The Cold, Cold Ground

Detective Sean Duffy, Book 1

By: Adrian McKinty

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles — and of a cop treading a thin, thin line —from The New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Adrian McKinty.

“McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years.” —Tana French

Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman’s suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things—and people—aren’t always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It’s no easy job—especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force. Add to this the fact that, as a Catholic policeman, it doesn’t matter which side he’s on, because nobody trusts him, and Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation.

©2012 Adrian McKinty (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“McKinty is a streetwise, energetic gunslinger of a writer, firing off volleys of sassy dialogue and explosive action that always delivers what it has promised.” ( Irish Times)

“What makes McKinty a cut above the rest is the quality of his prose. His driven, spat-out sentences are more accessible than James Ellroy's edge-of-reason staccato, and he can be lyric.” ( The Guardian)

“If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland, The Cold Cold Ground is what he would have written.” ( The Times, London)

Excellent story.

The book was well written and read in the perfect accent. The pace was wonderful and easy to follow.

A little different style for me - loved it!’

This was a great listen! Something new for me and a chance to remember a great trip with my mom traveling through Ireland. On to book two!

Great characters

Liked the detective work and the relationships but the resolution was a little like a hurried explanation. But I’d still recommend reading it!

interesting story

I like the author but this story was a bit drawn out and sometimes confusing. it took me a bit to get through.
don't know if I'll do others in series.

Great Noir with Slight Letdown at End

Any additional comments?

Sean Duffy is a Catholic police detective in a place and at a time when the IRA sees him as a traitor and his Protestant colleagues see him as an odd duck. It’s 1981, Prince Charles is about to marry Diana, Pope John Paul II is about to get shot, and Bobby Sands and other IRA big-timers are on hunger strike. Northern Ireland is a powder keg, and then things really get crazy: someone starts killing homosexuals, and a young woman may or may not have hung herself. Oh, and Sean falls an attractive doctor.

In a lesser writer’s hands, all that could have been a mess. In McKinty’s, it’s riveting. I realize everything I’ve just described sounds like the obvious elements of a generic hardboiled novel, but McKinty makes it feel as if he’s invented the form.

For starters, the moment is perfect. Maybe it’s because I was a young high school student when these events took place – these were the news stories of my near adulthood – but the era seems rich with characters and conflicts that stayed with us. Northern Ireland was at the heart of a great storm, and McKinty excavates it with real care. We get the hit songs of the moment (from Dolly Parton to late-career Lou Reed), quick but accurate descriptions of the phones and record players, and glimpses of the cars everyone was driving. He brings back an era, one that wasn’t frightening in its everyday details, and makes it a locus for the conflicts that would drive the following decades.

More than that, though, we get everything with rare skill. McKinty dispenses backstory and fresh clue with a terrific rhythm. I never felt he was slipping in something important that I’d have to slap my forehead later for not noticing, nor did I feel he was telegraphing what was important. Instead, his story really feels like the story of a mystery slowly unraveling.

I do think the end falls short of the excellence of the first 90 percent of this, though. [SPOILER] Until the assassination attempt by the IRA team he’s provoked, he’s an ordinary thoughtful cop. When he takes out a half dozen armed men who have the drop on him, well, it feels contrived. And then, when he travels to Italy to kill a double agent, it seems like too much. I accept that he’s a man of deep integrity. I don’t accept that he’d take ‘justice’ into his own hands and kill a man who, despite awful crimes, has the chance to end “the Troubles” years earlier than otherwise.

I suspect that end is connected to my bugaboo about series. I’m not saying that Duffy should have been killed at the end, but I do think it would have been more true to the story to have him fail, to have him have to eat crow despite knowing who ultimately did it. To me, it feels like twisting the story to set up a sequel and probably more books with the same characters.

Barring the last chapter, though, I very much enjoyed this. I’ll keep an eye out for more McKinty – one more in the line of star Celtic noirists – and I’m happy to recommend him to others.

Pretty average story, a bit slow actually

I enjoyed the first in the Micheal Forsythe series by McGinty, and thought the second was ok, but not as good, so i decided to try a different set of characters by the same author. I wanted to like this book because i do enjoy the "edge" he gives his heros, but i found this story pretty blah. My mind drifted more than a few times because it wasn't holding my interest. Not sure i'll try this author again at this point. Narration was quite good.

Grocery List or Novel

The narrator’s cadence sounds like a bored teenager reciting a grocery list. I spaced out so many times that it took me two weeks to listen to a three day book. On the upside, the man can sing!!

Interesting take on the 80's "Troubles"

Great main character! Depth and detail on the Northern Ireland of the Thatcher era. Great story, lots of twists...my second by this author, and I'll be looking forward to the next one!

Adrian McKinty prose with the voice of Gerard Doyle!

The narrative is most wonderful for this storyline. Gerard Doyle is a master. His voice on the story is believable. He brings the emotion needed for the 80’s issues brought to life in the book. Such a chaotic time in the world. This book won’t be for every reader as it touches on controversies that are ever prominent. Politics of Northern Ireland, IRA, MI5, Catholic/Protestant, sexual tendencies, as well as murder and mystery. It is a solid story. The characters are well developed. Historic facts and fiction are well blended.

Incredible story made better by the narrator

WOW! WOW! WOW! This book was outstanding on so many levels, but I have to say that because of Gerard Doyle's narration, it was so much better than if I'd read it. I wanted to listen to this book all the time (although I did have work to do so I couldn't). I found every opportunity to keep listening. I didn't know what would happen and was interested on that level. I learned a great deal about "the Troubles" and had to go read more about this time and the different "sides" during this time so that I knew more. This is a 5* story and a 6 or 7* performance. I'm buying more by this author and this narrator today.