REVIEWED BY BARRY GARDNER:


BARTHOLOMEW GILL – Death on a Cold, Wild River. Peter McGarr #10. William Morrow, hardcover, 1993. Avon, reprint paperback, 1994. Macmillan, UK, hardcover, 1993.

BATHOLOMEW GILL Death on a Cold Wild River

   The first thing that struck me about this was a dust jacket that would have been quite appropriate for a fishing novel, but was about as mysterious as a poached trout. Morrow needs a new art director.

   Peter McGarr, head of Ireland’s Murder Squad, is suspended pending completion of a investigation of the circumstances detailed in The Death of Love, in which an Irish politician was assassinated.

   He reads of the death by drowning of Ireland’s foremost lady fisherman, and is devastated; she had been his lover before he met his wife. He goes to console the father and attend the funeral, and is shown evidence that the death may not have been accidental, after all.

   He gingerly — because of his suspension — begins to dig around, and finds that she was both rich and not universally loved. There’s a poacher who thinks she turned him in; a Scottish lady who coveted her lucrative catalog business; and an American who wanted to be her partner; and who knows, maybe others.

   There’s a lot of fishing lore here, particularly salmon fishing, which will interest many (though not me). Gill does his usual competent job of narration, primarily from McGarr’s viewpoint, and the prose and plot were fine.

   This isn’t a bad book at all, you understand, and I enjoyed reading it. It’s just that it doesn’t quite live up to Death of a Joyce Scholar and The Death of Love. The characters don’t seem as sharply etched, and there doesn’t seem to be the same depth of feeling, and the same peculiarly Irish sensibility.

   It’s “just” a decent mystery novel by a good writer. I’m disappointed only because I’ve come to expect a bit more from Gill and McGarr.

— Reprinted from Ah, Sweet Mysteries #10, November 1993.



Editorial Comment:   Barry wasn’t able to show the cover of this book by Gill in his printed zine back in 1993, but I’m pleased that I’m able to now, some 17 years later. What do you think? Was he right, or was he right?