Dublin double murder mystery

CRIME Now That You’ve Gone

Fiona Gartland Poolbeg

€9.99

FOLLOWING her bestselling debut novel in late 2018, Fiona Gartland is back with another Dublin-based crime fest featuring sleuth and sidekick duo Beatrice Barrington and Gabriel Ingram.

As a stenographer in the Dublin Circuit Family Court, Beatrice is recording the minutiae of a particularly nasty marriage break-up when her friend Georgina seeks her help.

Three months previously,

Georgina’s husband Andrew had met with a nasty end, and his grieving widow reckons the investigating team are either dragging their heels or keeping her in the dark. Either way, Georgina wants answers, and through her friend’s connections she is hoping to get them.

Beatrice duly contacts retired detective Gabriel, who makes enquiries further up the line, only to be told in no uncertain terms to back off. Then a stranger turns up on Georgina’s doorstep claiming to be a friend of her husband and insisting that the dead man owed him money.

As events unfold to reveal her late husband’s secret past, a distraught Georgina hits the bottle, leaving Beatrice increasingly concerned for her welfare and that of her children.

Meanwhile, a young woman who was lodging with Gabriel is clubbed to death in a seemingly random attack — until it emerges that the murder weapon was identical to that used to kill Andrew. And Gabriel discovers that his garda-issue truncheon is missing.

Between dark deeds and the daily doings of life in the Dublin Circuit Family Court, there’s a lot going on in Gartland’s latest tome. But despite a sometimes tenuous and convoluted plotline, she gamely pulls it all together like the seasoned reporter she is.