To The Last Page

There's a bit of everything in Michael Russell's The City in Darkness , his third 1930s set novel featuring the Irish Special Branch detective Stefan Gillespie. There's the familiar historical and political element that considers the place of Ireland in Europe and in relation to Britain in this intriguing period. There are connections to be established between the actions of the De Valera government, the growing strength of the IRA, and with the Nazis as the war threatens to engulf wider Europe. At the same time, Russell has his detective become embroiled in an investigation into a series of murders in the beauty spot of Glendalough in Co Wicklow, drawing in some personal elements that have haunted the detective in earlier books. Incredibly, he ties all these elements together remarkably well, extending even further his outlook on the period in this series without the reader needing to have any previous knowledge of the first two books. Following on from the connections to ...