The Death of an Irish Sinner

Starred review from May 28, 2001
Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr of the Dublin Police has faced great dangers in 14 previous novels in this fine procedural series (The Death of an Irish Lover, etc.), but never has the danger come from so many directions and embraced so many of those closest to him. The murder of author Mary-Jo Stanton, one of Catholic organization Opus Dei's most important supporters and at the same time a great threat to its secrets, drops McGarr and associates into a nest of vipers. As depicted here, Opus Dei is powerful, secretive and ruthlessly determined to protect its interests. Among its members are highly placed clergy, wealthy and powerful politicians, and trained killers. Its enemies, which include crusading journalist Dery Parmalee, are equally determined to expose its secrets. A phone call from Father Fred Duggan rousts McGarr from his in-laws' home and brings him to Barbastro, the mansion/fortress home of Mary-Jo, where she was killed. Attempts are made to co-opt McGarr and failing that to misdirect him, even by threatening the lives and livelihoods of his family and colleagues. As the doughty Irish policeman explores the tangled lives of the inhabitants of Barbastro, the action turns deadly, driving McGarr to the point where revenge may overrule professionalism. Written with the depth of characterization and subtlety of plot that readers have come to expect from Gill, this is a not-to-be-missed addition to a not-to-be-missed series. (June 1)Forecast:Portraying the real Catholic organization Opus Dei in a sinister light is a bold and controversial move on Gill's part, but one that could result in higher than usual sales.

July 1, 2001
Dublin's Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr struggles to solve the murder of a famous biographer. His investigation uncovers a powerful secret Catholic organization and subsequent personal threats. Another well-written police procedural from the author of The Death of an Irish Tinker.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 24, 2002
Inspired by Charles Kuralt's "On the Road" reports for CBS News 20 years ago, Idaho journalist Johnson pitched an idea to his editor at the Lewiston Morning Tribune: a column based on the idea that a reporter "could go to the phone book, pick a number randomly, and do a story on whoever answers." More than 800 columns later, Johnson's brand of "everybody has a story" journalism has achieved a certain national notoriety, having been parodied by comic luminaries like David Letterman and Jon Stewart. In this, his first book, however, Johnson's stories fall flat. Instead of fascinating in-depth profiles, Johnson uses only brief summaries of his subjects' lives to relentlessly explain the ups and downs of his own life (his first jobs, his first divorce, his love of nature, his love of women, etc.) Unfortunately, Johnson doesn't offer the same perspective on his own story as he does, say, on Florie, a ZZ Top–loving twice-divorced mother of five. His personal insights are facile ("I love to hear about the old days and look at historical pictures"), and his reporting lacks depth ("Here was a man who, with a cultivator and other gardening implements, had made the world more beautiful"). A collection of his best columns would have been a much better way for Johnson to show how he learned that "the most important lessons are found not at the pinnacle of what we consider news, but amid the routine ups and downs experienced by everyday people."