The Priest (Mike Mulcahy Series #1)

by Gerard O'Donovan

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451610628
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	03/01/2011
Series:	Mike Mulcahy Series , #1
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

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.

Read an Excerpt

PROLOGUE

WAS IT LUCK, REALLY? SOME MIGHT CALL IT FATE. OTHERS THE MANIFEST presence of God’s guiding hand. He almost missed her. Between the dark and the trees and the cars parked up on the grass verge, his headlights caught a flash of white top and the gleam of something gold. He’d never have seen her if he hadn’t been in the van, sitting high up. By the time it hit him full-on, he’d driven past. But he knew the road well, the quiet residential estates behind laid out in a grid. He took the next left, then three rights, and he was back out on the main road again—behind her now, taking it slowly.

She’d got barely thirty yards further, sauntering along like all of them did, like there was no tomorrow. He glanced in the rear-view mirror. Nothing. Scanned ahead. Not a ghost in sight but her. No need even to stop and ask. As he passed her again, he tried to get a better look, but a lamp post was in the way and he only caught a glimpse. It was enough, though. He gave it fifty yards or so, then pulled up on the verge, nice and easy, cut the engine and lights. Then it was just a matter of slipping into the back, checking the gauge on the cylinder, and making sure everything was in place.

Watching her through the square tinted windows at the back, he could tell she hadn’t noticed him stopping. Wasn’t noticing much by the look of it. Excitement gripped his breath as each step brought her closer, slowly, until he got his first clear look at her. Dark hair, shoulder-length and glossy, a white crop top flattening out her chest, a slash of bare belly, a tiny slip of skirt only just covering her. The gleam of precious metal on her neck. Typical.

He struggled to keep his breathing slow, forced himself to relax using the technique the doctor had shown him. Concentrating, making sure he got it right this time. He’d practised it over and over in his head, but experience had taught him to make allowances for the unpredictable in these matters and be prepared to react accordingly. Only the last few yards now. He closed his eyes, blessed himself, and began counting down. It was easier that way. Left hand holding the sack, right hand gripping the handle of the side panel door. He’d spent hours getting the sliding action smooth. Then he was out, landing perfectly, just a couple of feet in front of her, and his right hand was a fist now, flying like a missile straight at her face, so startled she didn’t have time to take a step back—or even be frightened.

© 2011 Gerard O’Donovan

Editorial Reviews

A sadist targets young women in O'Donovan's derivative second novel, a step down from his debut, White Lion, shortlisted for the CWA's Debut Dagger. When Insp. Mike Mulcahy returns to Ireland after a prestigious antinarcotics posting in Madrid, the contacts he made in Spain make him valuable to the police detectives assigned to identify the brute that assaulted Jesica Mellado Salazar, the Spanish interior minister's 16-year-old daughter, who was found in a Dublin road early one morning with severe burns on her genitals. Before the inquiry can make much progress, Jesica's father has her spirited away to recover at home. When the object used to burn her is identified as a gold crucifix, the target of the probe becomes known as "the Priest." As the fiend claims more victims, Mulcahy's love interest, reporter Siobhan Fallon, hypes the Priest as a national menace. The police follow all too familiar procedural lines, while Mulcahy needs to be a more distinctive lead if he's to sustain a series. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Priest is an addictive beginning by an author who is positioning himself as a major talent."—Bookreporter.com

"Good stories run through The Priest."—Philadelphia Inquirer

From the Publisher

This promising series debut introducing Irish detective Mike Mulcahy and journalist Siobhan Fallon by journalist and CWA Debut Dagger short-listed author O'Donovan is as much about sin and hope of redemption as it is about crime. Set in a post-Celtic Tiger, mid-pedophile-priest-scandal Dublin, the novel is breathlessly overbilled by the publisher as a battle with "a religion-obsessed serial killer" (not technically accurate, as there is only one death in the book, and that one is an accident). Hyperbole notwithstanding, characterization is spotty: the two protagonists and several of the female victims are well described, and other actors are merely paper dolls. Nonetheless, this is a gripping and atmospheric tale of obsession, violence, and inspired detective work, as Fallon and Mulcahy, working both together and at odds with the bureaucracy, flawed colleagues, and each other, seek to stop the serial rapist known as The Priest. VERDICT While leaving room for improvement, this first novel is a strong start to a promising fictional collaboration/relationship between Mulcahy and Fallon. For fans of European crime fiction and psychological thrillers.—David Clendinning, West Virginia State Univ. Inst. Lib., Charleston

Library Journal

This exciting debut mystery is set in Dublin. Expect more from this author since listeners will come to love the male and female leads. Michael Kramer does an admirable job with the Irish accents, but sometimes, in the heat of the chase, his brogue gets a little tangled with his South African, Australian, or New Zealand accent. But there are rich opportunities for his tremendous vocal range, which he satisfies completely. Kramer’s narrative voice is rich and warm, and his pacing is flawlessly keyed to the action of the story. His portrayals of the young female characters are also well done, especially for a narrator with such a deep voice. M.C. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2011 - AudioFile

Journalist O'Donovan launches a new series with the tale of a Dublin assailant whose crimes give the Troubles and Ireland's current economic crisis stiff competition.

English-language student Jesica [sic] Mellado Salazar, 16, is walking home when she's grabbed by a man in a van and brutally assaulted. For all the horrific details, the crime would be routine if she weren't the daughter of Spain's Interior Minister. Supt. Brendan Healy attaches Inspector Mike Mulcahy, just back from a posting with Europol's Narcotics Intelligence Unit in Madrid, to Inspector Claire Brogan's Sex Crimes squad as an interpreter who can take the girl's statement. When First Secretary Ibañez sees that Mulcahy is the only officer who treats either Jesica or himself humanely, he insists that Mulcahy be assigned to the case, then spirits the victim out of the country, forcing the Garda Siochana to hide their investigation. Marooned in a posting he hates, surrounded by colleagues who look down their noses at him, Mulcahy finds comfort only in devising theories of the case that Brogan and Sgt. Andy Cassidy, her sneering sidekick, ignore, and chatting with his old friend Siobhan Fallon, a Sunday Herald reporter who soon sets her sights on a story she's convinced involves a high-level cover-up. A second attack on a dental secretary, and the news that the first assault wasn't the first after all, raise the stakes for all concerned.

The killer's religio-pathic background is never quite convincing, but O'Donovan juggles his suspects deftly, and frustrated Mulcahy promises to be excellent company for the long term.

Kirkus Reviews