The Bureau by Eoin McNamee (Riverrun, £18.99)
Known for his psychologically acute literary reimaginings of real crimes, Irish writer McNamee prefers to explore implications than journey towards a neat ending, and his work is all the better for it. The crime at the heart of The Bureau is fictional, but the narrative has a family connection and the younger McNamee appears as a character. It’s set in 1980s Newry, a Northern Irish city whose proximity to both the border and the Irish sea makes it ideal for criminal enterprises ranging from doctored fuel to bootleg alcohol, the proceeds laundered through the eponymous bureau de change. As the mistress of gangster Paddy Farrell, Lorraine occupies her own morally dubious border space. The murder-suicide, described at the start, looks like a drastic attempt on her part to place the pair of them on an equal footing, but there are enough anomalies to leave room for doubt. This is an astonishingly powerful portrait of a time and place saturated in sentimentality and cruelty, where, despite the ever-present sectarianism, “nobody was on anyone’s side”.
The Mouthless Dead by Anthony Quinn (Abacus, £20)
When Julia Wallace was battered to death in Liverpool in 1931, the guilty party was initially thought to be her husband, William. His alibi involved a telephone message from one RM Qualtrough, summoning him to a fictitious address to discuss business. Qualtrough was never found, but the lack of evidence against Wallace meant his conviction was overturned on appeal. The case, described by Raymond Chandler as “the nonpareil of murder mysteries”, became a cause célèbre. As in John Hutton’s excellent 1979 fictionalisation, 29 Herriott Street, Quinn employs the device of having an interested party looking back at the case. On a voyage to New York, former CID officer Key regales fellow passengers with his part in the story and it gradually becomes clear that he is privy to rather more inside information than came out in court. Well imagined, well researched and well written, The Mouthless Dead provides a highly entertaining – if highly unlikely – solution to a famous unsolved murder.
