‘The One You Least Suspect’ by Brian McGilloway

Published by Constable,
8 May 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-40871801-8 (HB)

Some years ago I read McGilloway’s first two novels (featuring Inspector Devlin). At least I assume I read them as they are on my shelves, but I recall nothing about them. That is certainly not the fault of the author but a demonstration of this reader’s memory and his inability to recall the detail of most crime books he has read over the years shortly after finishing them. That failing does have the advantage that I can read them again later with enjoyment as the plot has faded from what passes as my mind. I know not everyone is like that. And it was the best part of 20 years since I read McGilloway’s early novels, so I think I can plead some amount of mitigation.

And thus I was keen to read his latest, a stand-alone. Single mother Katie works as a barmaid and cleaner at O’Reilly’s on the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic (that location is an important aspect of the novel as it is in McGilloway’s writing more generally – he lives there). She has a young daughter, Hope, and Katie’s devoted mother helps with childcare given that Hope’s father has absconded. All is calm until two detectives appear. They know all about Katie and her activities and have intimate photos to prove it. It appears that Katie’s employers (Mark and Terry O’Reilly) are heavily involved in the buying and selling of drugs and they want Katie to become an informer. She resists, of course, as this could be the kiss of death for her, but more and more pressure is put on her. She has a brief fling with a colleague, and his wife attacks her after receiving incriminating photos. Who sent them? Katie’s benefits suddenly stop. Who was behind that? Hope breaks her arm when playing near her devoted grandmother. Social services get involved and Katie’s mother is barred from being alone with her granddaughter. Who instigated that, after what was an innocent accident? Emotional blackmail is everywhere. Katie’s fears, particularly concerning Hope, mean that she finds it impossible to resist the pressure.

Katie is constantly on the edge, between the police and making sure that the O’Reilly brothers do not suspect her reluctant actions. Mark attempts to have a relationship with Katie: ‘I wondered at how one body could house someone who was such a gentleman in his treatment of me,’ she observes, ‘and yet also someone who let a teenager die, who was prepared to sell drugs in our city and murder those who would try to prevent him or, at the very least, turn a blind eye to his brother doing so.’ Katie makes her own enquiries and discovers information that makes matters clearer to her. She can be an operator too.

There is strange morality at work, something that both sides can use to justify their actions. Mark O’Reilly: ‘People want something and they will get it one way or the other. If we weren’t supplying the town, someone of a different persuasion would be and the money would be going somewhere else. We invest in the city. We employ people here. We look after our community.’ The police: ‘There’s always someone higher up the chain, Katie [...] You think we need you. We don’t need you. You’re dispensable. You need us. And, if you want to get out, you need me. [...] If you’re not going to help us, you’re of no value. Remember that.’ Events can be shown to be not what they seem. People can be shown to be not what they seem.

Given that some of the characters are unpleasant, evil and unscrupulous, there is plenty of violence. Lowlife seems to be everywhere, and human life is cheap to some. Demonstrations of genuine kindness are sufficiently rare to take the reader’s notice. If you like your crime hard-boiled, you will enjoy this novel. It is well-written with vivid characters and locations, and the intricate plot keeps you wondering if and/or how Katie will get out of her predicament. ‘I had never been more ashamed to be part of something in my life,’ Katie says at one point. After one or two incidents her first instinct is to take a shower, to cleanse the metaphorical dirt. Perhaps the best praise I can give the novel is that once or twice I felt like doing much the same.
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Reviewer: David Whittle

Brian McGilloway was born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974. After studying English at Queen's University, Belfast, he taught in St Columb's College in Derry, where he was Head of English before taking up a post in Holy Cross College in Strabane. His first novel Borderlands was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger 2007.  and was hailed by The Times as ‘one of (2007’s) most impressive debuts. Brian has now written thirteen books. He lives near the Irish borderlands with his wife and their four children.

http://www.brianmcgilloway.com/  

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is a former convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers Association.