Starts out about as tough and harsh as a detective story can get. For most of it, the content is intense international politics but in style it is a cool methodical procedural. Then near the end it turns into a thriller. Then at the very end it just falls apart. Startling, and not all in a good way.

Oh, and the Irish local color is very good.

I like to think he died for his art, working out how to break into a house. From the New York Times:

Mark McGarrity, who wrote a popular series of richly detailed mystery novels set in Ireland under the pen name Bartholomew Gill, died in a fall late last Wednesday night or early last Thursday morning outside his home in Morristown, N.J. He was 58.

He fell and hit his head while trying to climb into his apartment through a window, apparently because he had forgotten his keys, said Detective Mark Slockbower of the Morristown police. A neighbor called the police just after midnight on July 4 and Mr. McGarrity was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:34 a.m. ( )

This novel is seeped in the complexities of the problems facing Northern Ireland and it definitely helps to have somewhat knowledge before hand of the politics.

Although part of the McGarr series I felt this one could stand on it's own. Still, a very engrossing read. ( )