cover image The Death of Love: A Peter McGarr Mystery

The Death of Love: A Peter McGarr Mystery

Bartholomew Gill. William Morrow & Company, $20 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-688-08715-9

The ninth Peter McGarr mystery ( The Death of a Joyce Scholar ) offers a stylish, literate look at Ireland today. When banking tycoon/philanthropist/political aspirant Paddy Power dies on the eve of an economic conference he's called in Kerry, his doctor cries murder, and head of the Irish homicide squad middle-aged, first-time father McGarr is put in charge. Rumors of scandal are whipped up with the appearance of portions of Power's diary. A wealth of suspects includes Power's ex-partner at Eire Bank; his perfectionist assistant/ex-lover; his coarse, melodramatic physician; and his ex-wife, an Eire Bank shareholder. Plot twists abound--one turns on a mass political assassination. But the main joy is Gill's distinctive voice and viewpoints: ``What good is it being Irish . . . if you can't make fun of the little you allow yourself to know of the rest of the world.'' With some lovely set pieces--a rural funeral feast, for one--Gill gives us a sympathetic, warts-and-all glimpse of Ireland and lifts his latest above more commonplace novels in the genre. (Mar.)