Find The Nameless Dead (Inspector Devlin, #5) Assembled By Brian McGilloway Textbook

with all of Brian McGilloways novels, this one is top notch,

It is both well written and plotted and reads linearly, Sufficient information is given on the main characters to ground them in “real” life, but not so much that it intrudes on the story, The mystery starts out immediately and only increases as the story goes on,

Declan Cleary is among the “disappeared, ” A tip off about his body being buried on Islandmore is received by the police, Since the commission on the disappeared is currently investigating the cillen babies who died at birth and cannot be buried in consecrated ground, located there, it is of little hassle to also look for Declan.


Declans son, Sean has never met him, Declan was killed before Sean was born, But Sean is very angry at his fathers murder and fighting mad about due to the amnesty the bodies located cannot be investigated, and no one can be prosecuted for their murders.


When Sean turns up murdered in Northern Ireland, Investigator Benedict “Ben” Devlin is on the case along with his Northern Ireland friend, Hendry, The conspiracy gets bigger and there are several subplots driving this story, When another man is murdered, who had a connection to Sean, the tension in the story increases,

I send a hats off to Brian McGilloway who is a fine writer, DI Benedict Devlins crossborder policing gets tricky when a Commission charged with exhuming the remains of The Disappeared from the Troubles also unearths not just a “cillin” the burial place of unbaptized infants who were prohibited from burial on consecrated ground but also the corpses of infants suffering birth defects, one of whom clearly was a murder victim.
The burial place was an island in a river separating Northern Ireland from the Republic, and jurisdictional conflicts as well as the nofault premise of the Commission contributed to official apathy toward investigation, which does not sit well with DI Devlin.
And then the modernday murders begin,

This is a wellcrafted story about revenge, illicit adoption, the closed secrets of Big Pharma and the sequelae of a modern civil war, Strange book I appreciate how two seemingly diverse plots became entwined with twist endings, The author included a good family background for Devlin without becoming bogged down in daily minutiae unlike other mystery authors who pad their books with unnecessary daily details.
I look forward to more Devlin mysteries, Im particularly interested to see what happens with his teenage daughter who has already become quite a handful, I liked the mystery and I've always liked Benedict Devlin, What annoys me increasingly in each book is the Inspector's wife, At first she was mostly supportive and understanding, She gets more harpylike in each book, This isn't just in McGilloway's books, many books featuring a male detective/sleuth have the dubious subplot of 'trouble at home' aka 'you missed dinner again and aren't spending time with the kids.
' Lady, you married a homicide detective, If you thought he'd be home for dinner every night and be available to drive the carpool, you are smoking something,

I hate it, and I think it's a lazy plot device, I hope that McGilloway either has Debbie accept Devlin's work or move the hell out, I've had it with her, The fifth book in the Inspector Devlin the reader is familiar with the main characters and the writer is relaxed with his creation,
Brian McGilloway's writing is economic, Punchy descriptions and dialogue.
This is a terrific plot that does justice to the cross boarder conflicts and life after the troubles but is routed in events of the past.
BM very skillfully keeps it contemporary many would draw on a the writer's go to the slowly revealed past as a separate story unfolding with the main narrative.
The real skill is doing justice to things from the past but revealing those facts through detective work and dialogue progression so the mystery is contained and the solution rarely fully focuses until the dramatic conclusion.

The subject matter is grim with serious political struggles and religious shortcomings being touched upon sensitively and without rhetoric or justification leaving the reader to be involved and make their own mind up regarding these matters.

I like that best in novels as it allows you to be fully engaged with the story, its setting and the decisions people make in the knowledge known at the time.

This is McGilloway's skill and makes his books worth reading in terms of his historical context and thought provoking subject matter, At the heart of the story are real people, A crime and the difficulties detectives have in trying to solve the case,
Here we have the digging up of the past which uncovers a number of issues a lot of people would like to stay buried, It is how that premises unravels with the plot that makes this an exceptional novel and a intriguing crime murder mystery,
A book that does not require the reader to have read the previous stories already published it stands alone as a gripping story from the Border region in Ireland but I guarantee once read you'll be chasing down the earlier episodes of this excellent police procedural series.
Having reachedof this series, I find an Irish name fog descending, I confused the identities in a couple of strands of the narrative and had to return to reread earlier chapters to clarify!

Whether it was this or the increasing level of plot layering across time periods, I found this novel more challenging than the others.
The focus is the aftermath of Celtic Tiger, unfinished housing estates coupled with a discovery near an old Mother amp Baby Unit by the Truth Commission,
.stars

Bookin the Ben Devlin series continues the author's theme of combining present day police investigations in the Republic of Ireland with past events tied to The Troubles.

They are called "the Disappeared", men who went missing during Ireland's bloody sectarian war amp were never found, A commission was set up asking for anonymous tips as to the location of their graves so they might be recovered amp provide closure for loved ones.
To encourage people to come forward, there is a guarantee of no investigation or prosecution,
Islandmore, an island on the north/south border, was a popular dumping ground not just for these victims but also for unbaptized babies that couldn't be buried on church property.

The story begins as Ben is assisting the commission with a dig on the island, They got a tip concerning

Declan Cleary, a man thought to be an informer who went missing in, His then pregnant girlfriend Mary amp their son Sean received a note pointing to the island as his final resting place, Unfortunately, they dig up more of the past than they bargained for,
Found along side Declan's remains is the skeleton of a newborn with severe deformities, Autopsy reveals the baby was murdered, And it's not the only one,
Sean is bitter that his father's killers will never be brought to justice amp complains to the media, Bad move. After the story hits the news, Sean amp an old colleague of Declan's are found dead,
Ben is a deeply religious man amp frustrated by the inability to investigate the bodies, He's also dealing with trouble on the home front, His family is tired of him always putting the job first, Sean, now, feels abandoned by his dad ampyear old Penny is hanging around with a group that includes the son of a well known drug dealer.
After she is assaulted by a street kid with ties to the murder of Sean Cleary, Ben is tempted to take the law into his own hands.

Complicating matters, a young woman Ben knows from a previous book keeps hearing a crying infant on her baby monitor, She lives in an unfinished subdivision across the street from a mysterious middle aged woman with ties to the old unwed mother's hospital,
It's a convoluted tale with individual plot lines from the past amp present and the author does a great job slowly doling out the clues, It's like having a bag of puzzle pieces but no box, Some of the pieces seem straightforward but when put into the context of the larger picture they take on a completely different slant amp it's only at the end when Ben learns the truth that we realize the full scope of the crimes amp who the real villains are.

There are some returning characters, Old boss Olly Costello is retired but continues to be a source of info for Ben, Harry Patterson is his new superintendent amp their relationship has not improved, His kids are older amp he's experiencing all the joys that come with teenagers amp sibling rivalry,
His wife continues to be a challenge for me, She's not very likeable amp her passive/aggressive treatment of Ben is annoying, I have never felt any spark between these two, You get the feeling that if not for the kids, they would not be living under the same roof, I don't know if it's intentional but we never see any moments of tenderness between them amp most of their conversations are adversarial as everything he does is wrong in her eyes.

The police procedural aspect of the story is fast paced amp flows well to draw you into the the mystery, Ben himself is a compelling character, a flawed man who is committed to his job but besieged by obstacles at work amp home, This is a guy who needs a vacation,
As always, the history of The Troubles is never far from current events, I've been reading Sean McKinty's trilogy at the same time which deals with that period from a Northern Ireland perspective amp it's interesting to compare viewpoints,
This is a well written series amp while it's not necessary to read them in order, you'll get more from each if you do, .