Dirty Old Tricks

A chilling noir novel set in the Belfast of The Troubles in which Pat Gray introduces us to the flawed but dogged and honourable policeman McCann. It is a welcome return to fiction after an eighteen year silence by one of Ulster’s finest novelists. Eight years in C Division was a long stretch for any man to be in one of the worst posts. That would break the toughest fellow. That would make you wonder if McCann was really the man for the job. Inspector McCann is called to investigate the brutal murder of a teenage girl, at first assuming it is a sex crime or sectarian tit-for-tat killing. But another girl is killed and then his prime suspect castrated and murdered. He finds himself trapped in vicious old rivalries, unsupported and alone. Are the murders connected to ‘Dirty Tricks’ by the combatants in Ireland’s war, or has McCann lost the plot, as his boss suggests? Following the success of The Political Map of the Heart, Pat Gray’s second Belfast novel is detective fiction that is bloodier and darker than anything he has previously written. ‘Creepily compelling, Gray’s fourth novel probes deeply into darkness, weaving an atmosphere of tension and distrust that permeates every part of McCann’s investigation, including his relationships with colleagues. It’s masterfully done, but chilling and hard-hitting stuff.' Alastair Mabbott in The Herald