Paul said nothing, in a way that left nothing unsaid. [p. 35]
In return for a house to live in and a pittance to live on, Paul Mulchrone is obliged by the terms of his great-aunt's will to do six hours of charity work every week. Luckily, Paul has 'one of those faces': he's inoffensive and nondescript, adept at passing for whichever long-lost relative is expected by the residents of the local hospice. His friend, Nurse Conroy, calls him the granny-whisperer. She approves of him, more or less: he's hurting no one, and he brings joy to the people he visits. Except one, an elderly man who seems to think Paul is the son of an old enemy, and tries to murder him. The assailant comes off worse, suffering a fatal heart attack: Paul is stitched up, and then embroiled in a murder case -- he was the last to see the old fellow alive ... and the deceased was an infamous crimelord, presumed dead these thirty years.
Then the dead man's enemies come looking, very interested in what Paul might have learnt before the demise of the man in the hospice. Aided and abetted by Nurse Conroy (a great fan of true crime) and negotiating with DI Jimmy Stewart (days from retirement, naturally) and his hapless sidekick Wilson, Paul's life gets a great deal more ... interesting.
Unexpectedly acquiring three months' free Kindle Unlimited, I trawled the site for novels set in Dublin, so that I could fulfil a book challenge prompt ('a book set in Dublin') without falling back on James Joyce. This grabbed me from the first page and was a rollicking read, with plenty of humour as well as some elaborate plotting, intriguing characters (I was especially taken, in a faintly appalled way, with Bunny McGarry, very much an old-school copper prone to resolving conflict with ... well, more conflict) and quite a bit of violence. Paul is a surprisingly likeable protagonist, Brigit (Nurse Conroy) an improbable but splendid foil to Paul's frequent bouts of haplessness, and DI Stewart and Bunny McGarry a fascinating glimpse of different traditions in policing. Plenty of hurling terminology, too, so very educational. This is the first in a trilogy -- the main plot is resolved, so I'm not desperate to read the other two novels, but I am tempted.
Fulfils the ‘Set in Dublin’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge.
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