Review: IN THE MORNING I'LL BE GONE, Adrian McKinty

• first published in 2014
  
• This edition published by Serpent's Tail 2014
• ISBN 978-1846688201
• 326 pages
• #3 in the Sean Duffy Trilogy
• borrowed from my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

The third book in the Sean Duffy thriller series.A spectacular escape and a man-hunt that could change the future of a nation - and lay one man's past to rest.

Sean Duffy's got nothing. And when you've got nothing to lose, you have everything to gain. So when MI5 come knocking, Sean knows exactly what they want, and what he'll want in return, but he hasn't got the first idea how to get it.Of course he's heard about the spectacular escape of IRA man Dermot McCann from Her Majesty's Maze prison. And he knew, with chilly certainty, that their paths would cross.

But finding Dermot leads Sean to an old locked room mystery, and into the kind of danger where you can lose as easily as winning.From old betrayals and ancient history to 1984's most infamous crime, Sean tries not to fall behind in the race to annihilation. Can he outrun the most skilled terrorist the IRA ever created? And will the past catch him first?

 My Take

This story focusses on events in 1983 and 1984: first of all the breakout of a number of IRA terrorists from the Maze prison and then the subsequent IRA bombings of 1984.

And along the way, under the guise of investigating cold cases, Sean Duffy begins to investigate the accidental death of Lizzie Fitzpatrick. This is a locked room mystery, but the coroner had not been satisfied that the death was accidental and returned an open verdict. Mary Fitzpatrick has always been convinced it was murder but no one could envisage how it happened. But why was Lizzie changing a light bulb in the dark, balancing precariously on the bar?

The locked room mystery adds an extra filip to this story. In his teens Sean Duffy had been at school with Dermot McCann, and had known the Fitzpatrick family. I also liked the way McKinty has definitely established a setting and time frame.

Sean Duffy will do almost anything to regain his place in CID but how much is he controlling his destiny?

This probably is the best of the Sean Duffy trilogy, but only by a hair's whisker.

My rating: 4.9

I've also reviewed
FIFTY GRAND
4.6, THE COLD COLD GROUND - Sean Duffy #1
4.8, I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET - Sean Duffy #2
4.6, FALLING GLASS

About the author
Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. He studied politics and philosophy at Oxford University and then emigrated to New York in 1993. He lived in Harlem for seven years working at various jobs, with various degrees of legality, and in 2000 he moved to Denver, Colorado to become a high school English teacher.

In 2008 he emigrated again this time to Melbourne, Australia with his wife and kids. Adrian’s first crime novel, Dead I Well May Be, was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. The sequel to that book, The Dead Yard, was picked as one of the 10 best books of the year by Booklist and won the Audie Award for best crime fiction novel. 

The first book in the Sean Duffy series, The Cold Cold Ground, won the 2013 Spinetingler Award for best novel. The second Sean Duffy book, I Hear The Sirens In The Street was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award.