The Wrong Kind of Blood

January 23, 2006
In this overly busy and bloody crime thriller from Irish playwright Hughes (Shiver
), Edward Loy, an Irish PI transplanted to L.A., returns home to Dublin for his mother's funeral. A friend's request to locate her missing husband puts Loy on a trail that leads to a corpse found within the foundations of the city's town hall, a notorious family of brothers who head an organized crime ring, heroin funding, numerous murders, possible IRA involvement and much more. When the pace momentarily slackens, the author supplies some nicely observed pastoral views of Dublin and the Irish countryside, but the ongoing cacophony of violence deafens one to all but the most sanguinary details. Hughes has talent, but this caper, his first, doesn't whet one's appetite for more of the same.

January 15, 2006
L.A. private detective Edward Loy has returned to Dublin to bury his mother. He's been away longer than he'd like to admit: the drab and seedy neighborhoods of his youth have given way to a buzz of gentrification, trendy cars, and new money. As he sifts through his mother's sparse belongings, he is contacted by the wife of a boyhood friend who thinks her missing husband may have been caught up in some questionable real estate and rezoning deals. Loy's initial query uncovers a quagmire of drugs, guns for hire, and mob-related dealings among those of his chums who have not done well in the high-tech economic upturn. Loy's boyhood friend turns up dead, Loy becomes a suspect, and his drug-running chums are sent to warn him off the trail of the real killers. And of course the police come after him for working without a permit. Much blood is shed before the case is solved, and Loy learns more than he bargained for about going home again. This debut novel from Dublin playwright Hughes is an intricately crafted tale of murder and betrayal in one of the most rapidly changing capitals of modern Europe. Recommended for most mystery collections." -Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA"

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