Like a lot of people, I have read this book (and the following books in the series) after watching the BBC adaptation Dublin Murders. It never appeared on my radar before and I doubt it did for a lot of casual crime thriller mystery fans either. I decided to pick it up as I felt it would be one of those supremely easy-to-read crime books that I can get through in a single sitting, and that is true.

It's a very enjoyable read (as far as fictional murder can be enjoyable to read) and I never felt like putting it down, but it did annoy me several times over. I put it down to being the first book of the series: finding its feet and testing the water. It reads quick except when it doesn't: Rob's inner monologues are tedious, his personality understandable but still jarring. The plot not special, but I did not find it wholly unsatisfying either, nor indeed absurd.

The intertwining of Rob's past being told alongside the murder of a young Irish teen is nicely done, but still somewhat tedious at times. I often found myself wanting to only read about Rob's past as opposed to what happened to this young girl, and maybe vice-versa: it seemed a little tangled at times, which might have been the point but could have been better done. Throwing in Irish life, the background activity of the residents and a really well-told location was nice, but didn't hugely elevate it for me. Often the characters were flat and rather childish, but often the plot was riveting and interesting. It kept me reading and, for a crime thriller, made me wonder all sorts of things about every character.

I immediately picked up the rest of the series, simply for how readable this was. Things were done in this for reasons I found pointless, but maybe we'll soon find out.