Adrian McKinty

• “The best of the new generation of Irish crime novelists.” —Glasgow Herald

  “Set during the Troubles, the Duffy series could be construed as historical fiction…but the books don’t feel like historical novels. They’re too urgent and too topical. —Irish Times, praise for the series

  “His prose style is vital, vigorous and…if you’re not reading him already, do yourself a favor: start now.” —Irish Times, praise for the author

  “A master storyteller and stylist.” —Library Journal

  “Adrian McKinty is a master.” —USA Today

  “Adrian McKinty is one of those rare writers who creates characters and dreams up stories that are consistently real and sizzling.” —Jeffrey Mannix, Durango Telegraph

  “McKinty hangs on to his wit and literacy even under duress.” —Janet Maslin, New York Times

  “No one does high-stakes tension like McKinty.” —Sarah Pearse, New York Times bestselling author of The Sanatorium

  “Adrian McKinty is a gifted storyteller I love to read, and Sean Duffy is a character you will never forget.” —Don Winslow, #1 Internationally bestselling author

  “[Adrian McKinty] writes with confidence, heart, and style to spare. He’s the real deal.” —Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Mystic River and Since We Fell

  “McKinty [is] a terrific creator of characters when it comes to people under pressure—consider Sean Duffy, his maverick Northern Irish detective who polices Belfast during the Troubles.” —Daneet Steffens, Seattle Review of Books

• Biography

  Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles. His father was a welder in Harland and Wolff—the shipyard where they built the Titanic; his mother was a school lunch lady and secretary. Adrian went to Oxford University on a full scholarship where he studied philosophy. 

  Emigrating first to America and then Australia he found work as a door-to-door salesman, a driver, a bookstore clerk, a barman, a high school English teacher, and a semipro rugby player. 

  His debut crime novel, Dead I Well May Be, was shortlisted for the 2004 Dagger Award and was optioned by Universal Pictures. He is the author of more than a dozen crime novels that have been translated into over forty languages. He has won the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Barry Award, the Macavity Award, the International Thriller Writers Award, and is a three-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award.  

  His 2020 novel The Chain was a New York Times bestseller and appeared on twenty-five best-of-the-year lists. His 2022 novel The Island was an instant New York Times bestseller and made five best-of-the-year lists including those of the London Times and the New York Times. 

  Adrian is a member of the Linnean Society and the National Audubon Society. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.  

• Connect

  Sign up and keep informed of the latest on Adrian McKinty and Blackstone Publishing

  Email* Person CID Person Name

  Sign Up

• Praise for Books

  “[The Cold Cold Ground] is the best crime novel mystery that I’ve read in a long time…[McKinty is] a great writer.” —NPR, praise for the author

  “The welcome return of Sean Duffy.” —Boston Globe

  “Another absolute cracker of a book in a superior series.” —Ian Rankin, New York Times bestselling author

  “McKinty’s story opens with a visit to Belfast by ‘sporting royalty’ Muhammad Ali—a challenge narrator Gerard Doyle meets with a gravelly, rhythmic delivery. Even better are Doyle’s varied Irish accents, which help differentiate the various Northern Irish policemen who work with Detective Sean Duffy…Duffy’s journey to Finland to investigate poses an interesting vocal challenge that Doyle handles admirably. His delivery further ratchets up the tension when the threat of IRA bombings and the death of a high-ranking police official add to the mayhem.” —AudioFile

  “I had been saddened at the thought that this series had ended. Imagine my delight; McKinty has now written a fourth book…Read all four. They are phenomenal.” —Sun Herald (Biloxi, Mississippi)

  “A locked-room mystery within a manhunt killer, a clever and gripping setup that helps makes Duffy’s third outing easily his best so far.” —Sunday Times (London)

  “Crime fiction at its best.” —Booklist (starred review)

  “The audiobook exceeds all expectations because of narrator Gerard Doyle. His storytelling is understated, and his dialect work is remarkable…Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile

  “Another winner, with pathos, insight, sardonic humor, and lyrical descriptions that counterpoint the red-hot sequences to superb effect.” —Guardian (London)

  “He is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyon—the toughest, the best. Beware of McKinty.” —Frank McCourt, New York Times bestselling author

  “Gerard Doyle gives another stunning performance…Doyle gives Forsythe a dark sense of the ironic, an understandable, if unconventional, morality, and a roguish Irish charm…McKinty’s complex plotting and Doyle’s extraordinary portrayal will leave listeners craving more. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile

  “A near-perfect marriage of fiction and performance, The Bloomsday Dead is a must-listen…Forsythe is portrayed by Doyle in an intimate virtuoso performance that intensifies the taut, gritty writing…in this soaring, tragic story…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile

  “Gerard Doyle compels the listener into the midst of this gritty thriller…Doyle is brilliant with the Irish accents, handling also Americans and others…Doyle takes every advantage of this taut suspense, making it seem effortless. Listeners will be riveted. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile

  “Gerard Doyle gives a riveting performance…Doyle is brilliantly understated, dark, and ironic…Tender and brutal, this is an amazing book boasting a stunning performance. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile

  “McKinty’s Sean Duffy, policing the mean streets of 1985 Northern Ireland, tackles gun runners, arms dealers, MI5, and a mysterious double murder—or is it a triple?—in the fourth installment of this terrific series.” —Boston Globe, praise for the series

  “Adrian McKinty is a gifted storyteller I love to read, and Sean Duffy is a character you will never forget.” —Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author

  “There is plenty of action and excitement as we get to observe the normally flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants detective grappling intentionally with his future. Superb.” —Boston Globe

  “The tension between McKinty’s competing love of tight, formal puzzles and loose, riffing dialogue is what makes the Duffy novels such a joy.” —The Guardian (London)

  “A thrilling, thoroughly fantastic murder mystery with countless twists and turns that take readers to the darkest parts of Belfast and some huge cover-ups within the Irish and British governments.” —RT Book Reviews (4 stars)

  “Not content with constructing a complex plot, McKinty further wraps his story around a deliciously old-fashioned ‘locked room’ mystery, the solution to which holds the key to Duffy’s entire investigation. Driven by McKinty’s brand of lyrical, hard-boiled prose, leavened by a fatalistic strain of the blackest humor, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone is a hugely satisfying historical thriller.” —Irish Times

  “Gerard Doyle does a wonderful job with the ineffable accents of Northern Ireland and the rhythm of its dialogue…It perfectly matches the rising darkness that seems to surround Duffy as he searches for a killer.” —AudioFile

  “A dark-humored shamus in the Philip Marlowe tradition.” —Wall Street Journal

  “McKinty is a streetwise, energetic gunslinger of a writer, firing off volleys of sassy dialogue and explosive action that always delivers what it has promised the reader. The story is skillfully constructed, and the pace is always full throttle forwards…McKinty zaps the story across countries and continents and, either through detailed research or personal experience, renders the locations convincingly. But the bulk of the story’s setting springs from his intimately observed landscape of the North. In the strongest and most impressive part of the novel McKinty blends the landscape of an island in Upper Lough Erne, insightful characterization, and narrative in a particularly creative way. Despite the genre’s frequent reliance on resolution, McKinty’s teasing ending deliberately withholds that very thing from his reader, and you sense that Killian may have more stories unfolding ahead of him, and still more traveling across the world’s seas, before he’s finally allowed to disappear into retirement.” —Irish Times

  “[McKinty is] a master of modern noir, up there with Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy…Fifty Grand is a blast: a standalone effort which again showcases McKinty’s brutal lyricism as well as his sensitivity to the indignities of the immigrant experience.” —Guardian (London)

  “Captivating.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

  “His most visceral, satisfying effort yet…McKinty writes masterful action scenes, and he whips up a frenzy as the bullets begin to fly.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “A storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

  “Dead I Well May Be, as a portrait of violence and revenge, is a gem.” —Washington Post

  “McKinty continues to astound me…[His] novels are, in my mind, already elevated to canonical status…McKinty takes the time-tested conventions of the mystery genre and builds a narrative utterly unique and compelling over them…In short, McKinty has learned from the masters, and in my opinion, now is one.” —Mystery People, praise for the author

  “In this final installment of the Sean Duffy series, it’s fitting that a Duffy regular narrates. Gerard Doyle has a fabulous brogue and the ability to deliver a sly joke and dialogue between an Irishman and a Scot with equal facility.” —AudioFile

  “Riveting sixth Sean Duffy novel pits the detective inspector against some of his toughest foes yet.” —Publishers Weekly

  “Adrian McKinty is a gifted storyteller I love to read and Sean Duffy is a character you will never forget.” —Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author, praise for the series

  “Mixes a mordant wit and casual, unpredictable violence that vividly portrays a turbulent time…McKinty is in full command of language, plot, and setting in a terrifying period of history that sometimes seems forgotten. Fans of gritty Northern Irish crime writers such as Stuart Neville, Declan Hughes, and Brian McGilloway will enjoy this talented author.” —Library Journal (starred review)

  “The explosive conclusion to McKinty’s Troubles trilogy combines an IRA thriller with a locked-room mystery…Though it’s the end of the trilogy, readers will hope that this won’t be the last they see of Sean Duffy.” —Publishers Weekly

  “The rich Irish brogue of Gerard Doyle is magnificent but not overwhelming to American listeners. Verdict: Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred audio review)

  “[A] deft mix of noirish melancholy with express-train pacing and blockbuster-ready action.” —Publishers Weekly

  “McKinty is a streetwise, energetic gunslinger of a writer, firing off volleys of sassy dialogue and explosive action that always delivers what it has promised the reader…Skillfully constructed and the pace is always full throttle forwards” —Irish Times

  “Violence, a tightly wound plot, and suspense that leaves the heart pounding combine for a thrilling first-person story. The violence level is high, so this isn’t a book for everyone. The plot is complicated with real surprises, and the detective reacts to the violence she has to inflict to get what she wants with reservations, yet it’s possible to see what the brutality does to her psyche. All in all, a riveting book.” —RT Book Reviews (4½ stars)

  “McKinty has an ear for language and a taste for violence…A swiftly paced thriller.” —Miami Herald

  “Outpaces its immediate predecessor, The Dead Yard…with [McKinty’s] trademark dark lyricism, one great red herring, and a masterful plot twist that brings Forsythe’s character full circle in a lightning flash.” —Booklist (starred review)

  “[Listeners] will be hooked by both McKinty’s skillfully woven suspense and Doyle’s almost endearing interpretation of this memorable protagonist.” —Publishers Weekly

  “McKinty…is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream. Top-drawer.” —Kirkus Reviews

  “Mixes a mordant wit and casual, unpredictable violence that vividly portrays a turbulent time…McKinty is in full command of language, plot, and setting in a terrifying period of history that sometimes seems forgotten.” —Library Journal (starred review), praise for the series

  “The story is infested with operatives of the IRA and the Ulster Volunteer Force, double agents, triple agents, hit squads, junkies, and murderers, all served up with mordant wit, erudition, and stylistic panache. It’s another superb outing for Duffy.” —Washington Post

  “Another mordantly witty mystery novel from the reliably excellent Adrian McKinty.” —Irish Times

  “McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years.” —Tana French, New York Times bestselling author

  “There’s plenty of entertaining territorial battling between the dizzying array of law-enforcement agencies acting in Belfast, and Duffy’s investigative skills seem somehow sharpened by his lost hope.” —Booklist (starred review)

  “Doyle’s Northern Irish voices will inhabit listeners’ minds long after listening…Both writing and narration are superb in this combination of political thriller and classic locked-room mystery.” —AudioFile

  “An intricate plot line that keeps Duffy, and the reader, guessing throughout. There’s dark humor and violence and he evokes the time and place of the novel with unerring accuracy.” —Bookbag

  “A razor-sharp thriller…told with style, courage, and dark-as-night wit.” —Stuart Neville, author of The House of Ashes

  “An intelligent novel of suspense about cultural identity…In trademark fashion, McKinty winds up his provocative tale with a violent and memorable final act.” —Publishers Weekly

  “McKinty’s literate, expertly crafted third crime novel…confirms his place as one of his generation’s leading talents…[He] possesses a talent for pace and plot structure that belies his years. Dennis Lehane fans will definitely be pleased.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “As always, Gerard Doyle provides a lively, often unexpectedly comic performance. No one could possibly interpret McKinty’s continually exciting and surprising fiction as well. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)

  “He is a cross between Micky Spillane and Damon Runyon—the toughest, the best. Beware of McKinty.” —Frank McCourt, New York Times bestselling author

  “A literate, funny, wise old soul in the body of a dangerously naive teen, his Michael draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool…One of the best crime fiction debuts of the year.” —Booklist

  “There’s an ambivalence about almost every aspect of the book, including Duffy himself. He’s a Catholic in the RUC, a man out of sync. The Troubles weave in and out of the narratives, reminding us of what an extreme time it was. These are crime novels that are unafraid to explore the complications of living at a time when which church you went to could be enough to get you killed.”  —The Guardian (London)

  “‘Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly’ is a line from a song by Tom Waits, and it perfectly sums up the paranoid atmosphere at Carrickfergus CID in the late 1980s… McKinty moves seamlessly between action and reflection, and his sardonic tone is a delight.” —Sunday Times (London)

  “Set during the Troubles, the Duffy series could be construed as historical fiction…but the books don’t feel like historical novels. They’re too urgent and too topical…His prose style is vital, vigorous, and…if you’re not reading him already, do yourself a favor: start now.” —Irish Times

  “Gerard Doyle gives a stunning narration of…the beat-down, highly complex Royal Ulster Constabulary inspector. Simultaneously, Duffy’s protégé, Alexander Lawson, possesses the unrestrained wonder and eagerness of an optimistic youth. Doyle portrays these opposites with an elegant grace that makes listeners forget he’s even there. From the subtle changes in dialect to McKinty’s distinct writing cadence and dark humor, Doyle hones in on the details that make this procedural a joy to listen to. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile

  “This is the third in the series and, for me, the best, for it contains a locked room mystery at the heart of a drama about a major terrorist escape from the Maze prison, Belfast in 1983. Written in spare, razor-sharp prose, and leading up to a denouement that creeps up on you and then explodes like a terrorist bomb, it places McKinty firmly in the front rank of modern crime writers.” —Daily Mail (London)

  “Punchy, pop culture–tinged prose, and a charismatic hero.” —Publishers Weekly

  “Riveting, brilliant, and just about the best book yet on Northern Ireland.” —Ken Bruen, author of the Jack Taylor novels

  “McKinty tightens the screws on his heroine effectively, forcing her into a classic noir conundrum from which there appears to be no escape. An impeccably constructed thriller supported by a cast of finely rounded, Elmore Leonard–like characters.” —Booklist

  “McKinty hooks readers early with vivid action sequences and brutal bits of foreshadowing…and then delivers a shocking climax of survival and revenge that whets the appetite for what appears to be a promised third chapter in the Forsythe saga.” —Booklist

  “[With] a clean, well-articulated Irish lilt…Doyle’s skillful narration draws the listener deep into this dark side of the emerald isle.” —Publishers Weekly (audio review)

  “Michael Forsythe is a crook, a deviant, a lover, a fighter, and a thinker. His Irish-tough language of isolation and longing makes us love and trust him despite his oh-so-great and violent flaws. When you finish this book, you just might wish you’d lived the life in its pages, and thought its thoughts, both horrible and sublime.” —Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead

  “The writing is first-rate, and the story commands attention from the opening pages…The Detective Up Late is a fine piece of crime fiction and is one of my favorites of the year so far. Once more McKinty sets the standard for clever, reflective novels of detection.” —Murder, Mayhem, and Long Dogs

  “Gerard Doyle has become the voice of the Duffy books…Listeners should not be surprised that his Irish and British accents are perfect but he is also excellent with the French. There are some pretty gruesome scenes here but the story is gripping and…new listeners will want to seek out the earlier audios.” —SoundCommentary

  “A first-rate crime thriller that commands attention from the opening pages and keeps the reader interested until the end.” —Sydney Morning Herald

  “Gun Street Girl is great; I’m so glad that Adrian McKinty has given readers another novel starring Belfast cop Sean Duffy, whose earlier exploits were described in the terrific Troubles trilogy. Don’t miss any of the four.” —Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust

  “[A] superb trilogy reaches its finality…The hunt for [Duffy’s quarry] begins and ends spectacularly. McKinty is particularly convincing in painting the political and social backdrops to his plots. He deserves to be treated as one of Britain’s top crime writers.” —Times (London)

  “Adrian McKinty has done it again. In the second episode of a promised trilogy on the exploits of Sean Duffy…he maintains the tension, the sense of period, and the quirks of character that made The Cold Cold Ground such a compelling read.” —Irish Independent (Dublin)

  “A masterpiece of Troubles crime fiction.” —Irish Times (Dublin)

  “An unusual and innovative new thriller…Fifty Grand crackles with tension, surprising the reader again and again until its riveting conclusion.” —BookPage

  “The Dead Yard is compelling crime fiction at its finest! Adrian McKinty is an exciting new talent, and Michael Forsythe is a hero that other writers can only aspire to write.” —Ed McBain, New York Times bestselling author

  “Written with style, lyricism, and wry dark humor, nobody writes literary crime fiction like Adrian McKinty.” —Belfast Telegraph

  “Narrator Gerard Doyle has provided the voice of Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy since the first audiobook of the series. Returning for book six, he’s more in tune with Duffy’s complexity than ever before…McKinty’s blend of dark drama with perfectly timed humor and intensely plotted action is performed by Doyle as though he’s intimately familiar with Duffy’s mind, heart, and body. Listeners comprehend the vastness of Duffy’s emotion without a caricatured delivery. Doyle delivers another winning narration. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile

  “McKinty expertly balances Duffy’s tense and suspenseful investigation with the political tensions of the region.” —Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)

  “An action movie view of the Troubles…A fast and thrilling ride from the reliably excellent McKinty.” —Mail on Sunday (London)

  “I Hear the Sirens in the Street blew my bloody doors off!” —Ian Rankin, New York Times bestselling author

  “A crime novel, fast-paced, intricate, and genre to the core.” —The Guardian (London)

  “The talented McKinty does his usual first-rate job of making you like the characters he likes.” —Kirkus Reviews

  “[McKinty] is not your typical mystery writer, there’s a way in which he’s overeducated and esoteric…I love him most for his Detective Sean Duffy series.” —Colin McEnroe, host of Connecticut Public Radio on NPR/PBS

  “This is familiar territory for Doyle, and he knows exactly how to navigate the material. From the tense opening scene, he keeps the story moving at a steady pace, expertly building the suspense…Bolstered by excellent characterizations, Doyle’s reading holds the listener transfixed.” —Publishers Weekly (audio review)

  “Every detail rings true…McKinty manages…another standout in a superior series, combining terrific plotting with evocative historical detail.” —Booklist (starred review)

  “It’s a sad day for fans of Adrian McKinty’s smart 1980s-set procedurals featuring mordantly charismatic Belfast cop Sean Duffy. Not because his latest, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone, is any sort of let-down but because it concludes what has been a hugely enjoyable trilogy. In some ways, Duffy resembles Iain Banks’ young male heroes—crass and impetuous but also wickedly funny and capable of an intense, redeeming empathy.” —Guardian (London)

  “Adrian McKinty has the chops to do all manner of things with words, and in I Hear the Sirens in the Street he unleashes a strain of rough and visual, sly and lyric narrative prose in service of one hell of a story. Sean Duffy is a great creation, a figure of many parts, and the place comes alive.” —Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone

  “McKinty creates a marvelous sense of time and place.” —Irish Independent (Dublin)

  “An abandoned daughter’s search for vengeance in the hit-and-run death of her father fires this action-filled mystery. Narrator Paula Christensen brings just enough of a Spanish accent to the feature role of Cuban police detective Mercado Suraz to be convincing without seeming overdone or forced. Christensen also masters the necessary variations in pace and intensity while navigating numerous flashbacks and scene changes. She is less adept, however, at portraying the male characters, especially at moments of high drama and emotion. Nonetheless, McKinty and Christensen offer the listener a story filled with strong characters, situations, and language. Fifty Grand is definitely worth the trip.” —AudioFile

  “You know how the state of the world can sometimes seem irredeemably awful? The fact that we’re getting a new Sean Duffy novel from Adrian McKinty is proof that wonderful things happen. Known for bestsellers The Chain and The Island, McKinty has been writing a multinovel masterpiece about a Belfast detective during the Troubles that you need to read. This is the seventh book (and not the last, I hear) so start reading now so you’ll be ready when it hits stores.” —Southern California News Group

  "[This book] is perhaps the best Sean Duffy of the lot in the wit of its dialogue, its inwardness, its exciting story and—essentially—in having a complex and memorably flawed hero in Inspector Sean Duffy.” —Weekend Australian

  “The pairing of McKinty’s artful prose with Doyle’s Irish brogue is near perfection. He gives distinctive voices to Duffy and each of his colleagues…making it easy for the listener to follow and appreciate McKinty’s smart dialogue, dark humor, and clever plotting.” —Booklist (starred audio review)

  “McKinty’s latest demonstrates his skill as one of Ireland’s best and most innovative crime writers.” —Belfast Telegraph

  “If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland, The Cold Cold Ground is what he would have written.” —The Times (London)

  “Adrian McKinty has been blowing us out of the mystery water for quite some time now, but phew-oh, he has totally taken over the whole field with Fifty Grand...It has riveting mystery, politics of just about every shade, and thrills on almost every page...This is going to be the BIG BOOK of 2009.” —Ken Bruen, author of The Guards and Once Were Cops

  “Set in Northern Ireland during the period known as the Troubles, these novels are superb…In this new book Duffy is older and wiser. There’s lots of action and a sizzling plot.” —Dayton Daily News

  “McKinty has created a Chandleresque character who walks the mean streets of Belfast…Driving it all is McKinty’s compelling literary style.” —Booklist (starred review)

  “McKinty uses some historical events as a basis for a strong moral point of view while still delivering a fine tale.” —Library Journal

  “An older, more sobered Duffy, still unconventional and willing to take chances but more reflective, more Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe than Robocop. His growing maturity results in fewer bedroom scenes, but there is plenty of excitement and suspense elsewhere in this intelligent and gripping yarn.” —Irish Independent

  “Reader Gerard Doyle captures every ironic twitch of McKinty’s world-weary Duffy…In each note of Doyle’s narration you hear Duffy’s resignation to the madness surrounding him. The plots are riveting, but the front-row seat to Duffy’s deteriorating equilibrium makes them even better.” —Kirkus Reviews (audio review)

  “McKinty and Christensen offer the listener a story filled with strong characters, situations, and language. Fifty Grand is definitely worth the trip.” —AudioFile

  “A highlight of the year in books was undoubtedly the return of Carrickfergus’s finest, DI Duffy…As is always the case with the best crime fiction, it transcends the genre. Not only an exploration of a violent and wild period in history, it tells people’s stories, captures the dialogue, and gives you a sense of the times and how they lived through them.” —Concrete Islands

  “McKinty’s hero is irreverent, charming, and mordantly, laugh-out-loud funny, and his eclectic personal soundtrack and bitter, pragmatic politics make for vivid period detail.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

  “Duffy is taking no better care of himself than he ever did. But his copper’s instincts are as sharp as ever in this fifth installment.” —Kirkus Reviews

  “With his Sean Duffy Troubles Trilogy, of which In the Morning I’ll Be Gone is the third installment, Adrian McKinty places riveting police procedurals in the political context of The Troubles, sharply ratcheting up the tension and fear as depictions of conspiracy, murder, and violence rise up from the page. But it’s not all grit: McKinty’s novels are also shot through with a smart, crackling humor that manages to be both dark and witty. Each book is a solid standalone, but it’s even better to ride the entire trilogy roller coaster with Duffy as your intimate companion. And why not?” —Boston Globe

  “Everything in this novel hits all the right notes, from its brilliant evocation of time and place to razor-sharp dialogue to detailed police procedures.” —Booklist (starred review)

  “McKinty manages to draw you right into the story with a writing style that is both descriptive and evocative, yet sparse and direct. The plotting is tight and the characters are brought to life with a simple accented phrase that manages to place them perfectly. The tone is bang on and the dialogue perfectly defines the personality of each successive character Duffy meets.” —Crime Fiction HQ

  “McKinty’s writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot-on dialogue, and fascinating characters.” —Chicago Sun-Times

  “Sardonic Belfast cop Sean Duffy [in] another terrific Troubles-set thriller.” —Sun (UK), 4.5 stars

  “McKinty’s fine police procedural is also the ultimate page-turner.” —Library Journal (starred review)

  “Superbly written and tightly plotted, this is suspenseful and atmospheric with moments of very high-tension action. Throughout the series, the character development has also been very strong, especially for Duffy who we’ve seen change from a young, reckless young man to a more mature, more responsible version, but still with his strong sense of justice.”  —Mystery & Suspense

  “A journey into a terrifying and almost dreamlike labyrinth of violence and betrayal.” —Shots Crime & Thriller Ezine

  See All +See Less -

• 

  • Hang on St. Christopher

  • By Adrian McKinty

  • Release Date: 3/04/25

  • Formats: Hardcover

  New York Times bestselling author Adrian McKinty continues the Edgar Award–winning Sean Duffy series with Hang on St. Christopher.

  Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It’s July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to “Shortbread Land”. Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It’s an easy gig, if he can keep his head down.

  But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protege is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hitman and why?

  This is Duffy’s most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning “peace process” may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5 and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.

  • Hang on St. Christopher

  • By Adrian McKinty

  • Release Date: 3/04/25

  • Formats: Hardcover

  Learn More
• 

  • The Detective Up Late

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 8/08/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Trade Print ARC, Signed Hardcover

  “Adrian McKinty is a gifted storyteller I love to read, and Sean Duffy is a character you will never forget.”—Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author

  From New York Times bestselling author Adrian McKinty comes the next thrilling mystery in the Edgar Award–winning Sean Duffy detective series

  Slamming the door on the hellscape of 1980s Belfast, Detective Inspector Sean Duffy hopes that the 1990s are going to be better for him and the people of Northern Ireland. As a Catholic cop in the mainly Protestant RUC he still has a target on his back, and with a steady girlfriend and a child the stakes couldn’t be higher. 

  After handling a mercurial triple agent and surviving the riots and bombings and assassination attempts, all Duffy wants to do now is live. But in his final days in charge of Carrickfergus CID, a missing persons report captures his attention. A fifteen-year-old traveler girl has disappeared and no one seems to give a damn about it. Duffy begins to dig and uncovers a disturbing underground of men who seem to know her very well. The deeper he digs the more sinister it all gets. Is finding out the truth worth it if DI Duffy is going to get himself and his colleagues killed? Can he survive one last case before getting himself and his family out over the water? 

  • The Detective Up Late

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 8/08/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Trade Print ARC, Signed Hardcover

  Learn More
• 

  • Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 6/13/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Foreign Sublicense

  From New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Adrian McKinty, this thrilling mystery featuring Detective Sean Duffy was a Boston Globe Best Book of the Year.

  Belfast, 1988. A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house. This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave.

  Hunted by forces unknown, threatened by Internal Affairs, and with his relationship on the rocks, Duffy will need all his wits to get out of this investigation in one piece.

  • Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 3/07/17

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Foreign Sublicense

  Learn More
• 

  • Rain Dogs

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 6/13/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Foreign Sublicense

  It’s just the same things over and again for Sean Duffy: riot duty, heartbreak, cases he can solve but never get to court. But what detective gets two locked-room mysteries in one career?

  When journalist Lily Bigelow is found dead in the courtyard of Carrickfergus Castle, it looks like a suicide. Yet there are a few things that bother Duffy just enough to keep the case file open, which is how he finds out that Bigelow was working on a devastating investigation of corruption and abuse at the highest levels of power in the UK and beyond.

  And so Duffy has two impossible problems on his desk: Who killed Lily Bigelow? And what were they trying to hide?

  • Rain Dogs

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 3/08/16

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Foreign Sublicense

  Learn More
• 

  • Gun Street Girl

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 6/13/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover

  A mysterious suicide and double murder are at the heart of this powerful thriller set in Northern Ireland amidst the Troubles, from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Adrian McKinty

  “McKinty is in full command of language, plot, and setting in a terrifying period of history…” —Library Journal (starred review)

  Belfast, 1985. Amid the Troubles, Detective Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop in the Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary, struggles with burnout as he investigates a brutal double murder and suicide. Did Michael Kelly really shoot his parents at point-blank and then jump off a nearby cliff? A suicide note points to this conclusion, but Duffy suspects even more sinister circumstances. He soon discovers that Kelly was present at a decadent Oxford party where a cabinet minister's daughter died of a heroin overdose, which may or may not have something to do with Kelly's subsequent death.

  New evidence leads elsewhere: gun runners, arms dealers, the British government, and a rogue American agent with a fake identity. Duffy thinks he's getting somewhere when agents from MI5 show up at his doorstep and try to recruit him, thus taking him off the investigation.

  Duffy is in it up to his neck, doggedly pursuing a case that may finally prove his undoing.

  • Gun Street Girl

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 3/03/15

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover

  Learn More
• 

  • In the Morning I’ll Be Gone

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 5/09/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Foreign Sublicense

  A Catholic cop tracks an IRA master bomber amidst the sectarian violence of the conflict in Northern Ireland in this pulse-pounding thriller from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Adrian McKinty.

  “McKinty’s writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot-on dialogue, and fascinating characters.” —Chicago Sun-Times

  It's the early 1980s in Belfast. Sean Duffy, a conflicted Catholic cop in the Protestant RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), is recruited by MI5 to hunt down Dermot McCann, an IRA master bomber who has made a daring escape from the notorious Maze prison. In the course of his investigations Sean discovers a woman who may hold the key to Dermot's whereabouts; she herself wants justice for her daughter who died in mysterious circumstances in a pub locked from the inside. Sean knows that if he can crack the "locked-room mystery," the bigger mystery of Dermot's whereabouts might be revealed to him as a reward. Meanwhile the clock is ticking down to the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in 1984, where Mrs. Thatcher is due to give a keynote speech …

  • In the Morning I’ll Be Gone

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 3/04/14

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Foreign Sublicense

  Learn More
• 

  • I Hear the Sirens in the Street

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 5/09/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Digital 3rd Party Download, Foreign Sublicense

  This propulsive thriller is a “gruesomely accurate portrayal of ’80s life in Ireland” (Kirkus Reviews) from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Adrian McKinty.

  “Adrian McKinty just leapt to the top of my list of must-read suspense novelists.  He’s the real deal.” —Dennis Lehane

  A torso in a suitcase looks like an impossible case, but Sean Duffy isn't easily deterred, especially when his floundering love life leaves him in need of a distraction. So with Detective Constables McCrabban and McBride, he goes to work identifying the victim. The torso turns out to be all that's left of an American tourist who once served in the US military. What was he doing in Northern Ireland in the midst of the 1982 Troubles? The trail leads to the doorstep of a beautiful, flame-haired, twentysomething widow, whose husband died at the hands of an IRA assassination team just a few months before.

  Suddenly Duffy is caught between his romantic instincts, gross professional misconduct, and powerful men he should know better than to mess with. These include British intelligence, the FBI, and local paramilitary death squads—enough to keep even the savviest detective busy. Duffy's growing sense of self-doubt isn't helping. But as a legendarily stubborn man, he doesn't let that stop him from pursuing the case to its explosive conclusion.

  • I Hear the Sirens in the Street

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 5/14/13

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Digital 3rd Party Download, Foreign Sublicense

  Learn More
• 

  • The Cold Cold Ground

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 5/09/23

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Digital 3rd Party Download, Foreign Sublicense

  Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles—and of a cop treading a thin, thin line—from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Adrian McKinty.

  “McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years.” —Tana French

  Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman’s suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things—and people—aren’t always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It’s no easy job—especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force. Add to this the fact that, as a Catholic policeman, it doesn’t matter which side he’s on, because nobody trusts him, and Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation. 

  • The Cold Cold Ground

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 1/05/12

  • Formats: Trade Paperback, Hardcover, Digital 3rd Party Download, Foreign Sublicense

  Learn More
• 

  • Falling Glass

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 3/01/11

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  In this noir thriller by a New York Times bestselling and Edgar award-winning author, a retired IRA fixer takes a lucrative last job finding the ex-wife and daughters of a wealthy airline owner.

  Richard Coulter is a man who has everything. His beautiful new wife is pregnant, his upstart airline is undercutting the competition and moving from strength to strength, his diversification into the casino business in Macau has been successful, and his fabulous Art Deco house on an Irish cliff top has just been featured in Architectural Digest. But then, for some reason, his ex-wife Rachel doesn’t keep her side of the custody agreement and vanishes off the face of the earth with Richard’s two daughters. Richard hires Killian, a formidable ex-enforcer for the IRA, to track her down before Rachel, a recovering drug addict, harms herself or the girls. As Killian follows Rachel’s trail, he begins to see that there is a lot more to this case than first meets the eye and that a thirty-year-old secret is going to put all of them in terrible danger.

  McKinty is at his continent-hopping, well-paced, evocative best in this thriller, moving between his native Ireland and distant cities within a skin-of-his-teeth timeframe.

  • Falling Glass

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 3/01/11

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  Learn More
• 

  • Fifty Grand

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Paula Christensen

  • Release Date: 4/28/09

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  An illegal immigrant is killed in a hit-and-run on a frozen mountain road in the rich Hollywood resort town of Fairview, Colorado. No one is prosecuted for his death, and his case is quietly forgotten.

  Six months later, posing as an illegal immigrant and working as a maid in Fairview, Havana police officer Detective Mercado begins to secretly investigate the shadowy collision that left her father dead. Who killed him? Was it one of the smooth-talking Hollywood types or a minion of the terrifying county sheriff? And why was her father, a celebrated defector to the United States, hiding in Colorado as the town ratcatcher?

  In Fifty Grand, Adrian McKinty’s live-wire prose crackles with intensity as we follow Mercado through the emotion and violence that lead to a final, shocking confrontation.

  • Fifty Grand

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Paula Christensen

  • Release Date: 4/28/09

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  Learn More
• 

  • The Dead Yard

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 1/01/06

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  In this riveting sequel to the acclaimed Dead I Well May Be, mercenary bad boy Michael Forsythe is back, and he’s forced to infiltrate an Irish terrorist cell, confronting murder, mayhem, and possibly his own execution.

  While on holiday in Spain, Michael Forsythe is arrested in the chaos of a soccer riot and hauled off to jail. Back on the wrong side of the law, the Belfast native has no hope of release—until a seductive female British Intelligence Agent makes him an offer he can’t refuse: Avoid jail time in a Mexican hellhole by taking on a special FBI assignment and infiltrating a dangerous Irish terrorist cell back in the States. Within hours Michael is thrust into the nightmarish world of madmen known for their distinctive brands of torture and revenge, all while trying to hide his true identity. Coming face-to-face with murder, deceit, and lustful desire in all the wrong places, Michael knows that in order to survive he must kill—or be killed.

  • The Dead Yard

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 1/01/06

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  Learn More
• 

  • The Bloomsday Dead

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 1/01/06

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  In this concluding book of Adrian McKinty’s highly praised Dead series, Michael Forsythe confronts his former lover and now archrival, Bridget.

  Michael Forsythe has just survived his infiltration of an IRA splinter cell in Boston. Now, his many near fatal wounds healed, he begins his next adventure as manager of hotel security in Lima, Peru. It is there he is contacted by his former lover, Bridget, whose husband he killed. Bridget, calling from Dublin, says her fourteen-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. Michael’s choice is to fly to Dublin and help her or to be executed at the hands of the goons holding him at gunpoint. He agrees to nothing and soon is on the way to Dublin, the first two of many dead bodies left in his wake.

  • The Bloomsday Dead

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 1/01/06

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download

  Learn More
• 

  • Hidden River

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 1/01/05

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download, Special Digital Library

  In this electrifying noir thriller, a young Irish ex-cop travels half a world away to investigate the murder of a beautiful girl he once loved.

  Alexander Lawson is a former detective for Northern Ireland’s police force who, after a disastrous stint in the drug squad, became addicted to heroin and resigned in disgrace. Now twenty-four, sickly, and on the dole, Alex learns that his high-school love, Victoria Patawasti, has been murdered in America. Victoria’s wealthy family sends Alex to Colorado to investigate the case, and he seizes the opportunity for a chance at redemption.

  But things don’t go as planned. Plagued by a heroin habit, forced to go on the run after the only credible witness to Victoria’s murder is accidentally killed, wanted by both the Colorado cops and the Ulster police, Alex struggles just to stay alive.

  • Hidden River

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 1/01/05

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download, Special Digital Library

  Learn More
• 

  • Dead I Well May Be

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 12/01/04

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download, Special Digital Library

  This Irish bad-boy thriller, set in the hardest streets of New York City, introduces us to Michael Forsythe, an illegal immigrant escaping from the Troubles in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

  Clever, fearless, and handy with a pistol, young Michael is just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a New York crime boss, to join his gang of thugs fighting for their turf. But just as Michael is being anointed Darkey’s rising star, he inadvisably seduces Darkey’s girl. Suddenly the tables are turned, and Darkey plans a very hard fall for young Michael. But Darkey fails to account for Michael’s toughness—or his determination to wreak vengeance upon those who betray him.

  A natural storyteller with a gift for dialogue, McKinty delivers us a stunning new noir voice, dark and stylish, mythic and violent—complete with an Irish lilt.

  • Dead I Well May Be

  • By Adrian McKinty

    Read by Gerard Doyle

  • Release Date: 12/01/04

  • Formats: Digital 3rd Party Download, Special Digital Library

  Learn More

Coming Soon

Coming Soon

Coming Soon