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Dark Dawn
On sale
5th April 2012
Price: £7.99
Belfast. January 2005.
Acting Detective Sergeant John O’Neill stands over the body of a dead teenager. The corpse was discovered on the building site of a luxury development overlooking the River Lagan. Kneecapped then killed, the body bears the hallmarks of a punishment beating. But this is the new Northern Ireland – the Celtic Tiger purrs, the Troubles are over, the paramilitaries are gone. So who is the boy? Why was he killed?
O’Neill quickly realises that no one cares who the kid is – his colleagues, the politicians, the press – making this case one of the toughest yet. And he needs to crack this one, his first job as Principle Investigator, or he risks ending up back in uniform. Disliked by the Chief Inspector and with his current rank yet to be ratified, O’Neill is in a precarious position.
With acute insight, Matt McGuire’s cracking debut exposes the hidden underbelly of the new Northern Ireland, a world of drug dealing, financial corruption and vigilante justice.
Acting Detective Sergeant John O’Neill stands over the body of a dead teenager. The corpse was discovered on the building site of a luxury development overlooking the River Lagan. Kneecapped then killed, the body bears the hallmarks of a punishment beating. But this is the new Northern Ireland – the Celtic Tiger purrs, the Troubles are over, the paramilitaries are gone. So who is the boy? Why was he killed?
O’Neill quickly realises that no one cares who the kid is – his colleagues, the politicians, the press – making this case one of the toughest yet. And he needs to crack this one, his first job as Principle Investigator, or he risks ending up back in uniform. Disliked by the Chief Inspector and with his current rank yet to be ratified, O’Neill is in a precarious position.
With acute insight, Matt McGuire’s cracking debut exposes the hidden underbelly of the new Northern Ireland, a world of drug dealing, financial corruption and vigilante justice.
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Reviews
Set against the backdrop of post-Troubles Northern Ireland, where no criminal investigation is straightforward and history still informs every move the characters make, Dark Dawn is an efficient, atmospheric and engaging debut.
You are never going to escape the past in a place like Belfast. When a dead teenager turns up kneecapped near a new luxutry development, no one but Acting DS John O'Neill seems particularly othered. O'Neill has a lot to prove and McGuire handles it brilliantly.
Ambitious, multi-layered, a cracking debut.
A debut of exceptional accomplishment and power. "Dark Dawn" takes us on a visceral journey through post-Troubles Belfast and announces a major new talent. This is crime writing of the highest order.'
I enjoyed this riveting police procedural immensely and believe this new writer has tackled a tough subject with a deftness of touch unexpected in a debut novel. Its seamless plotting compelled me to keep reading and I look forward to reading more stories of equal intensity from Matt McGuire.