her charms. It troubled me that readers were reminded frequently and strongly that Stewart is a vixen. Because of this double-mindedness, for every step the storytelling takes forward for gender equality, it takes two steps back. O'Hare's narrator can't decide whether to let her be a detective or a male fantasy: a stand-in for a female. A male judge, smitten, pronounces to her "encouragingly" on the witness stand in an early scene. Stewart is the beautiful woman as authority figure brought to jelly by a handsome man; she is susceptible to masculine good looks and charm, not above blushing at the glances of the prosecuting attorney, "Given the prosecutor's attractiveness". To be honest, I was more unsettled by the concessions the book asks me to make to threadbare treatment of women than by any squeamish objection I might have to the emasculating nature of the crimes.

Despite my reservations, I feel the author must be credited with foreseeing and using these very objections within his plot. The novel is complex enough that feminine beauty, sexual desire, workplace politics, and Catholic faith and doubt all nest within and give birth to its mystery and denouement. I would definitely read other books by this author. It would please fans of Law and Order, Broadchurch, and the Bryant & May series.

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The 11.05 Murders
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