Never Ask The Dead by Gary Donnelly

*spoiler-free*

Never Ask The Dead is the third instalment in Gary Donnelly’s DI Owen Sheen series, following on from Blood Will Be Born and Killing In Your Name. This is a perfectly executed crime book set in Northern Ireland, investigating a double agent from the Troubles era after a cryptic message from Tom ‘Tucker’ Rogers reaches Sheen, claiming “they” killed his friend and that he is next. DI Owen Sheen and DC Aoife McCusker, as part of the Serious Historic Offences Team (SHOT), begin working on the ‘Cyprus Three’ case which involved the killing of 3 IRA members by the SAS to find the connections between these cases.

Trust nobody but Sheen. Watch your back. I’m sorry. Dad

Never Ask The Dead., p40

I was very kindly sent this book by Allison & Busby, and even from reading the blurb I was hooked. I particularly loved that this could be read as a standalone book despite it being a part of a series, meaning no new reader would be disadvantaged. Donnelly is effective in providing context for the reader of the main characters, such as Sheen and McCusker, so we can quickly gauge the romantic relationship between the two and their previous experiences working together.

The book delves between different perspectives each chapter by Sheen, Aoife, Tucker, TOPBRASS and more, all in the third person. I found Tucker’s sections very interesting as the elements of mystery were largely prominent here. Never Asks The Dead is set within the Troubles epoch, and Donnelly again guarantees that the reader has sufficient context even if they have no prior knowledge about this period, like me. Whilst this is still fiction, this is the perfect fit for Northern Irish Noir.

I also really liked Aoife’s character. I recently attended Donnelly’s live book launch event on Facebook where he discussed the behind the scenes of his latest book and answered questions that were sent in. He shared that his most difficult character to write was Aoife, but I think she was written perfectly. Aoife quickly became my favourite character as I loved reading about her daughter Eva and her close relationship with Sheen, as well as her professional development working within the police. I also really enjoyed the more minor characters, like Hayley, Geordie and Jackson, all of which were well developed and served good purpose in the overriding story.

Never Ask The Dead is dedicated to Sheen’s desire to expose TOPBRASS, a character introduced to the reader in the prologue as a man rich with mystery, deceit and intelligence. Although there are quite a few different names and characters that appear throughout the book which may be a lot for the reader to take in initially, it was very satisfying that all the loose ends eventually tie together. Never Ask The Dead holds a good pace in the telling of events which kept me turning the page to find out the truth about TOPBRASS.

If you also want to read other reviews who are apart of Allison & Busby’s book tour check out the accounts below:

3/5 stars