The Cold Cold Ground (The Sean Duffy Series)
Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles--and of a cop treading a thin, thin line--from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Adrian McKinty.
"McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years." --Tana French
Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman's suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things--and people--aren't always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It's no easy job--especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force. Add to this the fact that, as a Catholic policeman, it doesn't matter which side he's on, because nobody trusts him, and Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation.
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Community Reviews
This is another one that has been on my to-read list for a long time (Jul2022) making it another one for my 2025 cleaning out the to-read closet challenge. Sometimes, I like classic detective stories and by that, I mean ones before policing and detecting became such a high-tech profession. In Belfast, May 1981, in a small station, where most of the officers have little to no experience protecting a crime scene from contamination and are not experienced or even familiar with standard police procedures, college educated (also rare in Belfast PD’s), Catholic (most of the others are Protestants) Det Sgt Sean Duffy has his work cut out for him.
The book summary basically just introduces the primary storyline of Duffy and his crew dealing with their first serial killer. He’s also struggling with trying to teach and train the two other officers on how to work the case by actually using detection processes and recognizing MO’s. There is also another storyline of the death of a Catholic, unwed, mother who was found hung, and the crime scene staged to look like a suicide. Back then and there, this was not an unusual scene for Catholic girls who got pregnant out of wedlock. However, Duffy doesn’t think it’s a suicide and suspects it’s connected to the serial killer case.
Most of the story focuses on the serial killer, who is killing gay men. While Duffy doesn’t seem to be making any progress, it’s deep into the second half that the case is taken from him. However, that doesn’t stop him from continuing his own investigation, because he is certain the two cases are connected. The end comes with a couple of wild twists neither I, nor Duffy, saw coming that lead to some scary and intense scenes, and becomes a lead-in to the next installment.
I like Duffy! He’s a smart-ass cop who mouths off enough to get him in trouble, and his snarky attitude was entertaining. The pacing was steady to fast and the storyline very interesting. The writing was well done. I liked all the real-world references like the IRA bombings, the war between Protestants and Catholics aka, the Troubles, the hunger strikes of Catholic prisoners, Princess Di’s wedding to Charles, as well as all the music references of the time. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.3 that I will be rounding down to a 4star review.
The book summary basically just introduces the primary storyline of Duffy and his crew dealing with their first serial killer. He’s also struggling with trying to teach and train the two other officers on how to work the case by actually using detection processes and recognizing MO’s. There is also another storyline of the death of a Catholic, unwed, mother who was found hung, and the crime scene staged to look like a suicide. Back then and there, this was not an unusual scene for Catholic girls who got pregnant out of wedlock. However, Duffy doesn’t think it’s a suicide and suspects it’s connected to the serial killer case.
Most of the story focuses on the serial killer, who is killing gay men. While Duffy doesn’t seem to be making any progress, it’s deep into the second half that the case is taken from him. However, that doesn’t stop him from continuing his own investigation, because he is certain the two cases are connected. The end comes with a couple of wild twists neither I, nor Duffy, saw coming that lead to some scary and intense scenes, and becomes a lead-in to the next installment.
I like Duffy! He’s a smart-ass cop who mouths off enough to get him in trouble, and his snarky attitude was entertaining. The pacing was steady to fast and the storyline very interesting. The writing was well done. I liked all the real-world references like the IRA bombings, the war between Protestants and Catholics aka, the Troubles, the hunger strikes of Catholic prisoners, Princess Di’s wedding to Charles, as well as all the music references of the time. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.3 that I will be rounding down to a 4star review.
