I've Heard the Banshee Sing: The Sixth Inspector Christy Kennedy Mystery (Inspector Christy Kennedy Mysteries)

A strong, well-done series."" - Library Journal. When the butchered and dismembered body of an elderly man is discovered in Camden Town's famous Black Cat Building, Christy Kennedy soon realizes that it was no ordinary murder. Initial investigation produces not a single clue but an article by Kennedy's some-time lover, ""ann rea,"" reveals a couple of potential leads in Kennedy's Northern Ireland birthplace. They head over to Portrush and assisted by Ulster Detective McCusker, Kennedy's investigation takes him through the Irish countryside and back in time to World War II.

British author Charles offers another smooth police procedural (the sixth in the series after 2002's The Hissing of the Silent Lonely Room), which begins with a grisly slaying in Greater London and ends dramatically in a remote corner of Det. Insp. Kennedy's native Ulster. In a scene not for the squeamish, WW II veteran Victor Dugsdale's butchered corpse is found hanging in an urban renewal project dubbed the Black Cat Building. With the help of series regulars Det. Sgt. James Irvine and Det. Constable Ann Coles, Kennedy's determined sleuthing soon leads him back to Northern Ireland, where the victim's long estranged daughter has recognized her father's picture in the press. Through well-coordinated, simultaneous investigations in London and Ireland, Kennedy and a journalist friend/lover establish links between Dugsdale's former army buddies and a suspicious local bridge club turned cult led by a fanatical clergyman. In pubs, farmhouses and police stations, the reader sees firsthand the isolation of Ireland's rugged north coast and the warmth and hospitality of its inhabitants keen to help solve the murder of their native son. A moving climactic scene takes us back to a bloody encounter 60 years earlier, when an act of cowardice in a local army unit led to tragedy in wartime France and set the stage for the banshee to sing for retribution.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This worthy entry in the Christy Kennedy series starts with the rather disgusting murder of an elderly man in Camden Town and takes its hero, Detective Inspector Kennedy, back to Northern Ireland, where he was born. As usual, Kennedy is surrounded by a bright cast of supporting players, including Detective Sergeant Irvine and Constable Coles, and is ably assisted by his ladylove, the journalist ann rea (whose lowercase name is beginning to seem like a needless affectation). Despite the Irish setting, which gives Charles the opportunity to provide some backstory on his hero's earlier life, the novel sticks to what has become a successful formula for this series. The Kennedy mysteries are intelligent, well crafted, and absorbing. As long as he can keep writing them like that, Charles doesn't need to worry about the series getting dull. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved