The Dead - Hardcover

Black, Ingrid

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312326327 ISBN 13: 9780312326326

Verlag: Minotaur Books, 2004

Inhaltsangabe

Five years ago, Ed Fagan disappeared and since then nothing has been heard from the serial killer known as the Night Hunter. Now, a Dublin newspaper has received a letter from someone claiming to be Fagan, and the message is chilling: he's going to kill again.
At first, the Dublin Police are inclined to dismiss the letter as the work of a crank. Then, the body of prostitute Mary Lynch is found, and it's only too clear that a murderer is at large again.

But is it Fagan?

Saxon, a former FBI agent still haunted by the events of five years ago, was writing a book about Fagan when he disappeared, and she is certain as anyone can be that the killer must be someone else. So while Detective Chief Superintendent Grace Fitzgerald and the rest of the DMP sniff at a cold trail, she somehow has to convince them to look beyond the obvious.
But in a city of shadows and secrets, that's never easy--especially when the truth is so surprising that even the most astute detective would be shocked into carelessness in the moment of discovery.

And as Saxon knows, it's never wise to be careless in the presence of a killer.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ingrid Black is a writer and journalist who lives in Ireland.

Rezensionen

In a genre filled with Bible-quoting, women-hating serial killers who target prostitutes, Black's debut, set in a sharply detailed Ireland, stands out as a refreshing change of pace: its serial killer offers a new twist on psychotic behavior, and its heroine is not just another cop. Called simply "Saxon," the female narrator, an American expat, is a cigar-smoking former FBI agent involved in a love affair with Grace Fitzgerald, chief superintendent of the Dublin police. Saxon's FBI training comes in handy when Ed Fagan, a notorious Dublin serial killer, sends a letter to a local paper saying he is going to kill again--and does. Saxon, who extensively investigated the "Night Hunter," as Fagan was called, is positive that the killer is not a him. But can she convince the authorities? Black throws in enough red herrings to make the story unpredictable--indeed, the ending is a little too far-fetched--but what makes this one work is the psychology of the killer and the charisma of the heroine, whose combination of sarcasm and smarts will have readers clamoring for more. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Irish author Black invades Val McDermid territory and comes out a winner in this first mystery set in gritty, moody Dublin. Saxon (we never learn her first name), a former FBI agent turned true-crime writer, has remained in Dublin after her unsuccessful attempt to write a book about Ed Fagan, a vicious, Bible-quoting serial killer who suddenly vanished from Dublin five years earlier. She has a fond relationship with her lover, Detective Chief Superintendent Grace Fitzgerald, but a professional life in limbo. Then newspaper reporter Nick Elliott, who did write a book about Fagan, receives a letter with a threat to kill five prostitutes in the next week. With each murder, the killer taunts the police with enigmatic clues. Grace pulls Saxon into the investigation as an expert on Fagan, but Saxon knows from a secret she can't reveal to Grace that this is a copycat killer. The book becomes a tense balancing act between the police search for Fagan and Saxon's search for the real killer. A string of plausible suspects keeps the reader guessing and the suspense at fever pitch until the breathtaking ending. Black writes with the edginess of Denise Mina, Jenny Siler and the masterful McDermid. On the minus side, the many characters are hard to keep track of, and the use of Britishisms like "whilst" and "opposite to" by Saxon and a fellow American profiler jars. Still, this first book will whet the reader's appetite for a sequel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Minotaur Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2004
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0312326327
• ISBN 13: 9780312326326
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar