Reviews
21 August 2010
Here’s the review of If I Never See You Again which appeared in the I rish Independent:
Recently promoted Detective Inspector Jo Birmingham is a streetwise, spiky single mother trying with considerable difficulty to balance her career in the Garda Siochana with her family.
When she identifies the link between a series of brutal gangland killings, she comes under fierce scrutiny from her boss and former husband, Chief Superintendent Dan Mason.
Her work partner, Gavin Sexton, also has a strong interest in her investigation because it ties in with his own unethical pledge to help crime reporter Ryan Freeman find out who abducted his daughter. In trouble at work and at home, Jo soon discovers that she and her family are in terrible danger.
This is a formidable debut, as gritty, downbeat and realistic a take on the mean streets of Dublin's drug-riven inner city as you would expect from one of Ireland's top investigative reporters. Highly recommended.
In the Irish Times, Declan Burke said:
Niamh O’Connor’s If I Never See You Again (Transworld Ireland, €12.99) is equally authentic, the setting here being the mean streets of contemporary Dublin. Detective Jo Birmingham investigates a series of murders that appear to be the work of a serial killer with a grudge against Dublin’s gangland. A crime correspondent with the Sunday World , O’Connor invests her pacy police procedural with gritty detail, although Birmingham’s struggle to balance the demands of her professional life with her personal circumstance as a single mother raising two boys is as integral to the plot as the traditional crime-fiction tropes. Birmingham’s one-woman campaign on behalf of victims’ rights gives the novel its moral ballast.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0529/1224271349366.html
On the Euro Crime blog, Terry Halligan wrote:
Jo Birmingham is a single mother of two and a detective superintendent who has recently been promoted in the Dublin Force. She is struggling to maintain the right work-life balance which is not helped by her failed marriage and the fact that her ex-husband is her immediate boss. She has two young sons at home and she struggles to be a good parent against the demands of her job.
A spate of brutal killings are occurring in which each one is more severe than the previous one with body parts missing, and it becomes apparent that the killer is torturing his victims before striking the final blow. Who will be next? The press get to hear about it and a panic in the city is started as it becomes apparent that a serial killer is at work.
Jo Birmingham is in overall charge with some very difficult issues to contain - not least is the pressure from above to reach a speedy solution to satisfy public concern. She isn't helped by some poor detective work from one on her team, whom she suspects is feeding information to the press.
The panic in the city to the killings, is exaggerated by the fears the public has to the huge amount of violence that is is gradually becoming much worse which each successive incident. The pressure to uncover fresh leads and new evidence no matter how slim, becomes paramount to satisfy the hunger the public has for a end to its fears which are being ratcheted up by the mischievous press.
There are some false leads that have to be investigated, principally concerning the identity of the police detective who is providing vital clues to the media. Also, how is the killer choosing his victims? But soon, Jo finds that the killer is after her.
This was a very finely plotted, first novel by an ace crime reporter for the Sunday World, Ireland's largest selling Sunday newspaper. Jo Birmingham is a very well crafted new police detective and the author has created a very good police procedural of the finest quality with a really interesting set of characters. Jo's home life is almost as interesting as her work experience. I hope that we get the opportunity to read more books with these characters and that Niamh O'Connor has a lot of success with this one as she deserves the public's appreciation for a fine piece of writing, which, incidentally, kept me up late at night.
Terry, Halligan, England
May 2010
http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/reviews/If_I_Never_See_You_Again.html
And on the Crime Always Pays blog, Declan Burke said:
Newly promoted detective Jo Birmingham operates on the mean streets of Dublin. Ambitious and anxious to prove a point to her male colleagues - one of whom is her ex-husband, Dan, who is also her boss - Birmingham muscles in on the investigation into a series of killings that appear to have been committed by someone who has a grudge against Dublin’s gangland. The killings are ritualised, and appear to have a religious motive.
Parallel to the thriller aspects of the novel runs Jo Birmingham’s personal life. Separated from her husband, Jo is struggling to find enough hours in the day to maintain her home. She lives with her teenage son, Rory, and her one-year-old, Harry, both of whom are a huge drain on her resources, particularly time. Jo also suspects that Dan is having an affair with his secretary. This, naturally, adds to the friction in their professional relationship, and leads to a number of delicious confrontations.
Where the personal and political meet in a more explicit fashion, however, is the fact that Birmingham is conducting a one-woman campaign on behalf of victim’s rights, whom she believes are ill-served by the court system.
Niamh O’Connor
personalises this even further with a postscript to the novel: “Like Jo Birmingham, I too feel that the scales of justice are too heavily weighted in favour of the accused and need to be rebalanced back towards the victims of crime. This novel is our opening salvo.”
The novel is a pacy page-turner, and delivers a satisfying crime thriller. What’s particularly satisfying is the way in which O’Connor manages to imbue the story with gritty detail without ever holding up the story in order to divest herself of too much technical information. As a crime correspondent with the Sunday World, O’Connor spends much of her time in the company of Gardai, criminals and victims, and as a result the novel has a hard ring of authenticity.
Even though the basic plot - cop chases serial killer - is one that is becoming rather hackneyed these days, the fact that the story is so rooted in a contemporary Dublin reality gives it a cutting edge. Birmingham is a likeable character, despite her spiky, abrasive nature. This is off-set by her private self, which is marginally less spiky and abrasive, but what gives her an added dimension is her campaign on behalf of victims’ rights. - Declan Burke
http://crimealwayspays.blogspot.com/2010/06/nobody-move-this-is-review-if-i-never.html
While The Sunday Tribune gave the book a mention as one of the 25 reasons we love Ireland right now:
6. We also have a crime-fighting heroine to match any in the form of Detective Inspector Jo Birmingham, the protagonist of Niamh O' Connor's fine novel, If I Never See You Again due for release in Spring. Birmingham is the streetwise cop who gets caught up in gangland warfare, investigating a number of linked brutal murders on Dublin's mean streets, and this is a brilliant and gritty debut from O'Connor, whose day job is as one of the country's top crime journalists.
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/feb/21/25-reasons-we-love-ireland-right-now/
1 comment
Written by Catherine on 13 June 2011 at 11:54:00
I have just finished reading Taken and loved it. I hadn't read the first novel and I sincerely hope that I have not seen the end of Jo Birmingham! I enjoy reading crime/thriller fiction by various authors but what I love most about this novel is that it's based in Dublin and can relate to the various places mentioned throughout the book. So well done and thank you.