Adrian McKinty
Author of The Chain
About the Author
Adrian McKinty was born in Northern Ireland. He read politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He is a crime fiction novelist, blogger and book reviewer. His novels include the Sean Duffy series and the Lighthouse Trilogy. He made the Ned Kelly 2015 shortlists in the category of Best show more Novel with his title Gun Street Girl. He won the 2017 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best paperback original with his novel, Rain Dogs. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Courtesy of Serpent's Tail Press
Series
Works by Adrian McKinty
No title 1 copy
Associated Works
Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century (2011) — Contributor — 25 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1968-06-08
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of Warwick
University of Oxford - Occupations
- novelist
- Short biography
- Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He studied politics and philosophy at Oxford University before moving to New York in the mid 1990s His first novel Dead I Well May Be (loosely based on his experiences as an illegal immigrant in the US) was published in 2003. In 2012 after moving to Australia with his wife and children he began publication of the critically acclaimed Sean Duffy series. In 2019 after giving up writing Adrian had a global hit with his standalone novel The Chain. Adrian's books have won the Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly Award (3 times), The Anthony Award, Barry Award, Macavity Award and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. His books have been translated into over 40 languages.
- Nationality
- Northern Ireland
- Birthplace
- Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
- Places of residence
- St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Denver, Colorado, USA
Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK
Harlem, New York, USA - Map Location
- UK
Members
Reviews
This is one that will keep you up to the early hours of the morning because it become imperative that you find out what happens next. What a fiendishly clever and original idea Adrian McKinty has devised. I don't believe I have ever read a novel anything like it. The main character, Rachel will grab your heart immediately. She is without a doubt the last person that anyone should expect to be able to meet what the person behind this bizarre scheme demands. She's divorced, a cancer survivor, show more a working mother and struggling from payday to payday. You feel for her impossible dilemma. Empathy for a fellow human being is one of the ingredients that makes this thriller so extremely intriguing. show less
Another book, another convoluted crime to be solved by DI Sean Duffy (this time a heroin dealer killed with, of all things, a crossbow). In some ways I can't say anything about this book I haven't said about all the others. Summary? I love this author. And this series. And Sean.
Oh, how I love Sean. Not because he's a smart, honorable, determined cop--well, not only for that. I also love him because he's witty, sardonic, self-deprecating, a recovering addict, a music snob (in the best way). show more A quoter of poetry even when he knows the other person won't get the reference. A Catholic who questions God's existence. A steadfast friend. A new dad who isn't sure he knows what he's doing but is very sure he'd die or kill for his little girl. A guy who has seen so much evil, he's been feeling worn out for several books now, yet he's still working toward justice even when he's on his own in that goal.
Other reviewers have praised at length the standout writing of this series--dialogue, setting (1980s Northern Ireland), plot, narrative voice--and I too applaud all these elements. But I fell in love with this series because of who Sean is, and my love has grown as McKinty has molded him with careful evolution over the years. This book seems to be the end. Saying good-bye to a character I love so much is always a melancholy thing, but Sean has earned this ending, and I am content. show less
Oh, how I love Sean. Not because he's a smart, honorable, determined cop--well, not only for that. I also love him because he's witty, sardonic, self-deprecating, a recovering addict, a music snob (in the best way). show more A quoter of poetry even when he knows the other person won't get the reference. A Catholic who questions God's existence. A steadfast friend. A new dad who isn't sure he knows what he's doing but is very sure he'd die or kill for his little girl. A guy who has seen so much evil, he's been feeling worn out for several books now, yet he's still working toward justice even when he's on his own in that goal.
Other reviewers have praised at length the standout writing of this series--dialogue, setting (1980s Northern Ireland), plot, narrative voice--and I too applaud all these elements. But I fell in love with this series because of who Sean is, and my love has grown as McKinty has molded him with careful evolution over the years. This book seems to be the end. Saying good-bye to a character I love so much is always a melancholy thing, but Sean has earned this ending, and I am content. show less
'The Chain' is my first book by Adrian McKinty, and for sure won't be the last. I am not a parent, but I think if someone kidnaps your child is a parent's nightmare and phobia. Rachel and all the parents becoming and being part of the chain have it harder. On the one hand, they are victims, and on the other hand, they become criminals.
'The Chain' is an eye-opener for the issue of social media and the sharing of personal information. The theme is very thought-provoking, and we all, as human show more beings, take off the leg from the gas with the sharing on social media, especially when it has to do with children. Because children are vulnerable, and our job as adults is to keep them safe.
It has been a long time that I had to read a book only during day time because it gives me the chills. Every character, from the youngest to the oldest were fleshed out and were believable. Their believability made the book scary. The book felt real that it can happen in a vast metropolis area. It felt like a real event reading an article in the newspaper or a news site or watching/listening to the news on the TV/radio.
I like the flashbacks of the villain's life; getting the background and early life adds to the story's darkness. As a Greek-Israeli, I enjoyed seeing how the author combined those two cultures to the plot. Greek through the myth of Minotaurus, Ariadne & Jason, and the Israeli using the Hebrew language. McKinty's writing is prolific and very interesting, and I am looking forward to reading his other works. show less
'The Chain' is an eye-opener for the issue of social media and the sharing of personal information. The theme is very thought-provoking, and we all, as human show more beings, take off the leg from the gas with the sharing on social media, especially when it has to do with children. Because children are vulnerable, and our job as adults is to keep them safe.
It has been a long time that I had to read a book only during day time because it gives me the chills. Every character, from the youngest to the oldest were fleshed out and were believable. Their believability made the book scary. The book felt real that it can happen in a vast metropolis area. It felt like a real event reading an article in the newspaper or a news site or watching/listening to the news on the TV/radio.
I like the flashbacks of the villain's life; getting the background and early life adds to the story's darkness. As a Greek-Israeli, I enjoyed seeing how the author combined those two cultures to the plot. Greek through the myth of Minotaurus, Ariadne & Jason, and the Israeli using the Hebrew language. McKinty's writing is prolific and very interesting, and I am looking forward to reading his other works. show less
Readers of Adrian McKinty's Sean Duffy series (of which this is book 5), might be excused for wondering if he's more than a little fascinated by locked room scenarios. The use of that scenario in 2014's IN THE MORNING I'LL BE GONE is referred back to directly in RAIN DOGS. There's a larger scale setting here with an entire castle, but the mystery relies heavily again on the concept of a victim and no way for a murderer to have gotten in or out of the scene of the crime. The coincidence of show more two locked room cases in one investigative career is almost more than Duffy can swallow, and initially, it seems unbelievable that Lily Bigelow's death could be anything other than suicide. Everyone, including Duffy, is almost ready to accept that solution, until something feels off and copper instincts cut in.
Set in Belfast in the 1980's, as is always the way with the Duffy books McKinty starts out with an absolute belter of an opening. Granted Muhammad Ali's visit in the form of a "peace tour" might be fictional, but everything about the visit and the character of Ali - right down to his face to face with a bunch of skinheads opposed to him on the grounds of the colour of his skin - works incredibly well. As does the idea that hardened, cynical, vaguely depressed Duffy might be just a little star struck. Which probably turns out to be one of the only personal highlights for him early in this book as his romantic life takes a downturn and his life of work, listening to records, illicit cannabis smoking and constant checking for car bombs seems to grind on with a hefty sense of pointlessness.
The strength of this series has always been the character of Duffy and the way that he lives his life and investigates his cases. As we know he's a Catholic cop in a Protestant dominated force, living in a Protestant dominated area, and his life can seem like a mild case of ongoing train just clinging to the rails. These novels always incorporate real-life events within the fiction, and as these aspects start to be revealed in RAIN DOGS it quickly becomes apparent that the "why" of Bigelow's death is considerably more important than the who or the how. Given that the series is set in the 1980's, and allowing for what world-wide is now known about organised paedophile rings, and high-profile offenders, some of the revelations in RAIN DOGS still have the capacity to surprise and horrify.
RAIN DOGS is another strong entrant in a series that hasn't hit a bung note. The reality of life in Belfast in that time is illustrated in the most sobering of manners yet again. The mystery elements are strongest when motivation is being sought, the gallows humour at it's finest when Duffy and his colleagues are under the most pressure. At the end of it all Duffy's solved the case, dealt with a most unexpected personal outcome, and lives to take up the struggle another day.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-rain-dogs-adrian-mckinty-0 show less
Set in Belfast in the 1980's, as is always the way with the Duffy books McKinty starts out with an absolute belter of an opening. Granted Muhammad Ali's visit in the form of a "peace tour" might be fictional, but everything about the visit and the character of Ali - right down to his face to face with a bunch of skinheads opposed to him on the grounds of the colour of his skin - works incredibly well. As does the idea that hardened, cynical, vaguely depressed Duffy might be just a little star struck. Which probably turns out to be one of the only personal highlights for him early in this book as his romantic life takes a downturn and his life of work, listening to records, illicit cannabis smoking and constant checking for car bombs seems to grind on with a hefty sense of pointlessness.
The strength of this series has always been the character of Duffy and the way that he lives his life and investigates his cases. As we know he's a Catholic cop in a Protestant dominated force, living in a Protestant dominated area, and his life can seem like a mild case of ongoing train just clinging to the rails. These novels always incorporate real-life events within the fiction, and as these aspects start to be revealed in RAIN DOGS it quickly becomes apparent that the "why" of Bigelow's death is considerably more important than the who or the how. Given that the series is set in the 1980's, and allowing for what world-wide is now known about organised paedophile rings, and high-profile offenders, some of the revelations in RAIN DOGS still have the capacity to surprise and horrify.
RAIN DOGS is another strong entrant in a series that hasn't hit a bung note. The reality of life in Belfast in that time is illustrated in the most sobering of manners yet again. The mystery elements are strongest when motivation is being sought, the gallows humour at it's finest when Duffy and his colleagues are under the most pressure. At the end of it all Duffy's solved the case, dealt with a most unexpected personal outcome, and lives to take up the struggle another day.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-rain-dogs-adrian-mckinty-0 show less
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