Hidden River

Rating:
Summary: Seductive, Tough, Risque and Revealing
Review: Adrian McKinty comes from a small town near Belfast and was brought up during what the Irish call "The Troubles". He has written a novel that sings of the Irish tradition, the Irish Culture and the Irish addiction. How he has come to know all of this is a little bit of a mystery, and in the telling of this story we gain a little bit of knowledge of what is in his head.

Alex, Alexander Lawson, is a junkie, a heroin addict and an ex-detective for the Northern Ireland police force. At a young age he joined the force and was promoted rapidly in to the detective division, until he was asked to resign for stealing the junk he was hired to protect. What is behind this"? Why would such an intelligent young man allow this to happen? Slowly, ever so slowly we come to learn a few of the reasons. Alex is wanted by the MI5- something is fishy in the drug world of Belfast, and the MI5 wants to know more and Alex is their boy. The MI5 frightens Alex; he can't be imprisoned and he needs to flee. Alex finds a ticket to the US in the guise of discovering just how his first girlfriend, Victoria Patawasti was murdered. The murder took place in Denver, Colorado and Alex and his friend, John are off to solve this murder.

One thing after another happens, and Alex becomes involved in an environmental group that Victoria had worked for. There are several interesting people in this group and among them is Amber, the beautiful, blonde wife of one of the owners. But, also, something isn't right in this group, and Alex finds out exactly what the problem is. Within this mess he leaves several dead bodies behind, but makes a friend of Pat, an ex-firefighter who has HIV. Quite a collection of friends has this Alex- some kind, but most of them are dark and well, murderous. Alex is led throughout Colorado and starts to gather evidence that will convict one of the owners of the murder of his friend Victoria. But then something interesting happens, and the killer turns into someone we would never expect. Except we knew this was too black and white- we suspected something was not ok. The drug mess he left in Ireland is explained in several flashbacks and that is how we come to understand. And, yes, well, never mind, read this fast paced, brilliant book for yourself.

Adrian McKinty has found a fan. He writes an intelligent mystery full of little bits of this and that, brilliantly executed and then just when you have it all figured out, BAM- you are wrong. Recommended for everyone who loves a mystery, who loves a sexy, violent novel. Enter at your own risk. prisrob




Rating:
Summary: McKinty's Second Novel Even Better Than His First!
Review: Adrian McKinty's second novel, HIDDEN RIVER, is a book with heart, soul, and a bite that would make a great white shark turn, well, green with envy. No kidding! If you thought his maiden effort, DEAD I WELL MAY BE, was good; wait `till you get a load of this one. Combining a lyricism that rivals Chandler, dialogue that sizzles like a rasher of bacon on a hot griddle and a plot that is so hardboiled it's close to petrified, what you get is a novel for the ages. This is one that will be read and talked about in the genre, and beyond, for years to come.

HIDDEN RIVER features a cast of compelling and sympathetic characters, including a femme fatale cut from the classic mold: " ... she thanks me with a beautiful smile. Something about that smile, though. Beautiful like a sun-drenched corn-field above a missile silo." What's more, the book also demonstrates the absolutely masterful use of dramatic irony. From the very first chapter, the reader knows who the perpetrator is. Alex, the story's main character, doesn't and it's literally excruciating to watch him make mistake after mistake, miscalculation after miscalculation. Time and again you will want to holler, "stop, don't be such a bloody eejit." But holler all you want, Alex can't hear you. Like all great tragic heroes he's deaf and dumb to your pleas, the inevitable victim and prisoner of his own needs, desires and almost Promethean hubris. Only in the novel's shattering conclusion are Alex's ears and eyes opened and his chains unloosed. But, of course, by then it's way, way too late. "Only the continuity of violence remains ... No one should be surprised ... In the end, all of history's songs will be lost in the depths of time. And the great streams of memory will be as hidden as the rivers of forgetting."

From the pelting rain of Northern Ireland, the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains and, yes, even to the teeming streets of New Delhi and the squalid shores of the Ganges River, Adrian McKinty tells a story that is so good it hurts. (Even the doses of Hindu mysticism with which the novel opens and closes - and from whence its title originates - work surprisingly well in his hands!). If you read it, you know that this author's first book was remarkable. His second is close to being a masterpiece.

Read the full text of this review first published in MYSTERY NEWS (Deecember/January 2005)