The Rage

November 26, 2012
Taut prose distinguishes Kerrigan’s accomplished crime novel set in contemporary Dublin. Det. Sgt. Bob Tidey faces a moral quandary after investigating a banker’s murder. Former nun Maura Coady, who keeps watch over a quiet suburb, makes a fateful phone call, while within the city’s criminal underbelly, swaggering Vincent Naylor and his brother, Noel, are preparing for their next big heist. Kerrigan (Little Criminals) touches on broader social and political issues, from the Irish housing bubble to the long shadows cast by abuse within the Catholic church, which deepen rather than distract from the main action as it speeds ahead with wheels shrieking, preparing the reader for an ending whose inevitability doesn’t diminish its explosive impact. While these Dublin streetscapes lack the hard glamour of L.A. noir, Tidey emerges as a prototypical Raymond Chandler hero, holding fast to his moral compass in a corrupt world that demands compromise even from good men. Agent: Melanie Jackson, the Melanie Jackson Agency.

January 1, 2013
In contemporary Dublin, a hastily devised robbery and its aftermath unfold from the perspectives of diverse perps, cops and witnesses. Such is the moral ambiguity surrounding Detective Sgt. Bob Tidey's job that the very first time he is to take the stand in an important case as a witness rather than an investigator, he struggles with whether to commit perjury by contradicting his original statement, something that will cause him headaches at work but smooth the ruffled feathers of a local politico. Meanwhile, unrepentant thief Vincent Naylor, back on the street after a stint in prison, has no such reservations about returning to his life of crime. He and his brother Noel, teaming up with minor crime boss Albert Bannerman, hatch a plan to rob a van used by the Ulster Bank. As Vincent gets a closer look at Bannerman's ragtag gang, he has second thoughts, exacerbated by his cresting love for hairdresser Michelle Flood, but eventually decides that it's too late to turn back. Tidey gets a heads-up about the plan from Maura Coady, a retired and very observant nun with whom he has a deep and complex relationship. (An elliptical prologue foreshadows the relationship and the death of a man named Emmett Sweetman, which will cast a long shadow over later events.) Missteps in the crime generate their own subplots, which Kerrigan (Little Criminals, 2005, etc.) juggles deftly. An ambitious and nuanced panorama of law and order in Ireland's mean streets, balancing literary elements and full-bodied character portraits with a believable depiction of cops and criminals at work.

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Starred review from February 1, 2013

Kerrigan is an award-winning Irish journalist (Round Up The Usual Suspects) whose crime fiction (A Midnight Choir; Little Criminals) has an authenticity born of a socialist worldview, great writing, and a feel for the criminal and paramilitary gangs operating in urban Dublin. He deals here with "tiger kidnappings," the post-Celtic Tiger miasma of ruin, the recently published reports on clerical abuse, police collaboration with politicians, etc. The protagonist is Detective Tidey, a complex, flawed, but humane individual. Tidey is dealing with a surfeit of domestic and work pressures while pursuing his investigations, using unorthodox measures if required, including perjury. The novel centers around his attempt to solve the murder of a high-flying banker, which eventually links to an Ordinary Decent Criminal (ODC) operation that goes awry. The rage that follows is visceral and lethal. It is also a metaphor for the suppressed rage of many Irish from years of abuse, exploitation, greed, and negligence of bankers, speculators, and politicians. VERDICT For authenticity, narrative, plot, writing skill, the gritty noirish crime milieu setting, and the post-Celtic-Tiger-Ireland toxicity, Kerrigan's latest well deserves its CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year.--Seamus Scanlon, Ctr. for Worker Education, CUNY

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Starred review from February 1, 2013
Welcome to Dublin, where the economy has tanked, and violence has surged. Vincent Naylor walks out of prison and right back into the same business that landed him there, armed robbery. Working with his dimmer brother, Noel, and some friends, they kidnap an armored truck driver to learn how the system works, setting up for their biggest score yet. Detective Sergeant Bob Tidey is working the murder of an investment banker and contemplating perjuring himself in an upcoming trial when he gets a tip from an old nun that a strange car has been parked on her street for some time. That car turns out to be the getaway car, and that phone call changes lives when two of the men involved in the robbery are killed in the street. Vincent takes off on a revenge spree, and Tidey can't help but reexamine his own life. The sparse writing style seems well-matched to the content in this tense, thoughtful thriller, which won the UK's Gold Dagger award for best crime novel of the year. Fans of Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and Declan Burke won't want to miss this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)