The Death of an Irish Sinner : A Peter McGarr Mystery (Peter McGarr Mysteries (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: the best so far
Review: As an avid fan of Bartholomew Gill, I eagerly awaited the new Peter McGarr novel. I was not disappointed; this is Gill's best work. As a librarian, I read extensively--this is one of the top novels I have read this year. Not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: SPOILER IN "3-D OVERLOAD; DEATH, DESPAIR & DESOLATION"
Review: Father Fred Duggan informs Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr of the Dublin police that his benefactor Mary-Jo Stanton died under suspicious circumstances. Peter visits the Catholic compound owned by the deceased, who, on first observation, seems to have peacefully died while tending her garden. However, around the victim's neck is a cilicio, a medieval device that as it is tightens chokes a person.

Peter immediately suspects Fred. However, he reconsiders his first opinion when local newspaper publisher Dery Parmalee claims that Mary-Jo was about to reveal a scandalous secret that would have destroyed the order. Dery does not seem sincere and hides something involving the case. Peter and his staff dig deeper into the life and death of Mary-Jo. They find powerful obstacles with even more powerful connections trying to end their inquiries because a conspiracy stretching back a decade to behind the Iron Curtain must never be revealed.

Peter McGarr seems to have been around forever, but in his fifteenth appearance, the Dublin law enforcement official remains as fresh as he was over two decades ago. THE DEATH OF AN IRISH SINNER is an entertaining police procedural starring a fabulous lead character, an intriguing victim, and several viable suspects. As usual Bartholomew Gill provides readers with a wonderful Irish police procedural that will entice newcomers to search for McGarr's previous novels.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: You won't be able to put it down!
Review: I was almost late leaving for work, because I just couldn't put the book down. I had a little time left before I had to leave my house, and thought I'd read a few pages more -- I was half-way through the book -- well, a few pages more turned into many chapters more, and I had to scramble.

I've read all the McGarr books, and loved them all, but this one was by far the best. The only slightly annoying thing in this outstanding mystery series, is that the characterizations change very abruptly. Bresnahan started out as cow-like, and now is a sex goddess. Hughie shouldn't be in his early forties. After all his eldest son is about 14 and he was conceived when Hughie was a college student. And wasn't Sinclair an important member of the squad? He now seems like a bit player.

Anyway, that's minor stuff. The book is a terrific, fast-paced, exciting read. Go for it.

Rating:
Summary: Anti-Catholic Bigotry
Review: I was blindsided by this latest McGarr mystery (I`ve read all the others). I`m not sure why Gill decided to smear the Roman Catholic Faith along with the soon to be Saint Escrivo!! He must not believe he will be judged someday. He makes the Opus Dei ,its founder and,by inference the Pope (see Frontispiece) appear to be the Mafioso arm of the Catholic faith.He even took a swipe at Pope Pius XII with the false accusations concerning the Holocaust (I guess the estimate by Jewish scholars the he saved over 800,000 Jews during the Second World War doesn`t impress Gill). I recommend the book to Catholic-bashing bigots. He`s lost me as a fan and reader.

Rating:
Summary: Diverse story
Review: Meet Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr for the first or the fifteenth time. Bartholomew Gill is the author of fifteen Peter McGarr mysteries. But "Death of an Ardent Bibliophile" is my favorite. All of Gill's stories have increase my awareness of things Irish, the landscape, the authors, the idiomatic language among other bits and pieces.
This story is high on my list of favorites. The returning characters McGarr's staff and family are in full form. Gill continues to develop the personality of each character, so we feel like we would know them if we were to meet.
The plot involves the death of Mary-Jo Stanton supposedly the natural daughter of a priest. A poor Spanish priest who founded Opus Dei, Jose Maria Escriva. Opus Dei is an organization of ultra conservative Catholics.
Mary-Jo's death is only the first in a number of murders that McGarr and his team investigate. Powerful people continue to thwart the investigation in order to protect secrets. This is nothing new to McGarr who deals effectively with the bureaucrats in most stories, sometimes keeping his own secrets.
I wonder if the typical Irish cop drinks on the job and displays brutality such as McGarr portrays.

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Summary: Opus Dei, ad gloriam dei
Review: The author hits on Opus Dei. He hits so hard that one might think that he wants to settle a score. After all, Opus Dei is the major order in today's Roman Catholic church, having supplanted the Jesuits. And its founder, Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, will be pronounced to be a saint of the church any day now. While I am familiar with some of the tenets Mr. Gill mentions, others have to be taken on faith or as exaggerations.

The book, as a mystery, has a tendency to move slowly and in convoluted ways. Every one of the main characters could be the culprit, and the process of elimination is none too swift. But, if you are interested in learning about Opus Dei, then this book is an easy to read introduction.

Rating:
Summary: 3-D OVERLOAD; DEATH, DESPAIR & DESOLATION
Review: The Death of an Irish Sinner is a tense, draining and ultimately tragic 'read' for the Peter McGarr & Company enthusiast. As with all of Bartholomew Gill's McGarr mysteries, this one is also peopled with fascinating Irish characters and places. The dialogue is that terse, smart Irish give and take that he seems to write so effortlessly. Gill also has so pronounced an ability to create moods and settings so intensely real as to keep the reader on edge. Gill's omnipresent presentment of evil and impending doom manifests itself in the very first chapters. The tragic impact of the police investigation of the death of a member of the fanatical religious sect OPUS DEI results in the death of McGarr's beloved wife and father-in-law. The death of Noreen, frankly, greatly unnerved me. I have always impatiently awaited the arrival of a new McGarr mystery, but I wonder if the death of Noreen and the unsatisfactory personal relationship of Ward and Bresnehan have lessened my interest in this series. Barthlomew Gill writes mesmerizing Irish police procedurals highlighting the unflinching brutality and amorality of both sides of the law. Although Gill so sublimely prepared his readers for the inevitable ebb and flow of the careers and lives of his major characters (McGarr, Ward, Bresnahan & others) in preceeding McGarr mysteries, the emerging change of 'guard' from McGarr's implicitly commanding top dog position to the emerging dominance of his chief protege Ward is profoundly and agonizingly painful - for this reader. That McGarr would, in the natural course of events, suffer physical, psychological and intellectuall decline or die at the height of his abilities was, I suppose, inevitable. However, that barely perceptible diminishment of spirit as well as the encroachment of age will probably ultimately prove less devastating than the death of his beloved wife. Also significant in terms of character development is the'alternative' lifestyle (a polite euphamism for Ward's polygamous nature) of McGarr's chief subordinates. The polygamous arrangement is as disturbing and maddenning as it is untenable for all three(Hugh, Ruth & Leah) concerned( And it pissed me off as well). Although Gill spins fascinating and suspenseful plots of morally repugnant people and their criminal actions with incomparable style and deserves the highest accolades for those very acheivements, I cannot but grieve for the death of Noreen and its impact on future McGarr mysteries.

In summation: riveting, unsettling, (unnecessarily?)tragic.

Rating:
Summary: No Miranda warnings necessary for this police force.
Review: This no-holds-barred police procedural features unusually well-developed characters, so firmly rooted in their Irish heritage that this exciting mystery also provides insights into modern Ireland and the forces which shape it. Peter McGarr, the police superintendent, is a good man who has rejected the traditional church in favor of enforcing justice on earth; his wife Noreen, though not devout, is a true believer in the church. Peter is investigating the murder of Mary-Jo Stanton, an extremely religious writer who has intended to leave her estate to Opus Dei, a zealous order of ultra-conservative Catholics who believe it is their mission to do anything necessary, including murder, to protect the "true" Church. Peter's close investigation of Opus Dei brings him into contact with manipulative priests, and with their various contacts in the outside world, including an extremely successful, muckraking journalist, who panders to the public's love of good gossip, an influence-peddling politician said to "control the country through his contacts with the movers and shakers in commerce and industry," a host of pub patrons, and a gardener on the lam after ratting out his co-conspirators in crime in exchange for lesser jail time.

As the investigation widens, the reader sees that although many in the church live completely in a world of their own, so, too, do many on the police force, a group of fiercely independent and passionate people. "Procedure" is, at times, a very flexible concept--whatever works, as long as you don't get caught, seems to be the motto. Planting evidence, beating up suspects, closing one's eyes to one crime if the suspect can be "turned" to help solve another crime, and shooting to kill and asking questions later are all methods employed here to solve Mary-Jo's murder.

With dialogue that perfectly captures both the lilt and the gruffness of the dialect, a setting which is totally integrated into the action (no long, lyrical descriptions here), believable characters, an exciting and intricate plot, insights into social psychology, and scenes of touching sentiment and pathos, this is a mystery which has everything!

Rating:
Summary: Another engrossing mystery featuring Dublin's Insp. McGarr
Review: Those readers who have followed Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr Of the Dublin police and his fascinating wife Noreen will find this book to be another good read - lovely Irish settings, familiar characters from the police force and incredibly evil killers, determined to keep their secrets at all costs. The ending of this book is a real shocker! This series is just wonderful, you can't stop until you have read them all.

Rating:
Summary: The Last McGarr
Review: With the untimely death of Mark McGarrity (pen name, Bartholomew Gill) this is, unfortunately, the last McGarr.

Fortunately, it was one of his best.

This is certainly the darkest of the McGarr series. The characters are ageing, and all not gracefully; their foibles and weaknesses laid bare in sharp focus. McGarr wonders if he has held on too long, if the price he has paid now too dear.

The murder of a wealthy religious biographer, and member of the Catholic secret society Opus Dei, begins a whirlwind plot that embroils all of the characters. Not much of a "who-dun-it", why and how the more fascinating questions.

The end of the book is a shock for all long-time followers of the head of Dublin's "Murder Squad."

The book has a nearly palpable sense of mortality that resonates even more given McGarrity/Gill's accidental death...

Ah, lad, we'll miss ya!