About this item
The electrifying noir thriller from a major new talent, in which a young Irish ex-cop travels half a world away to investigate the murder of a beautiful girl he once loved, and whose peculiar sexual banter he will later have urgent reason to recall -- if he is to survive. Hard on the heels of Dead I Well May Be -- which BOOKLIST named "one of the top ten crime fiction debuts of the year, " and which established Adrian McKinty as the perfect new find for fans of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly -- McKinty's tightly paced Hidden River displays his unerring gift for crafting powerhouse literary thrillers. Alexander Lawson is a former detective for Northern Ireland's police force and a rising star at cracking difficult cases. After he is assigned to the force's dangerous, corruption-ridden drug squad, he becomes addicted to heroin -- under unusual circumstances. Forced to resign in disgrace, Alex is twenty-four and still entrapped by the needle when he learns that his high school love, beautiful Victoria Patawasti, has been murdered in drought-scorched Denver, Colorado. Victoria's family begs Alex to investigate the case, and he seizes the opportunity to fly to America for a chance at redemption. Soon the bodies begin to pile up, and Alex is forced to go on the run after the only credible lead to Victoria's murderer is accidentally killed. Wanted by both the Colorado cops and the British police, who believe he has information about a corruption scandal, and with the murderer closing in all the time, Alex will have to fight just to stay alive, never mind solving the terrifying case. Critics have called Adrian McKinty's work "explosive, " "violent yet virtuous, " and "always enthralling. " Hidden River is a riveting novel of characters, including a sadistic English cop who puts out cigarettes on other people's eyebrows, a billionaire's son with political aspirations, and a sexy Ethiopian girl living illegally in a squat. All manner of sinners converge on Denver's notoriously seedy Colfax Avenue against the breathtaking backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. Gritty, with spot-on dialogue and black humor, Hidden River is a dynamic thriller from a storyteller who writes "in prose that is a kind of poetry" (The Washington Post) , and confirms his reputation as a dazzling literary voice in crime fiction. Show More
About the Author
Adrian McKinty is an Edgar Award winning crime novelist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has been shortlisted for the Dagger Award, Anthony Award, Theakston Award and has won the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award and the Edgar Award.
Adrian studied law at Warwick University and philosophy at Oxford University. In the early 90's he emigrated to New York City where he worked in bars, building sites and bookstores for seven years before moving to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher. In 2009 he moved again, this time to Melbourne, Australia with his wife and kids.
His first Sean Duffy novel, The Cold Cold Ground, won the 2013 Spinetingler Award and was picked as one of the best crime novels of the year by The Times (of London) . The second Sean Duffy novel, I Hear The Sirens In The Street, won the 2014 Barry Award for best paperback original crime novel of the year.
In The Morning I'll Be Gone (Sean Duffy #3) won the 2014 Ned Kelly Award for best novel and was picked as one of the top 10 crime novels of 2014 by the American Library Association, The Daily Mail & The Toronto Star.
Gun Street Girl (Duffy #4) was shortlisted for the 2016 Edgar Award, the 2015 Ned Kelly Award, The 2016 Anthony Award and was picked as one of the best books of 2015 by The Boston Globe and The Irish Times.
Sean Duffy #5, Rain Dogs, won the 2017 Edgar Award (best paperback original) , was the Boston Globe's #1 Mystery novel of 2016, was an Irish Times book of the year and was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2016, the 2016 Ned Kelly Award, the 2017 Barry Award and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award 2016.
Sean Duffy #6 will be out in early 2017
newspaper reviews for some of the Duffy books:
If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland The Cold Cold Ground is the book he would have written.
The Times
A locked room mystery within a manhunt killer [is] a clever and gripping set-up that helps makes Duffy's third outing easily his best so far.
The Sunday Times
Not content with constructing a complex plot, McKinty further wraps his story around a deliciously old-fashioned locked room mystery, the solution to which holds the key to Duffy's entire investigation. Driven by McKinty's brand of lyrical, hard-boiled prose, leavened by a fatalistic strain of the blackest humour, In the Morning I'll Be Gone is a hugely satisfying historical thriller.
The Irish Times
[A] superb trilogy reaches its finality...The hunt for [Duffy's quarry] begins and ends spectacularly. McKinty is particularly convincing in painting the political and social backdrops to his plots. He deserves to be treated as one of Britain's top crime writers.
The Times
An action movie view of the Troubles...a fast and thrilling ride
