Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway – Review
Insp Devlin Is Pushed to Breaking Point in Second Borderland Novel
In Gallows Lane, Ben Devlin's second outing, there are five killings, a car chase or two, punch-ups, attempted murders and various threats flying about.
And that's to say nothing of the office politics back at the police station, with more back-stabbings, grudges and shady characters than the Sicilian mafia.
Horrific Murder
After something of a gentle start, the action gets into its stride with, naturally enough, a horrific murder. A young woman is found pulverised to death in a newly built home.
McGilloway really puts his hero through the wringer in the ensuing pages, making him cope with a troublesome ex-con, the suspicious discovery of an arms and drugs bunker, the murky involvement of Special Branch from north of the border, a hanging, the crucifixion of the ex-con and a job promotion. In addition he is struck by a speeding car and punched by a colleague.
Devlin's contemporaries in the crime-fiction universe – the likes of Rebus, Robicheaux, Erlendur, Wallander – are shy pen-pushers in comparison.
Planting Evidence
Because McGilloway has created a very ordinary copper attempting to sort out incomprehensible cruelty and amorality, it's no surprise that his protagonist nearly goes off the rails here. He suffers panic attacks and makes some bad calls, even planting evidence at one point in a bid to nab a suspect for a DNA sample.
As in his debut novel, Borderlands, McGilloway uses a single investigation to lead readers into a mire of twisting plots and brutal vengeance. While the story is event-packed and a little lurid, it’s the writing and the characterisation that make Devlin’s world so absorbing.
Emotional Punch
Little things, like the domestic moments between Devlin and his young children and his awkward, unspoken affection for his partner, Caroline Williams, bring the character alive. As do his contradictions – a god-respecting man who breaks the rules, a devoted father and husband who risks the safety of his loved ones and rarely fails to register the finer points of an attractive young woman.
The emotional punch in Gallows Lane comes from his bond with Williams. There is a strong passage in which Devlin visits his partner in hospital after she is nearly killed when his car is sabotaged. He is shamed when she says, ‘I look at you, sir, and I don’t want to be like you any more. I don’t want to die for people who don’t really give a shit. Peter [her son] means too much to me.’ This hits him harder than the tree branch wielded by a steroid-crazed bodybuilder he’s chasing for murder.
McGilloway’s other strong character is the borderland itself, the flooding rivers and wide-open skies with air that 'had a clean quality that hurt your lungs'.
Troubled Past
Tourists may be lured by the angling and golf, but the area has had its troubles – Gallows Lane wasn’t the route to a picnic area – and McGilloway draws on the past often to colour his stories.
The hardback edition of Devlin’s third story (Bleed a River Deep) is published alongside the paperback of Gallows Lane. The author has delivered the manuscript of book four (The Rising) to his publishers and is currently working on a standalone story without Dev. ‘The concept wouldn't fit Devlin's world or his character,’ McGilloway told this reviewer. ‘The book after that will be a Devlin.’
So there is plenty more to come, and quite a buzz building around McGilloway’s creation, with the stories already being optioned for television.
Which is good news for devotees of sharp, richly written crime fiction. Devlin and his world are well worth investigating.
- Gallows Lane is published by Pan Macmillan on 3 April 2009 in the UK
Brian McGilloway
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Gallows Lane
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