Undertow

I would like to thank Netgalley and Heads of Zeus for an advance copy of Undertow, the fourth novel to feature DI Celsius Daly of Armagh, PSNI.

Daly is called out to a body found drowned in Lough Neagh. Nobody, including the pathologist, is quite sure if it is suicide, murder or an accident but when it is identified as Detective Brian Carey of An Garda Síochána Daly's suspicions are aroused. He quickly discovers that Carey was investigating Tom Morgan, ex IRA enforcer turned smuggler, but then his investigation leads him into the murky depths of border policing and intelligence gathering.

Undertow is the first novel in the series that I have read and I think I would have benefited from reading the prior novels to get the references to past cases but apart from that it works well as a standalone. It is a fairly bleak novel, some of that is due to Daly's personality and the rest to the picture it paints of cross border cooperation or rather the lack of cooperation. Add in Special Branch secrecy and you get a dismal picture if it is anywhere near to reality.

I like the plot which is engrossing, convoluted and has some excellent twists. It seems realistic but I have no way of knowing. I did, however, get lost in some of the finer detail of motivation but as greed and corruption are the overarching motivations it didn't really matter.

Celsius Daly is a really dreary protagonist. In his mid forties and divorced he lives alone and is completely antisocial, even doing his best to alienate those who want to help him. He is a smart and tenacious detective but his actions and methods don't meet with universal approval so he is an unpopular officer. Is he paranoid or are they out to get him? One novel doesn't answer that question. I didn't like the way he has let his family past in The Troubles engulf his way of life - he needs a good shake.

Despite this Undertow is an engrossing read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

I have been a huge fan of Anthony J. Quinn’s ever since I read his first book ‘Disappeared’ which seems like many moons ago.  So imagine my excitement when I was asked if I would like to take part in the blog tour for ‘Undertow’?  I absolutely loved the book but more about that in a bit.

I must admit that it took a little while to warm to Inspector Celsius Daly but that was only until I had sussed him out so to speak.  He strikes me as a bit of a loner, who has certain behavioural quirks.  It’s obvious that Daly has been scarred by his past experiences, both professionally and personally, which is hardly surprising given he lived through ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, so he truly has seen the worst that Northern Ireland has to offer.  Daly almost seems to want to be anonymous, which is impossible professionally.  Daly is a bit like a dog with a bone and if something doesn’t sit right with him, he doesn’t let the matter drop until he has fully investigated it.  Nine times out of ten Daly’s gut instinct is correct or very near to the truth.  Daly does what he can to seek answers for the victims and their families.  I get the impression that Daly is not easily intimidated, which takes a lot of courage and nerve.

”Undertow’ and indeed all of Anthony’s Daly books appeal to me in several different ways.  I absolutely love Irish (both Northern & Southern) history so to read a book such as ‘Undertow’ is fascinating to a history nerd like myself.  I basically love all things Irish.  I haven’t been over to either Northern or Southern Ireland yet but this book provides a snapshot of how experiences of the past have shaped the attitudes of today.  Reading ‘Undertow’ brought back certain memories for me too.  I can remember certain terrorist atrocities happening even though I wasn’t that old when they happened.  I can also remember when I was at school and a military band came to play for us.  We couldn’t be given any warning that it was happening just in case the IRA were to decide to take out the military band and blow our school up.  I can even remember when certain Republican Irish politicians’ voices had to be dubbed because their real voices were banned from being broadcast.  I can’t even begin to imagine how it felt to live in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and the climate of fear that existed at that time.

I absolutely loved reading ‘Undertow’.  I would say that it is more of a slow burn type of book, which isn’t such a bad thing when you are dealing with such sensitive issues as Northern & Southern Ireland.  I was hooked immediately from the very first word of the prologue and I just knew that I was going to become addicted to reading it.  I was so correct as I found that I couldn’t put the book down because I just had to read on to see if Daly solved the case and to see how many people he upset along the way.  I was so into the story that I didn’t notice how quickly the pages were turning and before I knew it I had finished the book, which I was pleased about because at least I knew how this chapter in Daly’s life ended.  On more than one occasion I thought that I had figured out how the book was going to pan out but on each occasion, I was thrown a curveball and sent down another path entirely.  There were also the odd times when I almost had to read through my fingers because I genuinely feared what Daly was going to uncover next.

In short, I loved reading ‘Undertow’ and I would recommend the Daly series to anybody, but particularly to those people who are interested in how ‘The Troubles’ still affect Ireland (Northern & Southern) to this day.  I can’t wait to see what else Anthony J. Quinn has in store for Inspector Celsius Daly.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek scoreboard for ‘Undertow’ is a whopping and well deserved 5* out of 5*.