In the Morning I’ll be Gone
Overview: In the book In the Morning I’ll be Gone, A Catholic cop tracks an IRA master bomber amidst the sectarian violence of the conflict in Northern Ireland. It’s the early 1980’s in Belfast. Sean Duffy, a conflicted Catholic cop in the Protestant RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), is recruited by MI5 to hunt down Dermot McCann, an IRA master bomber who has made a daring escape from the notorious Maze prison. In the course of his investigations Sean discovers a woman who may hold the key to Dermot’s whereabouts; she herself wants justice for her daughter who died in mysterious circumstances in a pub locked from the inside. Sean knows that if he can crack the locked room mystery, the bigger mystery of Dermot’s whereabouts might be revealed to him as a reward. Meanwhile the clock is ticking down to the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in 1984, where Mrs. Thatcher is due to give a keynote speech.
Pages: 315 Pages
Writer:Adrian McKinty
Recommendations:
So far, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone is my favorite book in the Sean Duffy series. It not only delivers a great mystery, but to solve that mystery, Sean first has to solve another one. That mystery-within-a-mystery setup gave this book a different feel from the earlier entries in the series, and I really enjoyed it.
After somewhat losing himself following the loss of his position in the RUC, Sean Duffy suddenly gets a great opportunity when MI6 comes calling. Of course, Duffy is not entirely sure why they want him. Do they need someone who is willing to ruffle a few feathers to get the job done? Or is it simply because he went to school with the man they have tasked him with finding?
Either way, Duffy accepts the assignment and quickly discovers that he has very few leads to work with.
That is where the second mystery comes into play.
Duffy finds himself investigating an apparently unrelated case with the promise that, if he can solve it, he will receive help locating the person MI6 wants him to find. I really liked this approach because it gives the book two mysteries that are interesting on their own while slowly bringing them together.
Even better, one of those mysteries seems almost impossible to solve.
Sean Duffy Actually Gets to Be a Detective
One thing I liked about In the Morning I’ll Be Gone more than some of the previous Sean Duffy books is that it really feels like Duffy is solving the mystery himself.
He follows clues, notices details, asks questions, and gradually pieces everything together. There is less of a feeling that he simply happens to stumble onto the answer at the right moment. Watching Duffy work through the case made the mystery much more satisfying for me.
That is also where the character of Sean Duffy really shines.
Duffy may be cynical, stubborn, and perfectly willing to annoy just about anyone standing in his way, but he also has a strong desire to do the right thing. When he takes on a case, he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to solve it, even when doing so means making powerful enemies or putting himself in serious danger.
That combination continues to make Sean Duffy such an interesting character.
Northern Ireland Is the Perfect Setting for the Sean Duffy Series
I also continue to love the setting of Northern Ireland during the 1980s.
The Troubles create an incredible backdrop for a mystery series because there are so many competing interests, political tensions, personal grudges, divided loyalties, and dangerous organizations operating at the same time.
Almost anyone Duffy meets could have another agenda.
That gives Adrian McKinty countless possibilities when constructing a mystery. A relatively simple investigation can quickly become tangled up with politics, terrorism, intelligence agencies, the police, or decades of personal history.
The setting never feels like something simply added around the mystery. It is an important part of what makes the Sean Duffy books work.
Sean Duffy Continues to Develop
Another thing I enjoyed about this book was the direction Sean Duffy’s character takes.
After everything he has gone through, it was nice to see some positive things finally happening for him. Duffy has worked incredibly hard, survived situations that probably should have killed him, and repeatedly put himself in danger trying to solve cases.
In In the Morning I’ll Be Gone, it feels like some of that persistence is finally beginning to pay off.
He also develops nicely as a character throughout the book. Duffy is still very much Duffy, but he feels like someone who has been changed by everything that has happened to him during the previous books.
Final Thoughts on In the Morning I’ll Be Gone
Overall, I really enjoyed In the Morning I’ll Be Gone. The book kept me interested from beginning to end, and I especially enjoyed the way Adrian McKinty constructed the two mysteries and eventually connected them.
The mysteries were probably my favorite part of the book. Both were interesting enough to carry a story on their own, but linking them together made the investigation even more compelling.
Sean Duffy is still the star of the series — really, he is the whole show — but McKinty continues to surround him with interesting characters who make the world feel much larger.
Most importantly, this book left me wanting more.
That is probably the best compliment I can give any book in a series. When I finished In the Morning I’ll Be Gone, I was ready to immediately move on to the next Sean Duffy mystery.