Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty

Publisher's Synopsis

This Irish bad-boy thriller -- set in the hardest streets of New York City -- brims with violence, greed, and sexual betrayal."I didn't want to go to America, I didn't want to work for Darkey White. I had my reasons. But I went."

So admits Michael Forsythe, an illegal immigrant escaping the Troubles in Belfast. But young Michael is strong and fearless and clever -- just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a crime boss, to join a gang of Irish thugs struggling against the rising Dominican powers in Harlem and the Bronx. The time is pre-Giuliani New York, when crack rules the city, squatters live furtively in ruined buildings, and hundreds are murdered each month. Michael and his lads tumble through the streets, shaking down victims, drinking hard, and fighting for turf, block by bloody block.

Dodgy and observant, not to mention handy with a pistol, Michael is soon anointed by Darkey as his rising star. Meanwhile Michael has very inadvisably seduced Darkey's girl, Bridget -- saucy, fickle, and irresistible. Michael worries that he's being followed, that his affair with Bridget will be revealed. He's right to be anxious; when Darkey discovers the affair, he plans a very hard fall for young Michael, a gambit devilish in its guile, murderous in its intent.

But Darkey fails to account for Michael's toughness and ingenuity or the possibility that he might wreak terrible vengeance upon those who would betray him.

My Review of Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty

Dead I Well May Be is Adrian McKinty's superb debut thriller that is sharply tough, wonderfully descriptive and filled with a story that takes one unexpected turn after the other. From the turmoil of Belfast to the chaos of Harlem and a living hell in Mexico, every location is brought to vivid life thanks to McKinty's prose. Here is a gritty hardboiled story complete with violent gangsters and a desperate struggle for survival. It's a story of vengeance that is tough, uncompromising and grabs you demanding that you pay close attention.

When Michael Forsythe leaves his home in Belfast, he is only 19 but is already a hard man, exposed to the gang violence that dominates his city. He arrives in New York where he is employed by crime boss Darkey White for whom he works as muscle to enforce his protection and loan shark rackets. While working for Darkey, Michael proves himself to be a dependable man to have around, earning the respect of all the other men in Darkey's crew. He's a violent man displaying an almost sociopathic lack of emotion after severely crippling another man in a cold-blooded revenge attack.

The story is narrated by Michael and even while everything appears to be going well for him, he warns us of the events that are soon to follow. He points out the men he will kill and the way they will die, men he will later work for and the fact that his life is about to be drastically altered. These snapshots give us a chance to look forward, whetting our appetite for the major events that are still to take place.

One of the things that is going well for him is a secret affair he is having with Bridget, Darkey's girlfriend. He is well aware that he would pay a high price should Darkey find out about it but he likes to flirt with danger and carries on regardless. Little is he to know that the "simple little job" he is sent to Mexico for is going to be that high price.

This is a consistently fast-paced story concentrating on the cut-throat world of the small-time hoods of New York's Harlem and The Bronx. Smattered amongst the colourful descriptions of the neighborhoods in which Michael lives and works are some intense scenes that graphically demonstrate what a cold-blooded man he is. But for all of his violent tendencies he instills an aura of the underdog, a quality that makes you want to like him.

His fellow Irish thugs are all young men who seem to be playing the part of hard men whereas Michael is the real deal. This is about as in-depth as McKinty allows the characterisation to go for Michael's partners - Scotchie, Fergal and Andy. We never really know much more about them than the fact that they are young hoods who talk big and act big when they're armed. A lot of this is because the story is told from Michael's perspective and is indicative of how little he bothers to get to know them.

Dead I Well May Be is a book of two halves with the first all about survival on the New York streets fighting for territory from rival gangs, urban warfare among the slums and cockroaches with survival dependant not only upon who has the greater firepower, but also on who is prepared to use it. The second is a different kind of survival story as Michael's world completely crumbles in Mexico. He is now dependent on his will to live, mental toughness being the key to whether he will live or die. It's during these hard times through a series of flashbacks and hallucinations that we learn a lot about his background and the hardships that he endured as a boy in Belfast.

A quick note about the violence in the book, even though it was mentioned earlier, it is worth warning again that some of it is quite extreme and is even more shocking by the suddenness in which it is inflicted. I read hardboiled crime stories all the time and I even found myself flinching once or twice at the descriptions of the punishment that was handed out.

This taut thriller has announced Adrian McKinty as a crime writer to look out for, particularly for those who are looking for a wild ride through some of the meanest streets imaginable.