As this newest book in the series begins, Inspector Benedict ("Ben") Devlin has set his sights on a very wealthy. influential and powerful man, John Weston, who he suspects is guilty of . . . something, he's not quite sure what. But his very attitude of arrogance and something akin to condescension raises Devlin's hackles. He first meets Weston at his company's sixteen acres of Donegal bogland within which sits Ireland's newest and largest goldmine; when he enters the man's office, he cannot help but look out of the windows, which allow a view "revealing both the expanse of his goldmine and, to the other side, the majesty of the Donegal landscape in which he had quite literally carved his niche." But he has come here on this day in preparation for a visit by a U.S. Senator who is about to formally open the site.
Devlin is charged with ensuring the safety of the Senator, a fierce hawk vis-à-vis the Iraq war and a harsh critic of terrorism, the latter perhaps hypocritical coming, as it did, from a politician with links to an IRA support group, which in turn had incited Ireland's own anti-war activists. That, added to threats from the environmental lobby only adds to the concern. All of which is borne out quite vividly when the man, as feared, attacked, the event made worse, for Devlin, when the attacker is recognized as the brother of a childhood friend. And for his boss, Supt. Harry Patterson, this is the last straw after a series of perceived `mistakes' [of conscience and principle] on Devlin's part, and he is suspended.
But Devlin feels compelled to continue the investigation on which he had been working: What at first blush appeared to be a case of identity theft turns into something much more sinister: illegal immigration and its close relative, people smuggling, an all-too-familiar scenario with only the geographic particulars and the ethnicity of the victims varying.
This is the third Devlin novel. The writing is compelling, its protagonist a very human one [not the anguished, hard-drinking man one has come to expect in the genre], and it is recommended.