This book is almost an antidote to recent books where all the characters are terrible people and there is no-one to sympathise with. Instead, most of the characters are human, with bad points and good points and are treated with respect. This makes the book more enjoyable to read as does the style of the author, in particular, in the passage leading up to the second murder.

The mystery is well written, being neither too obvious, nor a Christie-style rabbit out of a hat ending.

The only fault I could find is that in a book full of vivid, interesting characters, the lead detective is the least vivid of them, with no strogn sense of his personality coming through.

All in all, a good read. ( )

I've seen this called a "compelling" read and most people who have reviewed it are nearly ga-ga over this book. I was a bit underwhelmed, actually. If I see any of the rest of this author's books at a used bookstore, I would pick them up, but I'm not going to go out of my way to buy one from my usual online sources. It's not that it was bad, but it seemed like the only person to take himself seriously in this entire novel was a twit chairman of the Bar Council. So when the police don't take themselves too seriously in a crime novel based on the police, I don't either. I didn't find the writing to be all that great, either. But judge for yourself...a lot of people seriously enjoyed this book.

here's a brief look without spoilers:

A judge of the high courts named Sidney Piggott is found dead by his crier (I don't believe we have those here in the US). The only lead is a gold earring and a sighting of a young man with blond hair in the public gallery of the Judge's courtroom. In investigating this murder, the police discover that the judge may have been up to his ears in shady dealings. They uncover some of the judge's secrets as well -- secrets that may have gotten him killed.

I will admit that some of the twists in the story were good ones, but all in all, I just plain didn't like this book. I hate to say that, but there it is.

Perhaps someone looking for something different may enjoy this one, or someone who wants to read as much Irish crime fiction as they can. It's very rare that I don't enjoy a mystery set in the UK, especially in Ireland, but this one just didn't do it for me. ( )

Lushly written. Andrew Nugent has a wonderful turn of phrase that takes you into the story and doesn't let you go.
A Dublin High court judge is found dead, his neck broken, the obvious suspect isn't sure if he did it, the reasons are obscure and the investigation mired in politics.
I'll read more of this author. I really liked how he captured the characters without characture. ( )