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Peter McGarr

This page lists novels that feature the Irish police detective Peter McGarr.

The first four books in the series were subsequently published with different titles. This causes confusion in some listings - which hopefully, though not with certainty, has been avoided here!

 

Peter McGarr: Novels

McGarr and the Politician’s Wife

Bartholomew Gill

Scribners

1977

A Peter McGarr novel.

Subsequently published as The Death Of An Irish Politician.

"It was twilight on Killiney Bay when they pulled the Yank out of the water, his head split open by a violent blow. For McGarr, the case was a welcome chance to escape the gloom of Dublin. But from his first moment at the injured man's yacht club, McGarr realizes getting at the truth will require fitting together a number of jagged pieces: the world-class sailor who ran both his boat and his life aground; the beautiful woman who paid his bills; and the politician who was uncharacteristically involving himself in a homicide investigation. Suddenly, McGarr must face a malevolent plot of IRA gunrunning, betrayal, and conspiracy - all aimed at not just killing one unhappy sailor, but framing a certain Chief Inspector, and keeping him away from secrets even more dangerous than murder."
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McGarr and the Sienese Conspiracy

Bartholomew Gill

Scribners

1980

A Peter McGarr novel.

Subsequently published as The Death Of An Irish Consul.

"It's a rare occurrence when Chief Inspector of Detectives Peter McGarr leaves the shores of his beloved Ireland - but this time he has little choice. The blood of two prominent British subjects - both former S.I.S. chiefs, both brutally murdered - is staining Irish soil. And Sir Colin Cummings, the current head of Britain's elite secret service - and potential third victim - en route to Italy, with McGarr coming along for the man's protection. A macabre conspiracy of murder and revenge is spreading its tentacles across several nations, and McGarr's time spent amidst the charm and rustic beauty of Siena promises to be anything but restful. Because there are many hidden players in this most deadly game - from ex-spies to Communist rabble rousers to wealthy Italian industrialists. And a single misstep could place one dedicated and inquisitive Chief Inspector of the Garda Soichana directly in the line of killing fire."
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McGarr at the Dublin Horse Show

Bartholomew Gill

Scribners

1981

A Peter McGarr novel.

Subsequently published as The Death Of An Irish Tradition.

"The Dublin Horse Show is one of the city's proudest traditions - a grand institution tarnished this year by the murder of elderly Margaret Caughey. Chief Inspector Peter McGarr is puzzled by the strange death of a seemingly harmless old woman whose apartment contains not a trace of her past life - and by the heinous crime's apparent links to the upcoming equestrian event. Nearly everyone associated with the unfortunate victim has connections to the Horse show as well, from dowdy Margaret's racetrack gadfly brother, to her surprisingly elegant daughter who's scheduled to compete . . . to an ex-IRA contract killer. And with race day rapidly approaching, McGarr knows he must work quickly to untangle this knotted skein of deadly secrets. For if he falters, the tireless detective fears that more blood may be spilt - perhaps even his own - before the riders leave the gate."
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McGarr on the Cliffs of Moher

Bartholomew Gill

Scribners

1982

A Peter McGarr novel.

Subsequently published as The Death Of An Irish Lass.

"The dead woman is an enigma - a local lass who emigrated to America some years back, now perched atop a seven-hundred-foot cliff high above the pounding Irish surf . . . with two passports, a pistol, and $27,000 U.S. dollars in her coat pocket. The brutality of May Quirk's murder - along with the accompanying death of her unborn child - haunts Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr of the Special Crimes Unit. What was it that brought her home to County Clare to die? McGarr is determined to find out, as his investigation carries him into the twisted core of a deadly conspiracy centered around money, madness, and lethal politics . . . and leads him far from his own home to a dark place where a dedicated Irish policeman is easy prey."
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McGarr and the P.M. of Belgrave Square

Bartholomew Gill

Viking

1984

A Peter McGarr novel.

"When a Dublin art dealer is found lying in a pool of blood and a valuable French Impressionist painting is discovered missing, Inspector Peter McGarr must confront a crowd of the dealer's questionabkle cohorts: a double-dealing business partner, a neurasthenic wife, an embittered son, and a gardener/IRA bomb-thrower. McGarr maintains his gutsy composure, aided by his sassy wife, Noreen, an art expert, and a pensioned-off bomb-squad dog, the 'P.M.' - Prime Minister."
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McGarr and the Method of Descartes

Bartholomew Gill

Viking

1985

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Twelve years after a night of terror in Belfast, Dublin police inspector Pete McGarr is drawn into a vengeful victim's plot of public retribution, whose target is the Reverend Ian Paisley."
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McGarr and the Legacy of the Woman Scorned

Bartholomew Gill

Viking

1987

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Fionnuala Walton was a legend in her part of Ireland--a proud, independent woman who had shrugged off a broken engagement and gone on to build a horse-breeding empire. It looks like foul play when she falls down a flight of stairs and breaks her neck, and Dublin Murder Squad calls on Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr to investigate."
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The Death of a Joyce Scholar

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

1990

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Trinity professor and Joycean scholar Kevin Coyle was one of Dublin's most colorful -- and controversial -- characters, until someone stabbed him through the heart on Bloomsday, the annual citywide celebration honoring Ireland's most beloved literary light. The poetic irony is not lost on Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr: one of the foremost experts on the works of James Joyce was slain on the so-called "Murderers' Ground" made famous in the author's magnum opus Ulysses. But the connection does not end there. And the deeper the intrepid McGarr digs, the more startling truths he uncovers about a victim's dark, licentious history, a list of suspects as vast and varied as the characters in a great novel ... and a motive for murder that can hide as easily in the pages of a classic book as in the twisted passions of a human heart."
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The Death of Love

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

1993

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Padddy Power, an internationally-known banker and well-known politician, has been found dead. Did he accidentally swallow the wrong medicine for his heart condition? Or was it murder? Complex characters, real-life political concerns, and old-fashioned mystery and an adventure-packed finale highlight this contemporary thriller."
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Death on a Cold, Wild River

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

1994

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Suspended for solving a very political murder that his superiors would rather have left unsolved, McGarr is struck by another misfortune when his old love, Nellie Millar, drowns in a flyfishing 'accident.' With altogether too much time on his hands, McGarr travels out to the ancient fishing village of Ardara, in the west of Ireland, to pay his last respects to the woman he almost married. More than just his old flame, Nellie was also one of the recognized masters of the demanding art of flyfishing, and her angling school on the River Owenea drew wealthy students from around the world eager to learn Nellie's skill and absorb some of her famous fishing luck. It was that reputation, in fact, that drove her to attempt the dangerous outing on the night of her death, pursuing the imposing "trophy" salmon that had eluded her. But something is definitely rotten in Ardara - Nellie was too good a river woman to be pulled down by a stumble, and a sinisterly clever slit in Nellie's watertight chest waders proves that her death in the river was no accident. And McGarr, once Nellie's student himself, can see that her killer must be an angler - no one else would know how fatal leaky waders could be in the Owenea at flood. Suspension or no, McGarr knows that it's his job to find the killer."
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The Death of an Ardent Bibliophile

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

1995

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Very little astounds Peter McGarr, the head of the Irish police's elite murder squad. But on this chilly, foul night when he is called to the sumptuous home of Brian Herrick, McGarr is astonished by what he sees. Sprawled over a table lies Brian Herrick, keeper of Dublin's famous Marsh's Library. He is naked and dead. In a room remarkably similar to Marsh's Library - right down to the oak bookshelves laden with exquisite, irreplaceable volumes - one item is anachronous. A video camera sits in a corner. It seems that beyond rare books, Herrick had an even rarer love for "blue" videos - homemade and based on the poems of Jonathan Swift. Herrick's final episode is still in the camera. With the help of McGarr's young wife, Noreen, a spirited devote of Irish culture and an art dealer, McGarr scours the works of Jonathan Swift for leads that are as concealed as the twisted desires of the human libido."
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The Death of an Irish Sea Wolf

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

1997

A Peter McGarr novel.

"In a remote community off the west coast of Ireland, residents inclined to gossip speculate why reclusive Clement Ford, the Sea Wolf, has become such a generous benefactor to his neighbors. then one night, a mysterious figure from Ford's past arrives on the island, and by morning three people are murdered and Ford has disappeared. In the wake of the tragedy, Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr, and his intuitive wife, Noreen, along with his trusted staff from the Murder Squad, must piece together the deadly evening's events and answer the questions: Who really is the enigmatic Sea Wolf? And what does he have that is worth killing so many people for?"
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The Death of an Irish Tinker

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

1998

A Peter McGarr novel.

Originally published in the UK as Death of a Busker King.

" Now we see McGarr on his home turf - the streets of Dublin--battling his most dangerous enemy: Desmond Bacon, king of Ireland's heroin trade, known on the streets as The Toddler. A body is found shackled to the upper branches of the tallest tree in Ireland. The victim is a Tinker, one of the mysterious class of itinerant travelers who have roamed Ireland for generations. The murder bears all the signs of being the Toddler's work - but who was the victim, and why was he killed? The answer lies with a Tinker woman named Biddy Nevins. She's the only one who can put Desmond Bacon away - if McGarr can get to her before the Toddler does."
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The Death of an Irish Lover

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

2001

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Crime runs rampant in the picturesque town of Leixleap - and on Ireland's famed River Shannon, where brazen thieves illegally harvest the gourmet-prized eels that flourish there. But while poaching may be something the local Eel Police division is well-equipped to handle, murder is wholly another matter. Chief Inspector Peter McGarr has been called out from Dublin to investigate a troubling double homicide. The nude body of young, pretty, and, recently married Eel Policewoman Ellen Gilday Finn has been discovered in the bed of a hot-sheet inn - wrapped around the equally unclothed corpse of her much older boss, Pascal Burke. A crime of passion, perhaps, pointing to Ellen's cuckolded newly wedded husband as the perpetrator. But conflicting clues and false confessions are leading McGarr into dangerous hidden corners where greed, corruption, IRA terror and radical, possibly deadly, environmentalism are but a few of the, dark blooms secretly nourished in the rich loam of the Irish countryside."
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The Death of an Irish Sinner

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

2002

A Peter McGarr novel.

"Local benefactress and celebrated biographer Mary-Jo Stanton is a supplicant to death - left lifeless on her knees in a patch of daffodils, a barbaric religious implement wrapped tightly around her neck. A clergyman has approached Peter McGarr, requesting that the Chief Superintendent quietly investigate this outrage that occurred at Barbastro, the slain grand lady's compoundlike Dublin estate. Murder is McGarr's business, but this one might be his undoing, as it draws him ever-closer to Opus Dei. A secret order of religious zealots devoted to enforcing the Lord's edicts no matter what the cost in money - or human life - it has ensnared the dedicated policeman in its lethal web. And now its madness is reaching out across a century to touch the place Peter McGarr is most vulnerable: the precious heart of his own adored family."
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Death in Dublin

Bartholomew Gill

William Morrow

2003

A Peter McGarr novel.

"The theft of the Book of Kells - an exquisite ninth-century amalgam of Christian doctrine and Celtic legend - from the Trinity College library is, in itself, a most shocking crime. But it is the brutal slaying of a night watchman that throws Peter McGarr of the Dublin Murder Squad into the mix. Forced to share investigative duties equally with a publicity-hungry co-Chief Superintendent, McGarr is soon entangled in a twisted web of murder, thievery, back-biting politics, and dark pagan rituals. And surely more blood will flow as secrets, deceptions, and well-guarded lies come to light - forcing an intrepid detective to doubt the loyalties of even his closest compatriots - in a chilling case that threatens to bring about nothing less than the destruction of contemporary Irish society."
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Last updated August 2018