Library's review
Absalom
As Abbie investigates the brutal killing of a County resident whose mutilated body is left in the basement of the local Catholic church, she finds herself fighting not only the killer but her old neighbors, who have nothing to tell her or any of the police. She's also fighting against her fellow cops, men who with the exception of her partner (tellingly, a Buffalo native but not from the County), treat her with ridicule or outright contempt. Abbie doggedly pursues what quickly turns into a serial murder case, even as she begins to suspect that in order to find the identity of the killer she will have to learn once and for all the truth about her own past.
The publisher's blurb for this book compared Talty's writing to Tana French, which sounded promising as I have read and thoroughly enjoyed French's books. But the connection seems tenuous to me; Talty's style did not seem particularly similar to French's, and I'm not sure he quite has her grasp of weaving together an intricate plot without dropping a few stitches along the way. Leaving comparisons aside, though, I found this thriller to be quite entertaining to read. The characters are well-drawn and engaging, and as mentioned earlier the city of Buffalo is drawn in meticulous if not altogether flattering detail.
I would recommend Black Irish to anyone who likes psychological thrillers. I don't know if Talty intends to make this into a series featuring Absolom Kearney, but if he does I would happily read the next installment.
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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER �?� In this explosive debut thriller by the author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a city�??s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage. �??The captivating start of a brilliant thriller series.�?��??Tess GerritsenAbsalom �??Abbie�?� Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn�??t keep Abbie�??s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective�??s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she�??s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts. When Jimmy Ryan�??s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a message�??one that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as �??the County�?� understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wag�??with desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killer�??s mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own family�??s past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the County�??s hidden history�??one bloody body at a time. With Black Irish, Stephen Talty stakes a place beside Jo Nesbø, John Sandford, and Tan… (more)