The Killer in Me
Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan grew up in Clontarf, Ireland – a fairly quiet suburb of Dublin. These days, it’s most famous for having a castle, a pretty good whiskey distillery, and there was a pretty significant battle there in 1014, but other than that? In our story, the most recent thing to put it on the map was Seán Hennessey and that time he murdered his parents.
The book opens with two bodies found in the local church, one lady who is topless but otherwise clothed and one man dressed in vestments. The man was clearly killed days before and transported to the church whereas the woman was murdered on site. The circle of suspects is small, but contains the aforementioned Hennessey, who has just been released from prison and is now living back in the village. A documentary is being produced to try to clear his name, so being accused of another round of murders is rather inconvenient for him.
I’m hesitant to say anything more than this, since the plot begins to twist and turn rather quickly. Ireland is producing some of the finest crime fiction out there right now and Kiernan is an able contributor to the oeuvre. This is an immersive tale which is well paced and mysterious, if not completely unpredictable. I read it on a recent long-haul flight and refused to put it down even for the meal service. Anyone looking for a European-set suspense thriller could certainly do worse than The Killer in Me.
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Recent Comments
The title bothers me because THE KILLER IN ME is also the title of one of the great pulp/noir classics by Jim Thompson. I know you can’t copyright a title, but I really think someone at the publishing company might have decided against using THE KILLER IN ME simply because it is so strongly associated with Thompson. It’s like publishing a book titled DOUBLE INDEMNITY or BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL: It’s been done.
That title always makes me think of Jim Thompson. And the Smashing Pumpkins song “Disarm.” :) Besides annoying readers, re-using a famous title makes it harder to search for books, and drives librarians nuts. Of course, it also means people will accidentally buy the wrong book or review the wrong book.