Falling Glass

By: Adrian McKinty

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

In this noir thriller by a New York Times best-selling and Edgar award-winning author, a retired IRA fixer takes a lucrative last job finding the ex-wife and daughters of a wealthy airline owner.

Richard Coulter is a man who has everything. His beautiful new wife is pregnant, his upstart airline is undercutting the competition and moving from strength to strength, his diversification into the casino business in Macau has been successful, and his fabulous Art Deco house on an Irish cliff top has just been featured in Architectural Digest.

But then, for some reason, his ex-wife Rachel doesn’t keep her side of the custody agreement and vanishes off the face of the earth with Richard’s two daughters. Richard hires Killian, a formidable ex-enforcer for the IRA, to track her down before Rachel, a recovering drug addict, harms herself or the girls.

As Killian follows Rachel’s trail, he begins to see that there is a lot more to this case than first meets the eye and that a 30-year-old secret is going to put all of them in terrible danger.

McKinty is at his continent-hopping, well-paced, evocative best in this thriller, moving between his native Ireland and distant cities within a skin-of-his-teeth timeframe.

©2011 Adrian McKinty (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Even an Angel of Death needs a halo...

Adrian McKinty formally introduces a formerly secondary character as his new main man of action and conscious, Killian. Killian’s globetrotting adventures are as tense and intelligent as McKinty’s best chronicles of Michael Forsythe of the Dead Trilogy. Forsythe reappears in this latest masterpiece of fiction, but as a background player. “Falling Glass” is a welcome addition to McKinty’s canon. The writing is tighter than ever, the suspense gripping and thoughtful.
McKinty has done his homework as usual with his descriptions of times, places, and events bringing his reader vivid images of the exploits of each central character. His inexhaustible knowledge of history and geography are put to impeccable use for “Falling Glass”.
As a tireless fan of McKinty’s writing I could not wait to get the book here in America so I had no choice but to get the audiobook from Audible (though I still have my order placed for the book itself). Gerard Doyle’s familiar narration of McKinty’s storytelling is as intense and captivating as holding the book in your hands. At just over nine hours the story moves along at an incredible pace with not a dull moment to be found. At the conclusion of “Falling Glass” I was left wanting for more of Killian’s adventures, just as each of the books in the Dead Trilogy leaves the reader wanting more of Michael Forsythe. The final confrontation is as unexpected and masterful as is expected from Mr. McKinty. Killian is a brilliant successor to Forsythe’s literary fortunes and charms.

A DARK MYSTERY SUPERBLY NARRATED BY GERALD DOLYE

We're told that Gerard Doyle was understudying a role on Broadway when he received call from his agent saying that an Irish voice was needed to narrate an audio book. Doyle readily admits that he knew little about audio books, but thought, "No matter. I can do that. I'm an Irishman." Do it he did, so well that he won an AudioFile Earphones Award for his debut That was five years ago and since then he has garnered enough voice performance awards to cover several mantels.

Doyle is not only an Irishman but also a trained actor, which has given added veracity and dramatic effect to each of his narrations. This is especially true with his reading of an arresting dark tale by Adrian McKinty, FALLING GLASS.

Ever notice how frequently life seems to be playing a trick on us? Just when we think we have it all together, when we're happy, content, suddenly things seem to fall apart. That seems to be the case with Richard Coulter. He's a mega rich Irish business man whose budget airline is outdoing any competition; he's married to a gorgeous woman who is pregnant; has a growing casino interest in Macau, and a home to die for recently featured in Architectural Digest. What could Coulter possibly want? For starters, he wants to find his former wife and two children, and calls on Killian to accomplish this.

A 40-year-old enforcer, a debt collector, Killian is weary. He's a one-of-a-kind enforcer because he had learned to use his wits to get the desired results. While he could use force his preference was to convince by verbal persuasion - he did have a silver tongue. Unfortunately the recession affects him just as it has everyone else, so he accepts the job with Coulter. After all a half million isn't easy to come by and that was Coulter's offer.

It looked like an easy case - just find the woman and children. However, when Killian does locate them he discovers much more than he bargained for in the form of danger and a Russian hitman.

Once again McKinty has crafted a non-stop action thriller that will simply leave readers/listeners wanting more from this master of the darkly mysterious.

An Adrian McKinty Fan, Anyway

I've only listened to McKinty's books, never "read" them and it makes me wonder - would I enjoy them as much without Gerard Doyle's reading and interpretation? I don't know but they are all one helluva good listen, oops, including "Fifty Grand" which was definitely not read by Doyle!

Good storytelling, great character development and fast pace make this a credit worthy listen. Best quote from a younger thug before beating the crap out of older thug - "You are Jay Leno and I am Conan O'Brian". I laughed like hell over that line though it will date the novel terribly in about 5 more years. Highly recommend any of this author's books.

Like Elmore Leonard? Huh? Huh? Try This McKinty.

Set in today's Northern Ireland Gerard Doyle's lilt snaps you into the place. Adrain McKinty's one of my new favorite authors. This is the third of his I've heard each narrated by Doyle. They project the feel of Elmore Leonard gone to the old sod. And like Leonard's plot engines, McKinty has the bad guys picking on definitely the wrong guy. The dialogue crackles, the story line's gritty and loaded with McGuffins, strong characters and this time a trip into Tinker/Traveller/Olde-Ones culture. Lookit the stars I've given... it's good stuff.

BTW, again like Leonard, this book's not based on a series character so there's no need to travel back along a chronology to earlier books before enjoying "Falling Glass".

I wanted more

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book and just could not stop listening.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I was disappointed and felt that the ending could have been expanded.

Which character ??? as performed by Gerard Doyle ??? was your favorite?

All of them, great performance.

Do you think Falling Glass needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Absolutely - need to know what eventually happens and will buy more of these books