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BORDERLANDS is the impressive first novel by Brian McGilloway and is set near his home on the Tyrone-Donegal border between Southern and Northern Ireland The novel follows Inspector Benedict Devlin over the Christmas and New Year period of 2002/3 and introduces us to the police force in the small town of Lifford. It opens with the discovery of the nearly naked body of a teenage girl, Angela Cashell, on wasteland behind the Cineplex close to the border. She is immediately recognised by the Garda as the daughter of local drunk and hard man, Johnny Cashell and his long-suffering wife, Sadie. Initially the chief suspect is a local traveller thought to be in a relationship with the dead girl but whilst evidence of his involvement is being gathered, a second more gruesome discovery is made. A young man is found dead in a burned-out car, and he too has been murdered. But Ben Devlin's workload doesn't end there, because local bigwig Thomas Powell wants action over the sighting of an intruder supposedly seen by his father Tommy in his nursing home bedroom. Ben is happily married to Debbie and has two very young children but even his home life enters a tumultuous period as an old girlfriend pursues him, and he has the added problem that his dog is accused of attacking his neighbour's sheep. BORDERLANDS is a relatively short novel, but it packs a lot in. The local police force are an interesting collection of characters, notably Superintendent 'Elvis' Costello, a man whose past is not as pure as it first appears, Sergeant Caroline Williams a mother recently separated from an abusive spouse, Jason Holmes who has transferred from a role in the drugs squad in Dublin for his own protection, and the keen and thorough part-timer Harvey. And just as the local population pop back and forth across the border all the time, so does the investigation, which means that Ben Devlin has to work closely with Inspector Jim Henry in the North who has to lead the questioning of suspects when they arise on his patch. This was an interesting aspect of the tale. With so much going on, it's not surprising that the story moves along quickly, but it does so without being a madcap race; we still have time to take in the scenery, and the atmospheric weather. This is an impressive debut, the writing is tight, the plot is complex but well paced, the characters are well drawn, the cross-border aspect was new to me, and the resolution was surprising. It's not a cosy tale, the crime is violent and there is a lot of it, but it is not sensationalised. There is also a quiet humour that adds to one's enjoyment of the whole. It's billed as the first Inspector Devlin murder, and I hope that the second follows soon.
Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, February 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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