A Kind of Homecoming

A double murder on a country road near Glencraigie kicks off this uneven debut by an Irish newspaper editor that features hard-drinking, hard-working Superintendent Cecil Megarry. The victims, a Protestant from West Belfast who'd once been a key informer for Megarry, and a Catholic once charged with child molesting, were murdered hours apart and with different weapons. Megarry feels vaguely responsible for the informer, whose execution-style death suggests IRA involvement, and doggedly pursues clues even though he's urged to wrap up the case quickly. Suspecting neither murder is a terrorist act, he links one of them to another unsolved killing he investigated a year earlier. Proceeding through an abruptly shifting plot whose elements often seem disjointed, McEldowney's dour hero, estranged from his family and driven by personal demons, seems a somewhat derivative figure, but may well improve on second acquaintance. (Aug.)