The Midnight Choir

By: Gene Kerrigan

Narrated by: John Cormack

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Dublin. Joshua Boyce watches a jewellers as he plans a job; Dixie Payton desperate for cash attempts a mugging; DI Synott calls on a rape suspect, convinced of his guilt; gangland boss Lar MacKendrick is getting back into shape after brothers Jo-Jo's murder. Criminals and police each have their own code, with both sides resorting to desperate measures as a means to an end.

©2007 Gene Kerrigan (P)2007 Oakhill Publishing Ltd

Critic reviews

"This is the type of book you pass on to someone you like, and say 'Read this.'." (The Post)
"He has something of James Joyce's ability in conjuring up a vivid Dublin: but this modern city is very different from the one Leopald Bloom wandered through." (The Independent)

A modern Irish epic

The Midnight Choir is a big novel. I don't mean in terms of length but in terms of its subject. Rather than focusing on a particular incident, investigator or criminal this book depicts a myriad of crimes perpetrated by an assortment of criminals and paints a giant canvas showing how and why crime happens. There are crimes carried out due to desperation, corruption, greed and a fervent belief it is the right thing to do and they interconnect at the most unexpected points.

In Galway a man is prevented from jumping to his death by a young Garda who must then try to find out how the man came to be covered in blood that isn't his own. Meanwhile in Dublin a young mother tries to mug an American tourist at a cash machine while a seasoned criminal plans a jewellery robbery, hard man Lar MacKendrick gets back into the swing of killing people after the death of his brother and a young woman reports a date rape to Police.

At the centre of all of this is Detective Inspector Harry Synott who proceeds through these investigations as well as experiencing a series of flashbacks of incidents in his career which help explain why he's not everyone's favourite copper. Harry is a brilliantly complex character, struggling continuously with the question of whether justice can be served by the law. But if Harry's story isn't enough to keep you glued there are several other equally compelling personal stories that will, if you're at all like me, have you shifting from anger to sadness and back again at a rapid pace.

The story dealt with some uniquely Irish themes as well as the broader issues that are shared in big cities the world over so having the book narrated in John Cormack's gentle Irish accent was a definite treat as it helped me get absorbed in the world that Kerrigan had created even more completely.