Borderlands: An Inspector Devlin Mystery

When the body of 15-year-old Angela Cashell is found straddling the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in McGilloway's assured debut, Garda inspector Benedict Devlin takes charge of the case because he recognizes the victim as a resident of his part of Ireland. The only clues are a gold ring Angela was wearing but no one in her family can identify and an old photograph Devlin discovers amid the flowers left by mourners. Though Devlin and his team first suspect teenage Whitey McKelvey, a member of an itinerant group known as “travellers,” another body soon turns up along with the same photograph, and Devlin realizes that the case runs much deeper. McGilloway skillfully weaves Irish politics—from the shadow of the IRA in the North to the tensions between the travellers and locals in the South—into his multilayered story. A keen observer, Devlin has just enough flaws to make him an empathetic hero. (Sept.)