Published
by Joffe Books, 23 September 2023. ISBN: 978-1-83526096-8 (PB)
This novel is the
debut of an Irish police officer-turned-crime writer who appears under a pen
name. Billed as the first in a series of Dublin thrillers, the author uses her
experience as a member of An Garda
Síochána to immediate and explicit effect.
Danielle Lewis is third in line to
her uncle’s gangster empire. Ten years previously she lost her unborn baby
after a shooting. In the same violent incident a member of the Garda was killed, and his widow (Saoirse
Kelly, also a member of the police) miscarried. Betrayed for good measure by
her husband, Danielle fled to London. At the start of the book she returns to
Dublin determined to find out who was responsible for her attempted murder.
Despite not having announced her return, Danielle is abducted at the airport –
and so begins a complicated series of events.
Given that Jason, Danielle’s former
husband and the father of her lost child, is a member of the Flynn gang (the
Lewis’s main rivals in Dublin), these complications multiply. It doesn’t help
that there are tensions and family secrets within both groups. Neither seems to
trust their own side for much of the time, let alone their rivals. Both gangs
appear involved in a wide range of crimes, with drugs, people-trafficking, money
laundering, stolen machinery and insurance fraud amongst those committed. The
appearance of Saoirse Kelly towards the end (I would have liked a little more
on her back story) leads to what seems a relatively brusque conclusion, albeit
with a twist concerning the role of one of the characters. It’s worth noting
that women are pivotal in the plot and are as capable of trading threats and
violence as the men. Nobody hesitates to hand out beatings or worse.
It was almost impossible to find people
with whom I had any sympathy at all, with the possible exceptions of a couple
of prostitutes, and I found that I really couldn’t care less what happened to
any of them. But I don’t suppose sympathy is the point given the underworld
milieu, and this didn’t affect me wanting to read to the end. The plot holds
the attention well, with changing relationships and suspicions of treachery. The
pacy dialogue and fast action keeps the book rolling along. If you like your
thrillers brutal, with a reasonable quota of sex and full of expletives (more
or less always the ‘f’ word), this will be for you. If you do not, then it’s
probably best avoided.
As mentioned earlier, the novel is
headlined as The Dublin Thrillers Book 1 . Given that few of the characters who start
Deceit seem alive at the end
(killings, attempted or successful, and deaths are a constant presence), I
imagine the next in the series will have a lot of new people involved. It will
be interesting to see what develops. ----- Reviewer: David Whittle
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Casey King
is a crime writer from Co. Cork. She is represented by London agent, Kate Nash,
of Kate Nash Literary Agency. Among her qualifications, Casey has a Diploma in
Policing Studies and over twenty years' experience in the Irish Police Force.
Casey was recently listed in The Bookseller Magazine's Agent Hotlist for London
Book Fair. As a poet, Casey has twice judged Kanturk Arts Festival Poetry Slam
and has had two poems commended in the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry
Competition. She has been the featured poet at an event for former Fulbright
Professor of Poetry, Bradley Strahan, and has read at Limerick's Hunt Museum,
and her poetry is published in several anthologies. As a playwright, Casey
co-wrote the commercially staged play Catching the Train, and most recently had
one of her plays longlisted in 2019 Wexford Literary Festival's Billy Roche
International Short Play Award. Her short stories have been published in The
Holly Bough, Ireland's Own and The Incubator Journal.
David
Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was
Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always
enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce
Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about
whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the Midlands
Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.
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