[Inspector Matt Minogue 10] • The Coast Road

A Darwinian societybarely notices ahomeless man’s violent murder.


The miracle of ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland has imploded, but something stirs in the rubble, striking a chord with the public: Padraigh Larkin, a homeless and mentally ill alcoholic, is beaten to death in a suburban park.

Public indignation rises: has this case been ‘kicked into the long grass?’ Is there no justice for an outcast in today’s Darwinian Ireland?

Fresh to a new posting in ‘cold cases,’ Minogue and the volatile Garda Tommy Malone are abruptly shifted to the Larkin case. Neither copper is happy. This seems to be the old, discredited 'insider' Ireland all over again - a well-known nun has complained to the Garda Commissioner that the Larkin case has been ignored.

Was Padraig Larkin simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, a victim of feral youths? A voyeur, a witness to a drug deal? At least one of Larkin’s fellow down-and-outs is delusional and prone to violence. Delving into Larkin’s troubled past, Minogue soon senses that this past is gaining on the present. The collision will come with all the force of truths held back so bitterly and for so long.