#BookReview ‘Killing In Your Name’ by Gary Donelly

About the book…

‘Killing In Your Name’is the second in the Owen Sheen series, set in Belfast by writer Gary Donelly and is out now from Allison & Busby.

A boy’s body is found in bogland along the Irish border: a case as cold as the earth that has hidden it for so long. DI Owen Sheen has sworn to get justice for the unnamed boy and digs up links to a covert British Army unit that was tasked with creating Satanic panic in the 1970s.

But when a vicious murderer begins to stalk Belfast’s streets, it’s clear that someone refuses to let the past remain buried. Alongside DC Aoife McCusker, who must fight to restore her professional reputation, Sheen is racing to make the connections and stop a killer against the backdrop of Northern Ireland’s darkest history and uncertain future

With a plot as dark and almost as opaque as the bog from which the young boy’s mutilated body has been found in, ‘Killing In Your Name’ hits the ground running and never lets up.

Following on from series opener,’Blood Will Be Born’, Sheen is temporarily suspended and Aoife has lost her daughter whilst her actions undergo investigation. Looking into the case of a boy found when trying to solve his brother’s murder would seem like a good distraction in the run up to Christmas, however, this takes unexpected twists and turns as, reflected in the history of Belfast, the dead and the sins of the past never stay quiet for long…

Marks on the body resemble the ‘Satanic Panic‘ tactics of British soldiers, employed on the borders to discourage action from illegal army groups, using religion as a precarious touchstone , however, this was also used as a cover for illegal activities that are rearing their heads in the here and now-when a body appears with similar marks that were on the ‘bog boy’, past and present are inextricably linked. As Sheen and Aoife race against time to tackle a murderer who seems to be almost supernatural in nature, and ravenous for the taste of blood, another comes out of the woodwork, close on their tails.

Sheen is a great creation, haunted by demons of his past, letting nothing stop him when he gets the bit between his teeth, and prepared to be circumspect with the rule of the law to get his own way. His time in England lends him a dissociation and distance from the rest of his historical crime team, this time expanded to include intuitive, Hayley, and policeman Geordie, who slot in like they have always been there.

The background to the Troubles in Ireland and which side was which, is still hard for this reader to get her head around, what is crystal clear from Gary’s writing is that whilst the physical barriers, and presence of army and police might no longer be as intrusive as they once were, the ghosts of the past and harm caused are solidly represented to this day.

They are symbolically represented in the character of Sheen who is neatly balanced by Aoife, the pair of them under the leadeship of Paddy Laverty who as their boss, faces the uneviable task of keeping them in line. The team’s dogged determination to bring a resolution to this child, abandoned for 40 years in a bog, is just wonderful, as the tautly woven plot unfolds you find yourself willing them all on.

Giving this child a name, and an identity becomes paramount,and the slaying of demons doesn;t just keep the boogeyman fromt he door, it is a step on the way to clearing the future.

Unrelentingly noir, this needs strong characters to underpin the plot, and this is exactly what Gary has done. The plot is satisfyingly difficult to untangle, the people relatable and setting vividly realised. I can thoroughly recommend Gary Donnelly’s work to those whose tastes run to the darker side, and who enjoy John Connolly’s Charlie Parker novels or, Dennis Lehane’s Kenzie and Gennaro books.

Huge thanks to Lesley Crooks at Allison & Busby for my gifted review copy and if Gary, you are reading this, no pressure, but more from Sheen and McClusker would be fantastic please!

About the author…

Gary Donnelly is a crime and thriller writer from Belfast who lives and works in London. ‘Blood Will Be Born’ is the first in the DI Owen Sheen Belfast thriller series, published by Allison and Busby in February 2020 with the sequel, ‘Killing In Your Name‘, to follow in September 2020. The audiobook, published by Isis Publishing Ltd, is spoken by Irish actor Stephen Armstrong. Adrian McKinty, the award-winning author of ‘The Chain’, had this to say about the book: “A twisty, violent, cop thriller set in post-conflict Belfast… Brilliant. Gary Donnelly is an exciting new voice in Northern Irish noir.”
Gary attended a state comprehensive school in west Belfast, read History at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and has lived and worked in London since the late 1990s. In his time he has been a Belfast cemetery manager, a business conference organiser in the City, a council gardener in Neasdon, and gained a further degree in Psychology, which he teaches in north London. Gary is married to the lovely Sacha and has two non-returnable children. He can cook up a storm and play a mean guitar (after a few drinks).
Gary has this to say about his writing: “I always wanted to write a novel and after I enrolled on a course at the City Lit two years ago, the initial outline of ‘BLOOD WILL BE BORN’ emerged from one of the homework exercises. But the story has been incubating for much longer. I left Belfast 20 years ago but you see it never really left me. The course finished, and I kept writing; on my day off, weekends and while travelling into work. I took the first 3000 words to Crimefest 2016’s Pitch an Agent slot and some top-flight agents gave the sample and the synopsis and big thumbs up, which was very encouraging. Enough, in fact, to get up at 5am to write before work, and finish the first draft.”