Superhero swagger
Adrian McKinty returns with not-to-miss episode in Duffy saga

From our gossamery “Unfit,” by Ariana Harwicz, in “Murder Ink” last month, we’re back to murder and chaos from a veteran crime fiction writer. I am convinced he is the best in police procedurals and from the land of inherited murder and maelstrom: the divided, rivaling island of Ireland.

Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in a working-class housing project in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the worst decades of The Troubles. As most fiction writers, McKinty nibbled his way into writing while working odd jobs before securing a full scholarship to Oxford University to study philosophy. He fell in love in England, followed his betrothed to New York City, worked illegally as a bartender and teamster and married. He later moved to Denver and Boulder where he taught in high schools before moving to Australia where he decided to spin the wheel and write full time.

McKinty struggled as most aspiring fiction writers do. But he had that whisper of genius to draw upon his menacing life growing up in what can be called a war-torn country. He has reanimated his juvenile fears into stories about lawlessness witnessed through the life of fictional detective Sean Duffy. McKinty wrote and wrote, and like the chances of seeing a shooting star in the night sky, he became one of the finest, if not the finest creator of police procedurals in crime fiction. 

In “Hang on St. Christopher,” it is the early 1990s, and Duffy elects to call it quits and take an early pension. He moves his wife and daughter “over the water” to civilized Scotland. He is required to come back into Belfast’s Carrickfergus Police Station six days a month to be bored with little to do. But with only a handful of months left before he plans to never see trouble again, he’s walking away from a reputation. Young recruits in the Criminal Investigation Department idolize Duffy for his nerve and savvy, stepping aside on crime scenes or office hallways in deference to his moxie. And superiors hate him but need him for his roguery.

“Hang on St. Christopher” is the name of a song by Tom Waits from one of Duffy’s shelves of LPs. Building the vivid character, McKinty fleshes out a superhero police detective with vignettes of Duffy’s taste in music, his BMW and the selection of weapons and lock picks he has sewn into the sleeve of his leather jacket. He also has a mirror set up to peer under his car for bombs commonly used to eliminate police and enemies of the IRA. Duffy is a star crime fighter without the James Bond attitude – a character developed from McKinty’s image of himself, without the conceit.

To build suspense without the usual tricks, a source of foreboding is instilled right away with Duffy being only a couple months shy of ending his long, esteemed career in law enforcement. His last case should have been handled by his replacement, Sergeant Lawson. But Lawson is on holiday in Italy, and Duffy has been ordered to investigate a murder of a fine arts painter. Not known to be overly deferential to his superiors, Duffy is in his apartment readying for his return ferry to his new home in Scotland when Chief Inspector McArthur comes pounding on his door. Duffy pretends not to be home, but McArthur can hear Steely Dan bouncing off the walls and doubles up his pounding.

The Chief Inspector offers Duffy time and a half to work the case, which is generous considering McArthur can reduce his retirement pension for insubordination. Predictably, Duffy’s last gig is a skosh short of his last dance.

I’ve read and reviewed a number of McKinty’s Sean Duffy books, and each one astounds me with how erudite and what a natural storyteller he is. I’d vote McKinty the best police engagement writer in the business: he’s smart; is a skilled writer and fabulist; and he never drops a thread or swans through sections to set up the action. Every line McKinty writes is pregnant with creative power. Among general and crime fiction writers, he is a big leaguer. 

  McKinty’s “Police at the Station, and They Don’t Look Friendly,” another stunning Sean Duffy procedural, was reviewed in these pages June 1, 2017. “Hang on St. Christopher” was released in March 2025, so you’ll have to ask Maria’s Bookshop to order it for you. Or try the public library, they’re sure to have it or can easily and quickly order it from interlibrary loan.

Don’t miss this book. Don’t miss any Adrian McKinty book. He’s one of the top fiction writers in the crime genre and will hold his place with any fiction writer of any ilk.