The Rage - by Gene Kerrigan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. "Fans [of The Wire] can find many of the same strengths in Kerrigan's work" (The New York Times).

Vincent Naylor has just been released from prison and has already begun to plot his next heist--the robbery of an armored car. Det. Sgt. Bob Tidey has been caught perjuring himself to protect fellow officers. He's also found the link between an unsolved murder case and the recent execution of a corrupt banker in serious financial difficulty. An old acquaintance will change the course of the investigation. A retired nun living on regrets and bad memories notices something deeply suspicious and makes a phone call that sets in motion a series of fateful events.
In The Rage, Gene Kerrigan weaves together astute observations regarding a financial crisis, church abuse, and gangland crime. The writing is, as always with a Kerrigan novel, superb, with an engaging story that has pitch perfect dialogue and characters that come fully alive.
The prize-winning crime fiction is set in contemporary Ireland where nothing is neatly resolved and there are no easy choices. Like life itself.

"A perfect novel . . . beautifully constructed, with sharp and relevant dialogue, and not a superfluous word to be found." --The Oregonian

"Gritty and compulsively readable."--The Wall Street Journal

"Tightly plotted . . . the story's pacing is masterly."--The New Yorker

"A boundlessly readable portrait of an Ireland in which all the old certainties have vanished. Remarkable for its verve, moral trickiness, and nifty plotting."--NPR Fresh Air

"Fans of Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and Declan Burke won't want to miss this one."--Booklist (starred review)

Review Quotes

"Gritty and compulsively readable."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Kerrigan's clean, spare style adapts smoothly to the striving characters who lend their many voices to this narrative. What's more striking, though, is the similarity of their aspirations and the familiarity of their discontents."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Tightly plotted...the story's pacing is masterly."
--The New Yorker

"Fans [of The Wire] can find many of the same strengths in Kerrigan's work."
--The New York Times

"A boundlessly readable portrait of an Ireland in which all the old certainties have vanished. Remarkable for its verve, moral trickiness, and nifty plotting." --NPR Fresh Air

"For authenticity, narrative, plot, writing skill, the gritty noirish crime milieu setting, and the post-Celtic-Tiger-Ireland toxicity, Kerrigan's latest well deserves its CWA Gold Dagger Award." --Library Journal (Starred Review)

"With a dexterous use of language married to masterful plotting, Kerrigan has something of James Joyce's ability in conjuring up a vivid Dublin--but this modern city is very different than the one Leopold Bloom wandered through."
--The Independent

About the Author