Ebook464 pages9 hours
The Priest: A Novel
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this ebook
From the most riveting writer to come out of Ireland since John Connolly, the first in a series of Dublin-based thrillers introducing Inspector Mike Mulcahy, who is pitched into a deadly battle with a religion-obsessed serial killer.
Gerard O’Donovan puts Dublin on the map with this gripping tale featuring a diabolical serial killer steeped in Ireland’s Catholic history. Struggling to find his feet back in Ireland after a lengthy posting with Europol in Spain, drugs specialist Mike Mulcahy is plunged into unfamiliar territory when the daughter of a politician suffers a horrific sex attack. Dragged into the case against his will, Mulcahy becomes convinced there is more to it than a random frenzied sexual assault, especially when he discovers that the weapon used by the attacker to torture the victim was a crucifix. But know-it-all colleagues and politically motivated bosses, eager for a quick, uncontroversial result, ignore his belief that the attack had religious rather than sexual motivations. Sidelined and overruled, Mulcahy sets about his own investigation, but frustrations abound at every turn—until reporter Siobhan Fallon turns up asking awkward questions. As more young women are attacked and assault turns to murder, Mulcahy and Fallon are drawn into an uneasy alliance, and each step they take hurtles them ever closer to the monstrous killer known only as The Priest and a final showdown that is as explosive as it is unforgettable.
Gerard O’Donovan puts Dublin on the map with this gripping tale featuring a diabolical serial killer steeped in Ireland’s Catholic history. Struggling to find his feet back in Ireland after a lengthy posting with Europol in Spain, drugs specialist Mike Mulcahy is plunged into unfamiliar territory when the daughter of a politician suffers a horrific sex attack. Dragged into the case against his will, Mulcahy becomes convinced there is more to it than a random frenzied sexual assault, especially when he discovers that the weapon used by the attacker to torture the victim was a crucifix. But know-it-all colleagues and politically motivated bosses, eager for a quick, uncontroversial result, ignore his belief that the attack had religious rather than sexual motivations. Sidelined and overruled, Mulcahy sets about his own investigation, but frustrations abound at every turn—until reporter Siobhan Fallon turns up asking awkward questions. As more young women are attacked and assault turns to murder, Mulcahy and Fallon are drawn into an uneasy alliance, and each step they take hurtles them ever closer to the monstrous killer known only as The Priest and a final showdown that is as explosive as it is unforgettable.
Author
Gerard O'Donovan
Gerard O’Donovan was born in Cork and grew up in Dublin. After a brief career in the Irish civil service he travelled widely, working as a barman, bookseller, gherkin-bottler, philosophy tutor, and English teacher before settling down to make a living as a journalist and critic for, among others, The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. In 2007 he was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association’s prestigious Debut Dagger competition.
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Reviews for The Priest
Rating: 4.571428571428571 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
7 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I listened to this book. It is set in Dublin and the narrator had a lovely Irish accent. Inspector Mulcahy of the Irish Garda spent many years in Spain working on Interpol drug investigations. When a young Spanish girl is brutally assaulted he is called upon to translate for the investigation team. She tells him that the man who assaulted her made the sign of a cross "like a priest" so the perpetrator is nicknamed The Priest. Mulcahy is assigned to the case to liaise with the Spanish officials although he is hoping for some position to come up on the drug squad. Meanwhile he renews acquaintance with Siobhan, a newspaper reporter that he once allowed to ride with him on a drug takedown. Siobhan is hoping to get more details about The Priest from him but when he refuses she still wants to spend time with him. This creates career problems for Mulcahy but he is also drawn to Siobhan.The Priest strikes again and again eventually killing one young girl. Several times the Garda think they have him but Mulcahy continues to pursue another suspect.The ending is spine-tingling. I'm sure there will be more books about Mulcahy and Siobhan and I'll be looking for them.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent first book from a great new author. Looking forward to any others he writes. The characters are well rounded and believable; the plot is gripping and the mystery element is maintained throughout.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book should come with a warning sticker: "Do not open if you want to get anything done today". It's the first of a series featuring Dublin Inspector Mike Mulcahy & is compulsive reading.
Mike has spent the last few years as part of a drug squad in Spain for Interpol. Now he's back in his home town working for the Garde once again. Through a series of events he gets seconded to Sex Crimes after the brutal assault of a teenage girl. He also rekindles his friendship with Siobhan Fallon, a determined reporter for the Sunday Herald.
Soon they're both swept up in the hunt for a deranged man who becomes known as "The Priest". He earned his nickname by chanting the Lord's Prayer while inflicting the victims' bodies with cross shaped burns. As the assaults continue, police feel the heat from an outraged city, fed in part by the sensational articles in Siobhan's paper.
This is a book that sneaks up on you. It begins with more of a focus on Mike & his situation. Something happened in Spain & although the author drops tidbits throughout the book, we never do get the whole story. He's in limbo without a permanent posting at work & living in his parent's old house.
Through his eyes, we get to know Dublin. This is post Celtic Tiger & the brief shiny period of prosperity has given way to the tarnished reality of abandoned construction projects & rising unemployment. The atmospheric descriptions make it easy to picture, rendering the city a major character in the story.
There is a central cast of well rounded characters. Some might seem familiar: the politic superintendent, the hardass female inspector, a surly DS nursing a grudge, the returning cop who's now an outsider. But they all come across as authentic thanks to the author's clean prose & taut dialogue.
The pacing is bang on. After the second attack, there is a subtle shift as the tension builds until you're turning the pages as fast as you can to reach the inevitable showdown. About halfway through, the identity of the Priest becomes evident but even that doesn't diminished the suspense. This is effortless reading, so smooth & evocative that you feel like you're walking the streets with Mike & his colleagues.
There are several subplots that flesh out the story & Mike's character. He's a likeable man...smart, intuitive & flawed. In darker moments, you sense his regret for past mistakes & frustration over his current situation. He may not always play by the rules but he's a guy you'd want at your back.
Smart, scary, gripping...they all apply. And now, since I spent the day reading & no magic elves came to do the laundry & dishes, I really have to go. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Serial killer story-lines. We've all said it. Over it. One more serial killer storyline and I swear..... So I'll adjust previous assertions and instead say I'm over SOME serial killer story-lines.THE PRIEST, the first crime novel from Irish author Gerard O'Donovan has a serial killer that actually doesn't kill all of his victims. They are, however, horribly injured, disfigured, tortured and abused. And our serial attacker is one of those mad, bad, weird religious nutter types - the burns that he leaves his victim's with eventually reveal that he's using some sort of Cross shaped implement. Needless to say, the nickname of "The Priest". That probably means a whole lot of reasons why you'd think twice before picking up this book.But there are a lot of things going for this book. For a start it's mercifully free of the dreaded "in the serial killer's head" viewpoint. Secondly, some of his victims do survive - albeit maimed and dreadfully injured. This gives some opportunity for some interesting twists in the personal stories, in particular, of the first victim. Jesica Salazar is the much loved daughter of a high-ranking Spanish Diplomat, in Dublin for just a short time to experience a different culture, she is found after an evening out in a nightclub, alive but battered and horribly burnt. The sex crimes team steps into the investigation, headed by Claire Brogan. DI Mike Mulcahy has recently returned from a high-profile specialist drug investigation position in Spain, and he's not best pleased at all when he's seconded to the team. They need somebody to translate, and when he steps into a disagreement between a Spanish Official and one of the team, he's even more involved as the Spanish authorities look to him. Which means nobody is pleased. Not the team, not Mike. Add journalist Siobhan Fallon who is as fearless in her journalism as she is insecure about her personal life, somebody that Mike's very attracted to, and there's a good combination of characters here.Mulcahy is a good central character, of the slightly embittered, strong willed, grumpy type. He's an extremely likeable sort of character - vaguely reminiscent of Rebus, but I'm prepared to give O'Donovan the benefit of the doubt over the naming of journalist Siobhan. The tentative relationship between these two has a feeling of reality about it - particularly when the roles of Journalist and Detective Inspector clash.Alongside excellent characterisations and a really good example of team policing tension, there's a pretty good plot here. The tension doesn't let up in THE PRIEST - possibly because you know that this killer doesn't always kill his victims, partly because he presents such an obvious danger as there appears to be no predictability to actions. The only downside really is a slightly heavy-handed and predictable use of descriptive language, which smacked a little too much of some sort of writing police talk manual and didn't always feel all that authentic. Having said that, despite the serial killer theme, I really enjoyed THE PRIEST and am intrigued by the prospect of a pairing of Mulcahy and Fallon. Hopefully there will be more books featuring one or both of these characters.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A killer stalks the streets of Dublin. Tough cop Det.Insp. Mike Mulachy is called in because the first victims is a young spanish girl and he has been working in Spain. Quite a brutal book and the torture is horrific, but a good, scary read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/53.5 perhaps. The daughter of an important Spanish man is found beaten and raped. Inspector Mike Mulcahy, fresh from his work with Interpol in Spain, is enlisted to assist with translation and the investigation under Detective Inspector Broghan. It’s a politically sensitive case and Mulcahy wants nothing to do with it. The only information the girl can supply is that her attacker made the sign of the cross and was dressed like a priest. Forming an alliance with an old journalist friend, Siobhan Fallon, he resists the leadership’s pressure to attribute the attacks to the most likely candidate. Mulcahy insists there is a religious element to the attacks which escalate into murder, given that in each case (and the number of victims escalates) a jewelry cross was missing from the victim and it’s imprint burned into her skin.
I loved the local Dublin locale and the writing is descriptive and evocative. Ably read by one of my favorite readers, Michael Kramer. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From poisoned pen: "Donovan, Gerald. The Priest (LittleBrown UK $45 Signed8July). Patrick reviews a new Hardboiled Crime Club Pick:The Irish crime writing renaissance continues with this fine firstnovel featuring Detective Inspector Mike Mulcahy. The veterancop thinks he’s seen it all, but he’s never encountered anythinglike “The Priest,” the name the Garda has given to a new killerstalking the Dublin streets at night. Mulcahy and his youngpartner Claire Brogan pick up the case after a Spanish diplomat’sdaughter is found horribly brutalized, her body branded withburns from a scalding cross. But this is just the beginning fora killer who is on a twisted sort of divine mission: before eachattack, he makes the sign of the cross and ritually “sends eachnew victim to God.” This sort of plot isn’t necessarily a newthing, and you could say that the Irish have a complicatedrelationship with the clergy - hey, it was Joyce who referred tothe Irish as a “priest-ridden race.” What sets this book apart isO’Donovan’s feel for his setting and characters. Mulcahy fitssquarely into a long tradition of melancholy, loner cops likeRebus, Charlie Resnick and Jack Taylor.”
Book preview
The Priest - Gerard O'Donovan
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