The Good Life

The brogues and the blarney are back in fine form, but this tale doesn't have nearly the restless energy of All Souls, the previous Inspector Matt Minogue mystery. Brady brings the contradictions of modern-day Dublin vividly to life. On the bank of the now badly polluted canal, upscale young men in flashy cars with mobile phones look for whores, and the short life of Mary Mullen, a working girl with a taste for the finer things, comes to an unpleasant end. A junkie named Leonardo, who survives on Coca-Cola, lager and fear, believes he's being sought in her death and wonders if he should give himself up. Mary was his friend, but his alibi isn't impressive: he was breaking into a parked Golf GTI. Matt, meanwhile, has a pregnant daughter, a flatulent slob of a superior and a hot-tempered subordinate with a criminal twin brother. The bad twin is a close crony of the pair of brothers who are Matt's prime suspects in Mary's murder. Leonardo's torment is tedious, and we learn next to nothing about Mary. The mood is as thick as Guinness, but the plot's as thin as weak tea. (July)