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Inspector Matt Minogue Books In Order

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Publication Order of Inspector Matt Minogue Books

Inspector Matt Minogue series by John Brady

Author John Brady writes the acclaimed “Inspector Matt Minogue” series of mystery, thriller novels. The series began publication in the year 1988, when “A Stone of the Heart” was released. The series is set in Dublin, where John Brady was born.

Matt Minogue is a member of the Gardai, the Irish police force. He is a veteran of the now disbanded Murder Squad, Minogue was given a ‘soft landing’ with the Gardai’s International Liaison section. Recently he opted for a stint with a new ‘cold case’ squad.

“A Stone of the Heart” was awarded the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel in the year 1989.

“A Stone of the Heart” is the first novel in the “Inspector Matt Minogue” series, which was released in the year 1988. Jarlath Walsh’s body is found on the grounds of Dublin’s Trinity College with his head beaten in. Matt Minogue suspects this was no random killing. Walsh was an idealist, but somebody wants the detective to think the young guy was a drug-pusher. During a fateful clash close to the Northern Ireland border, Minogue finds the truth.

Minogue is a strong character, one who is well developed that has resonance and depth. Brady gives enough back story and family context without slowing any of the action down. This makes for quite a powerful start to an interesting series. Each one makes you feel like you are catching up with an old friend.

“Unholy Ground” is the second novel in the “Inspector Matt Minogue” series, which was released in the year 1989. The book begins with the killing of 73 year old Arthur Combs, who is a terribly ordinary guy, while he is in his cottage just outside of Dublin. He might have surprised a burglar, which is what the Guards believe. When Detective Sergeant Minogue gets assigned the case, he starts to suspect Combs could have been a top-level undercover British spy.

“Kaddish in Dublin” is the third novel in the “Inspector Matt Minogue” series, which was released in the year 1990. A body has washed up on a beach and is the son of a prominent Irish Jewish family: ‘one of our own, sure, but a Jew.

The body takes Minogue to the wider realm of political conspiracy. Paul Fine was a prominent judge’s son whose family lived in Dublin for generations and played a vital role in the city’s tiny, complicated Jewish community. Paul Fine is discovered dead, the evidence appears to point at an organization linked to the PLO. Intelligent detective work and an unexpected second killing lead Minogue along with the Squad in a whole new direction.

Quickly he finds that he has come upon yet another extremist sect of religious zealots, one that has got some political ambitions as well as connections with the government and police. While Minogue unravels the mystery of the murders, he finds that he is understanding something about the Jews in Dublin, these people that are bound to Ireland, yet remain outsiders.

“All Souls” is the fourth novel in the “Inspector Matt Minogue” series, which was released in the year 1993. The unsolved killing of a Canadian tourist from ten years ago won’t be forgotten. A drizzly day in October in Dublin has got Minogue daydreaming all about the piercing blue skies in Greece. He plans a surprise trip with Kathleen, his wife, just to be called back down to reality by the suicide attempt of Seamus Hoey, his partner in the Garda Murder Squad. Making things worse, his son has been suspected of running guns.

Minogue travels to the west of Ireland reluctantly to help out. While there, he meets a rather colorful lawyer, and against some better instincts, he agrees to do some unofficial investigating into the killing of Jane Clark, the young Canadian visiting Ireland ten years previously. Minogue and Hoey, beleaguered and groggy, are quickly enmeshed in Jane’s case as well as her lover, Jamesy Bourke, the local eccentric and half-crazed poet convicted of killing her.

After years of electroshock therapy, Bourke’s memory is coming back, and what he is remembering causes panic in more than just one of the locals. Just like the past is another country, and Halloween brings with it chaos, Minogue sinks into an underworld where he has to reckon with a dark past filled with violence, death, and revenge. Part innocent abroad, part shaman, part cop, Minogue sees an Ireland, where the ancient countryside as well as its forgotten peoples mock and challenge his desire to make the past disclose all of its secrets.

“The Good Life” is the fifth novel in the “Inspector Matt Minogue” series, which was released in the year 1995. Dublin’s Grand Canal was once a place for young lovers to go on romantic strolls. Now the place is a prime spot for prostitution and drug deals. The water that once harbored elegant swans now washes up dead bodies and syringes. Mary Mullen is found beaten and her body was dumped callously, jammed right up against a canal lock. She just want some of ‘the good life’, but once she hooked up with the notorious Egan brothers, it all began to spiral out of control.

While trying to solve Mary’s murder, he is plunged into the depths of Dublin’s underworld. A world filled with pornography, drug trafficking, and prostitution. Each and every path Minogue takes appears to take him back to the Egans, whose organized crime family is under surveillance already by a joint police task force.

The Garadai are receiving some frantic phone calls from one of Mary’s friends. Liam Hickey, who is an occasional drug user and petty thief, knows something. He is scared of both of the Egans and the Gardai and is looking to stay on the run. The investigation is quickly complicated by the new partner of Minogue on the Squad. Tommy Malone, who is a dyed-in-the-wool Dubliner, has got a twin brother named Terry. He comes complete with his own drug addiction and will be shortly released from prison, then headed right back into the deadly web of the Egan’s.

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