Reviews for All the Dead Voices (Ed Loy Series #4)

The average rating for All the Dead Voices (Ed Loy Series #4) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-20 00:00:00 John Hearon Bleak, bloody, rich in history and really well done. Dublin PI Ed Loy has his hands full - an old friend has asked him to watch out for his young brother, a rising football star. Anne Fogarty, a divorced mother of two has just hired him to look into the 15 year old murder of her father, a tax inspector. Her mother's lover was convicted and imprisoned but set free when the conviction was overturned. Anne is sure the death had something to do with one of the three investigations for tax fraud that her father was pursuing. Two of the men have strong IRA ties; one of those is now a prominent real estate developer, one a drug boss. The third is a George Halligan, a career criminal well known to Loy. The young footballer is shot and killed. One of the men related to the tax collector's murder may be involved. The background of the plot - or plots - is inextricably bound to the vicious intersection of politics and crime in the recent Irish past - the connections between the IRA and drug dealing, the internecine strife, betrayals and treachery between IRA factions and splinter groups. The narration includes lengthy passages related to the bombing deaths of a young family, blown up when the IRA men mistake their car for that of a hated judge. It's a telling reminder of the terrible damage done to ordinary people in that conflict and Hughes skillfully ties it to the main plot thread in the end. The plotting is intricate and engaging. The characters are complex and nuanced. There are a lot of gray areas to go with the noir.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-11-03 00:00:00 Julimarie Gresham Even after reading several less than glamorous reviews, the premise of this story sounded so good that I had to read this one. At first, I was tempted to stop - the dialect of our characters was more of a challenge than I expected & I am not well versed in the political history of Ireland so some of the important links just weren't there for me - but I was intrigued by the seemingly overlapping stories. I discovered that I really wanted to see how Ed Loy came out in the end *and* to see how Hughes linked all the pieces together. It was worth it to finish the book! For the last 150 pages or so, I simply didn't want to put the book down. Once the pieces came together, I began to feel a sense of satisfaction as things happened & even a sense of hope for Ed. Will I read the next book? I will add it to my 'to read' list but there is no hurry to get around to it.