The novel was well written and had an intriguing plot. I did find it slow to get through in parts, for some reason.

I try to read mystery and police novels once in a while, even though it's not my main genre. I often find the characters too numerous and confusing. This book had some of that, but overall was well written.

I'd recommend it to friends and may pick up another in the series. ( )

Inspector Benedict Devlin heads up the investigation of series of murders that begin with the death of a 16 year-old girl.
The book has a good developing plot but too many characters. It was hard to keep up with who was who. The ending wrapped up in a nice dialogue on 1-2 pages as it was too complex to play out, I guess? ( )

A well written police procedural is one of the reasons I'm so addicted to crime fiction. A good police procedural will introduce you to the police,take you by the land and lead you through their investigation as they unearth clues by interviewing people, sifting the evidence and following leads. There will be a careful balance of detecting and learning about the lives of the detectives. If the author has done the job properly s/he doesn't deliberately hold back clues or have the the detectives catch the culprit in the act, just two pages before the end.

In his first novel, BORDERLANDS, Brian McGilloway has succeeded in all of the above. He has also avoided producing a door stop of a book. At just 227 pages, BORDERLAND doesn't muck about. You're straight into the story with no unnecessary padding. It's something I wish more authors would try to achieve.

If, like me, you enjoy police procedurals, you can't go wrong with BORDERLANDS. I look forward to reading more of McGilloway's writing. ( )

Opening Sentence: '...It was not beyond reason that Angela Cashell's final resting place should straddle the border ...'

I really struggled to read this book. The only reason I finished was because it was for a group discussion. BUT - I don't understand why I had such a problem - as it wasn't a bad story. Inspector Benedict Devlin is placed in charge of investigating the murder of Angela Cashell, who's been murdered and dumped in a field in the borderlands of Ireland just before Christmas. The investigation begins and things become further complicated when Devlin unearths a link between the murder of Angela and the disappearance of a prostitute twenty-five years earlier - a case in which one of his own colleagues is implicated.

Devlin finds the distinction between right and wrong, vengeance and justice, and even police-officer and criminal becoming equally unclear. As he frantically attempts to solve the case.

I like the fact that Devlin is not an alcoholic divorcee. In fact, refreshingly, he is a happily married man, with a family, and able to resist temptation. So many fictional police and PIs seem to me angst ridden nowadays - it is lovely to have one who is not.

However the story moved very slowly for most of the book, only to be contrasted with some amazing twists and turns at the very end - where revelations and solutions are all heaped one after the other in a cresendo of information in the last few chapters. There is a complex array of characters, each with motives. This array became very confusing as I tried to keep track of who was who, and how they fitted into the mosaic.

The book was not balanced enough for me, and some of the resolutions were not set up well enough for me - but it is his first novel and has been nominated for some awards so there must be some talent that I can't see. ( )