Anthony J. Quinn

Turncoat – A metaphysical thriller,

Anthony J Quinn returns with a new crime thriller Turncoat, which he has called a metaphysical detective tale set during the Troubles. Northern Ireland and the times of the Troubles have provided a rich seam of writing for Quinn, and for some many be some uncomfortable reading. Whilst this may be a novel, it bounds along the truth of that time very closely, and sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.

Desmond Maguire is unusual for an RUC officer in that he is a Catholic in a predominately Protestant police service. Distrusted by his Protestant colleagues and seen as a collaborator with an occupying force by the Catholics, he really is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Life will get harder for him.

Maguire is the sole survivor of a murderous ambush, a Belfast police detective is forced into a desperate search for a mysterious informer that takes him to a holy island on Lough Derg, a place shrouded in strange mists and hazy rain, where nothing is as it first appears to be. An Ireland where his life may be in danger, the pilgrims do not trust, the priests do not trust him, and the police spies do not trust him. He knows he needs to find the truth and some how this holy island has the answers, he just needs to find them.

People will find Turncoat, haunting and unsettling, especially as you read the mental descent of Maguire into to paranoia. This is also a story of guilt, survival and the terrible price of self-knowledge, all through the voice of a detective with a double life. You feel that descent into self-doubt and questioning previous actions. What he discovers is sinister and the closer he is drawn in to the violence that surrounds that period of time.… (more)

To be honest, for most of the time I found this novel hard going. I empathised with David Hughes who has Alzheimer's and is extremely frustrated because his memory is rather like a patchwork quilt with large holes. I understood young Dermot Jordan's desire to know where his father is buried, and perhaps even to clear his name.

But I struggled to remember which side was which, and who had done what.

Someone who has a better understanding of The Troubles would obviously enjoy the book far more. Thank you Anthony Quinn for trying to educate me!… (more)

An interesting read on a number of levels. Carla Herron is not only new to the job, she is a young mother with 2 young children and a husband working from home, and he is not coping.

Her colleague D. I. Morton is a strange fish, silent most of the time, consequently difficult to work with, and with secrets of his own. Carla feels she is not being told the whole story, and then Morton tells her she is doing a good job.

Carla interviews a man at Deepwell Psychiatric Hospital who claims he has murdered several people, and the last psychotherapist he talked to has gone missing. Carla can see that McCrea is convinced he has committed several murders. But how could he? He hasn't left the hospital.

This novel has a very Gothic feel to it and there are many very dark passages, Deepwell is engaged in some peculiar perhaps innovative practices to do with memory, and Carla has difficulty in determining exactly what those practices involve, and indeed who is using them. Staff at the hospital keep telling her to consult others, that they are not at liberty to fully answer her questions.… (more)