In the Morning I'll Be Gone
Adrian McKinty
Sean Duffy's got nothing. And when you've got nothing to lose, you have everything to gain. So when MI5 come knocking, Sean knows exactly what they want, and what he'll want in return, but he hasn't got the first idea how to get it.
Of course he's heard about the spectacular escape of IRA man Dermot McCann from Her Majesty's Maze prison. And he knew, with chilly certainty, that their paths would cross. But finding Dermot leads Sean to an old locked room mystery, and into the kind of danger where you can lose as easily as winning.
From old betrayals and ancient history to 1984's most infamous crime, Sean tries not to fall behind in the race to annihilation. Can he outrun the most skilled terrorist the IRA ever created? And will the past catch him first?
Belfast 1983 and there’s been a class 1 emergency, a mass break-out of IRA prisoners from the ‘escape-proof’ Maze prison, including several bomb-makers. It’s enough to get the recently demoted Sean Duffy away from his computer game.
An old mate of his, Dermot McCann, who we met in a previous book, is one of the escapees and now a major threat. Duffy is reinstated in order to help find McCann.
This terrorist action-thriller incorporates a wonderful locked-room mystery that has nice references to classic locked-room mysteries of old. This comes about after the missing McCann’s mother-in-law offers to reveal his location if Duffy helps with her own four-year-old case in which her daughter Lizzie died.
Unusual for a man working in the Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, Duffy is Catholic. He also carries many of the self-destructive vices of his contemporaries, the heavy drinking and smoking (not just cigs).
Like the earlier two Duffy novels, Northern Ireland’s Troubles are front of house, with bombs going off. Duffy must crack on to prevent McCann causing further carnage. It’s gripping, edge of the seat stuff, but there’s time for humour. The first person narration allows for the wit to shine. The references to 80’s music and TV amuse and the banter between Duffy and his colleagues is fun.
A thrilling read with an exciting conclusion.
About Adrian McKinty:
Adrian McKinty was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1968. He grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim, and went on to read law at the University of Warwick and politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York and from 2001 onwards Denver, Colorado where he taught high school English and began writing fiction. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children.