Rain Dogs

Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty

The fourth of the Detective Sean Duffy novels begins with a fictional account of Muhammad Ali’s visit to Belfast. And while this did not actually happen (there’s an explanation in the afterword), this book, like the others in the series, is firmly grounded in 1980s Belfast. What starts with the missing wallet of a member of a Swedish trade mission and moves on to the mysterious suicide of a financial reporter ends up with the beginnings uncovering of a ring of pedophiles that rocked Ireland and Great Britain. Sean tries to balance the awful discoveries he makes with the chaos of his private life. Well-written and engaging, maybe not the best of the Duffy novels, but still a lot better than most crime fiction.

The English Spy

The English Spy by Daniel Silva  484 pp.

What could be better than listening to an audiobook of the latest book by one of your favorite authors, about your favorite Mossad assassin, read by your favorite audiobook narrator? Gabriel Allon returns in the fifteenth book about his exploits as a Mossad operative, now soon to be the head of Israeli intelligence, a position he doesn't really want. After the yacht carrying a very Diana-like British princess is sunk by a terrorist bomb Allon and gun-for-hire ex-patriot Brit, Christopher Keller team up again to find Eamon Quinn, the former IRA bomber responsible for the bombing. This book is a sequel to The English Girl and the Russian Spy/British Prime Minister's mistress reappears as one of the targets of Quinn. While all this is happening, Allon's wife, Chiara, is at home in Israel awaiting the birth of their twins. While there are very brief appearances of the usual characters Ari Shamron, Uzi Navot, Eli Lavon, Dina, Rimona, and Mikhail along with Graham Seymour, head of British Intelligence, this book is really the Allon-Keller show. I'll not give away the ending but I will say it was amusing to see the serious and always focused Allon become a stereotypical nervous dad when the time comes for Chiara to go to the hospital. Now I must wait until next year for a new Allon story.

Jack of Spies by David Downing

Jack of Spies by David Downing, 338 pages.

On the eve of the First World War Jack McColl has decided that selling luxury automobiles, specifically the fictional (I'm pretty sure) Maia model, isn't for him anymore. Cars and car sales have changed so much, and Jack doesn't see much future in sales in the manner he has grown accustomed to. Currently he and his mechanic travel the world, car in tow, heading for places where the wealthy can be found, and give test drives and take orders for cars that will then be manufactured. Since the changes coming don't appeal, Jack is convinced that he should be seeking full-time employment in the newly evolving field of espionage. He's been nosing around German naval settlements during his travels in China, and throughout the Pacific, reporting back to London on an ad-hoc basis. Now, with war in the offing Jack hopes to prove his worth and turn this into a paying, full-time gig. It seems like that is going to work out for him, but when the German officers he has been following start conspiring with Irish nationals in New York and Dublin, Jack has to choose between his new-found career, and the beautiful Irish woman he met on his travels. She's not working with the Germans, he knows that, but his bosses would like him to investigate her friends and family members. Jack's pretty sure Caitlin would see that as a breach of trust, especially since he hasn't told her about his new career and she thinks he's just a car salesman. Maybe he can just keep quiet, and hope she doesn't notice that people keep trying to kill him. 
Good fun from the author of the "John Russell" Station novels.
Light violence, nice historical setting and light romance.
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All the Dead Voices

All the Dead Voices by Declan Hughes  311 pp.

Although I've enjoyed mysteries since I was a child, the "Ed Loy, PI" series was new to me. To be honest I only read it because I got the Kindle version for practically nothing.

In Dublin Private Investigator Ed Loy is approached by Anne Fogarty who wants him to find out who killed her father several years before. Her mother's lover was acquitted of the crime and it remained unsolved. Loy is also investigating the murder of soccer star Paul Delaney, who may or may not have been a drug dealer. Loy is attacked and fights off his attackers who are later found dead with Loy framed as the prime suspect. There is also the mystery of who was responsible for the deaths of an innocent family whose car was bombed by mistake twenty years earlier. What follows are multiple deaths and beatings. This book needed a scorecard to keep track of who was who, which side they were on, and were they in the IRA or INLA. When it all was done the murderer of Brian Fogarty was a complete surprise to me. I can see why Hughes has a created a following for his creation but I doubt I will be reading another.