Trespass

Set largely in the border country between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Quinn’s uneven fourth mystery featuring Insp. Celcius Daly (after 2015’s Silence) chronicles the embattled Belfast police detective’s struggle to find a missing 10-year-old boy, who has allegedly been abducted by Travellers. Daly quickly finds himself in a politically precarious investigation after he unearths connections between the boy’s disappearance and an decades-old unsolved mystery concerning a missing Traveller woman who was suspected of being an IRA informer during the Troubles. Powered by relentlessly bleak atmospherics and symbolism, this story is darkly immersive on many levels. Quinn’s exploration of the hidden war being waged over the purchase of property on the border is intriguing, as is the secretive culture of the Travellers, a nomadic group who survive by navigating ancient routes through the wilderness. But there’s an emotional numbness to the narrative—particularly in Daly’s characterization—that gives the book a detached and almost indifferent feel that dulls the story’s impact. [em](Nov.) [/em]