Blood Relations
This is the second novel in a satisfying police procedural series featuring Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride, an officer in the Police Services of Northern Ireland. This time Ryan and his team are investigating the killing of one of their own, retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan, who was found brutally murdered in his country home near Belfast.
Could the perpetrator be someone from Mullan’s police past — one of the many criminals he’d arrested, perhaps, wanting payback? Ryan’s new boss, Inspector Carol Whelan, insists this is where they’ll find the answers, and directs the team to scour Mullan’s old cases and convictions. She wants a quick result, avoiding any whiff of police scandal. She wants the story to be “retired senior police officer murdered after a lifetime of service,” without any media circus.
Ryan and his team start digging through Mullan’s past cases, but Ryan also wants to explore Mullan’s murky family life. He’s known Whelan since they were in police college together; she’s always been ambitious and has gotten several promotions, so that now she’s his boss. He’s concerned that she mainly wants a fast arrest to impress her own superiors and boost her career; he wants to keep his investigative options open.
One of the criminals that Mullan arrested, Dinger Bell, was recently released from prison but has disappeared, with the help of Gracie, his ex-wife. Dinger used to work for Morris Sweet, an unsavory local crime boss who has never been convicted of anything, due to fancy lawyers and witnesses who change their story at the last minute. It’s rumored that Dinger took the fall for Sweet, but also that Sweet thinks Dinger ratted on him. And Mullan had dealings with both Dinger and Sweet. Ryan suspects corruption on Mullan’s part may have led to his death.
This is a multilayered novel, with interwoven storylines revealing complex relationships among the various characters, criminal and otherwise. Past and present are intertwined, and Mullan’s murder proves to be only one of the violent acts in this story.
Repartee among members of the core police team — Ryan, his partner DS Billy Lamott, computer whiz Derek McGrath, and up-and-coming young officer Maura Dunn — introduce some lighter notes in the story. And Rose, Ryan’s girlfriend for the past six months, has left, so — unusually for him — he has no woman in his life. But is his previous ex-girlfriend, Bridget, still in the picture?
The writing in this novel is smooth and assured, even more so than in Woollcott’s debut novel. Scenes move ahead quickly; dialogue is realistic. Descriptions are sometimes crisp and sometimes lyrical and atmospheric, as the story moves inexorably toward the fast-moving climax.
There’s definitely an opening at the end for another installment in the DS Ryan McBride story, though Woollcott has not said whether she envisages another sequel.
Joyce Woollcott knows Northern Ireland well; she grew up there. She studied design at BCAD, University of Ulster. After moving to Canada as a young adult, she had a rewarding career as a graphic designer.
She always loved reading crime fiction, and after taking early retirement she decided to try writing a crime novel. She plunged into writing, meanwhile honing her craft at The Humber School for Writers as well as through other writing courses, along with critique groups and exchanges with other writers.
After much hard work, rewriting and polishing, in 2021 she signed a two-book publishing deal with Level Best Publishing. The first book in her Ryan McBride series, A Nice Place to Die, came out in August 2022. Blood Relations, published in August 2023, is the second in the series.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers. Joyce and her husband divide their time between homes in Toronto and Florida. They have one daughter and a grandson.
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