Fifty Grand - Tapa blanda

Adrian McKinty's wonderful Dead Trilogy confirmed him as a master of modern noir, up there with Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy. Fans nervous about where he might venture after the retirement of his "un-fucking-killable" antihero Michael Forsythe at the end of The Bloomsday Dead can, however, relax. Fifty Grand is a blast: a standalone effort which again showcases McKinty's brutal lyricism as well as his sensitivity to the indignities of the immigrant experience...

The mystery of Mercado's father's death is resolved easily - perhaps too easily. But it doesn't matter. What matters is Mercado herself, the one-time winner (she tells us proudly) of the Dr Ernesto Guevara Young Poets' prize. It's a pleasure to be around someone so sharp and resourceful, noticing what she notices and feeling what she feels.

(John O'Connell Guardian 2009-08-08)

The strength of this book lies...in the ferocity of the action, which hooks the reader from the start...
McKinty has cleverly mashed the unfamiliar facets of Cuban life with the overfamiliar offerings of America's super-rich...
An impeccably constructed tale about personal suffering, told with candidness and wry humour throughout...he is unquestionably talented as an author of suspense.

(June Caldwell Sunday Times (Ireland) 2009-07-26)

Adrian McKinty puts all memories of Ireland to rest in Fifty Grand, a sometimes lyrical, always visceral and deeply-felt crime novel that starts as a Borderland noir and spreads out to encompass Cuban skullduggery. McKinty also gives us one of contemporary noir's more memorable female characters. If you can imagine a timeless story of crime and intrigue as envisioned by Cormac McCarthy and Graham Greene, adapted for screen by John Sayles and directed by Sam Peckinpah in his prime, you just might begin to grasp the scale of McKinty's audacious saga and bold new direction (Craig McDonald)

It's slick and well-paced, and the minimalist, punchy delivery is striking... (Katie Gould The List 2009-07-09)

McKinty keeps his prose flinty for this noir-soaked tale, ending in a heart-stopping face-off on cracking ice. (Siobhan Murphy Metro 2009-07-16)

Adrian McKinty has been blowing us out of the mystery water for quite some time now. The Bloomsday Dead-superb, Dead I Well May Be, phew-oh, but he has totally taken over the whole field with Fifty Grand. Think Don Winslow's masterly Power of The Dog combined with José Latour and the sheer narrative drive of Joe Lansdale and you'll have some idea of this amazing novel. It has riveting mystery, politics of just about every shade, thrills on almost every page and the most compelling heroine in a Havana female detective named Mercado. I've rarely read a novel that had it all-human and drug trafficking, Hollywood excesses, illegals, ferocious vengeance-but what I found most compulsive was the wondrous compassion of the book. It moved me in ways I never anticipated. This is going to be the BIG BOOK of 2009 (Ken Bruen)

McKinty writes tough and hard in the most balanced and weighty prose. His flair for language is matched by his appetite for redemptive violence and a humorous appreciation of vagaries of character...McKinty is seriously brilliant, one of the few crime writers able to move effortlessly between mainstream and cult fiction. (N/A The Australian 2009-09-12)

McKinty has pleny of noir-ish style and doesn't flinch from violent detail but, surprisingly, there is also warmth here too. (Sunday Mail Brisbane, Australia 2009-09-20)

Pace, setting and fine writing distinguish this suspenseful thriller by this Irish-born, Melbourne-based author (Sunday Telegraph, Sydney Australia 2009-09-20)

A faultless thriller (Dan McCarthy Irish Examiner 2009-10-10)