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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty (view source)
Revision as of 13:48, 26 December 2011
, 13:48, 26 December 2011no edit summary
''The Cold Cold Ground'' is the first of a planned trilogy of police procedural novels featuring Sean Duffy. Set in 1980s Northern Ireland it's a little reminiscent of the TV show ''Life on Mars'', full of reminders of the music and events of the period that evokes nostalgia in those who lived through it. In all good police procedural novels, the hero has to have a 'thing' that sets him apart. With Duffy it is that he is a Catholic in a predominantly Protestant police force. What this means is that no one trusts him on either side of the religious divide. And as this is set during the worst of the 'troubles' with hunger strikes and rioting on the streets, not to mention car bombs and other acts of violence, this is a big issue for him.
In terms of books, there are few things worse than a novel from a writer who you hugely admire that doesn't quite live up to your expectations and sadly, ''The Cold CaseCold Ground'' was one such book for me. Adrian McKinty's style is always strong on dialogue and packed with short, pithy sentences that keep the pace high, but Duffy's story is told in the first person and, particularly in the earlier third of the book, is very heavy in the 'I did this', 'I said that' kind of vein. It sounds a daft thing to criticise a first person narrative for over use of the personal pronoun and sure, some of this is inevitable, but combined with McKinty's style the effect is disconcertingly childish. Not that the writing or content is of course, but the constant 'I did this' doesn't read as well as it might if the story had been told in the third person. To be fair, this becomes less of a problem later in the book.
The other problem - I'll get to the good stuff in a minute, because there is plenty of good stuff here too - is that it if you are reading a police procedural book then I kind of want the police procedure to reveal the facts of the crime(s). Here the main culprit ends up blurting out everything that Duffy has got close to solving but never did. Duffy only thinks that he may be the guilty party and then that person goes and confesses all which left me feeling a bit cheated.
