Chorley Chronicals: Black Irish by Stephan Talty {Audio}

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Black Irish by Stephan Talty {Audio}

8:12 PM | Posted by Unknown

Black Irish by Stephan Talty
My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Title:  Black Irish
Author:  Stephan Talty
Narrator:  David H. Lawrence XVII
Length: Unabridged; 10 hours, 4 minutes
Publisher:  Random House Audio
Published: February 26, 2013
Genres: Fiction; Mystery
Subjects: Policewomen; Serial Murderers; Irish American Catholics; Mystery & Detective; Buffalo, New York

Synopsis:

In this explosive debut thriller by the New York Times best-selling author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a city’s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage.

Absalom “Abbie” Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldn’t keep Abbie’s troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detective’s badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those she’s sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts.

When Jimmy Ryan’s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a message - one that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as “the County” understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wag - with desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killer’s mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own family’s past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the County’s hidden history - one bloody body at a time.

With Black Irish, Stephen Talty stakes a place beside Jo Nesbø, John Sandford, and Tana French on the cutting edge of psychological crime thrillers.

My Review:
I have found that topics of books written by male author's don't seem to garner as much of my attention as those of female author's do, and I think, more or less, that was the case with this book. It surely had to be a man that came up with a story about the Irish Catholics of New York!!

The narrator, David H. Lawrence XVII, seemed to be one of the most professional and seasonal narrator's that I have ever listened to, and especially lately, I have listened to a lot of audio books! He truly did a phenomenal job of narrating this book and capturing the very essence that Stephan Talty meant to capture when writing Black Irish!

I feel like sometimes, mystery books seem to always follow the same type of theme or story, and I must admit, that although it wasn't my most favorite plot, it was a very unique plot that I don't think you're going to find in any other book! It was full of mystery and was very difficult to try and predict what the ending was going to be, and never in my life would I have guessed that it would have ended the way that it did, and who the serial killer was!

Talty hit me in the heart when he designed the main character, Absalom Kearney. There's nothing that I like more than a strong, independent woman, who can hold her own, maybe even more than the men she's around, and isn't afraid to show them or tell them that she can. She proves to be an excellent cop in a land where female cops are very blatantly not welcome and I loved that! I also enjoyed listening to the budding relationship between Abbie and her father, that she seemed ever so desperate to achieve, after, as I interpreted, she had failed a child!

I did start to listen to this book about a year ago, and according to my Goodreads progress, I had gotten 38% into it, but I have absolutely no recollection of ever listening to any of it, so after listening to it this time, I can only figure that I just wasn't in the mood to listen at that time (I actually took about a 3 month hiatus from listening to audio books shortly thereafter), because I didn't have one bit of problem listening to it this go around! As a matter of fact, I felt like it really took off from the very beginning and kept me interested throughout!

Overall, this book didn't have me screaming from the mountain top that this was my most favorite book that I have ever read in the world, however, I wasn't disappointed that I had read it! As a matter of fact, I will read the next book that also stars Abbie (although I haven't pinpointed if this is becoming a series or not!) when it is released this Spring! The only reason I only gave it 3 of 5 bookworms is because the subject at hand was not my favorite!

Would I Recommend This Book?
Sure!

Stand Alone or Part of a Series?
Stand Alone (At this point I think it is part of a series, however, a new book is being released with Abbey Kearney as the main character, but it still is not listed as a Series Book! Should that change, I will edit my review!)