Ingrid Black

I found The Dead by Ingrid Black to be a fairly standard serial killer story. Set in Dublin, Ireland, notorious serial killer Ed Fagan hasn’t been heard from in a number of years but to everyone’s surprise, a newspaper reporter receives a letter claiming to be from him and promising a number of murders will be taking place over the course of the next week. The next day the body of a prostitute is found, and the police are convinced that Ed Fagan has returned.

American, ex-FBI special agent and true-crime author, Saxon is absolutely certain that this isn’t the work of Fagan, and she has good reason to know. She is called upon to assist DCS Grace Fitzgerald in the hunt, but first she has to convince the team to look beyond the obvious.

I had a little trouble getting into The Dead, it seemed to drag for the first half of the book. I also didn’t bond too well with the main character of Saxon. She is meant to be dark and snarky, but I found her a little too grim and morose. Her addition to the investigation was rather strange as she has no official credentials yet she seemed to have access to every area of the case. Also she is very obviously gay and involved with DCS Fitzgerald but this was never really addressed. There were lots of red herrings and a few loose ends that seemed promising but were totally dropped. The ending was somewhat of a surprise and since there are more books about these characters, perhaps there will be some resolution yet to come.… (más)

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This was the second book I found written by Ingrid Black, again it is set in Dublin, with some lovely descriptions on Dublin. I'd really like to go there someday.



The story was interesting, but mostly because it reminded me of an episode of some British detective series (I can't remember which one, because I used to watch quite a few of them). But it was also about a group of guys who in college had had a group they had called for Dante's (I believe it was second circle; the one for hedonists) inferno, something terrible had happened when partying. They had covered it up, probably by their wealthy/influential parents; but apparently someone knew about it and was hunting them down? (I think it might have been Lewis?)

Well, anyway, I couldn't stop wondering about it whilst reading this book.… (más)

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And this is the other Black pseudonym I was talking about. Well, luckily I like this duo a lot better.



I had never really heard anything about the authors before, but I was positively surprised by this book. It was refreshing and interesting, once you stop minding the annoying lesbian jokes which are - needless to say - not funny. I did like the descriptions of Dublin though.



I've read one other book by Ingrid Black, and I think that after that they stopped translating them, because I never saw another one, unfortunately.… (más)