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The Nameless Dead: What's left to do, when the law forbids a murder investigation? Paperback – 8 July 2021
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Brian McGilloway
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Brian McGilloway
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Product details
- Publisher : Constable; 1st edition (8 July 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1472133366
- ISBN-13 : 978-1472133366
- Dimensions : 12.6 x 2.8 x 19.6 cm
- Customer Reviews:
Product description
Book Description
McGilloway returns with a nail-biting follow-up to the No. 1 Bestseller Little Girl Lost.
From the Publisher
Brian McGilloway is the author of eleven crime novels including the Ben Devlin mysteries and the Lucy Black series, the first of which, Little Girl Lost, became a New York Times and UK No.1 bestseller. In addition to being shortlisted for a CWA Dagger and the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, he is a past recipient of the Ulster University McCrea Literary Award and won the BBC Tony Doyle Award for his screenplay, Little Emperors. He currently teaches in Strabane, where he lives with his wife and four children.
From the Back Cover
'Moving, beautifully written' The Times
'Heart-breaking. The Nameless Dead is as good a novel of modern Ireland as you're likely to read this year, crime or otherwise' Irish Times
What's left to do, when the law disallows a murder investigation?
Declan Cleary's body has never been found, but everyone believes he was killed for informing on a friend over thirty years ago. Now the Commission for Location of Victims' Remains is following a tip-off that he was buried on the small isle of Islandmore, in the middle of the River Foyle.
Instead, the dig uncovers a baby's skeleton, and it doesn't look like death by natural causes. But evidence revealed by the Commission's activities cannot lead to prosecution. Inspector Devlin is torn. He has no desire to resurrect the violent divisions of the recent past. Neither can he let a suspected murderer go unpunished.
Now the secret is out, more deaths follow. Devlin must follow his conscience - even when that puts those closest to him at terrible risk . . .
About the Author
Brian McGilloway is the author of eleven crime novels including the Ben Devlin mysteries and the Lucy Black series, the first of which, Little Girl Lost, became a New York Times and UK No.1 bestseller. In addition to being shortlisted for a CWA Dagger and the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, he is a past recipient of the Ulster University McCrea Literary Award and won the BBC Tony Doyle Award for his screenplay, Little Emperors. He currently teaches in Strabane, where he lives with his wife and four children.
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Customer reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
145 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
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Top reviews from other countries

Janice Staines
4.0 out of 5 stars
Limbo is a cruel and desolate place
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 March 2021Verified Purchase
This is the fifth book in the Ben Devlin series and it doesn’t disappoint. A tip-off sees Devlin searching for the body of one of the ‘Disappeared’ on the small island of Islandmore. His job is made difficult as this island is also a Cillin - a place where unbaptised children are buried and left in limbo, unable to move on to rest with God.
Devlin unearths more than he expected to as seven babies are discovered, all of them with facial deformities and one showing signs of being murdered.
Devlin is warned that he is not allowed to investigate the deaths of these historic bodies, but he discovers links to modern day crimes - and he is not able to let them go. Especially when they impact on his own family!
This is another cracking story from the author. We meet characters from the previous books and a whole lot of unsavoury new ones. We also learn more about mother and baby clinics where unmarried young girls were sent to deliver their babies... and were often mistreated as a result of their shame.
This is a difficult and sensitive story to explore, but it is handled with skill and aplomb by the author as it reaches its compromising conclusion.
Devlin unearths more than he expected to as seven babies are discovered, all of them with facial deformities and one showing signs of being murdered.
Devlin is warned that he is not allowed to investigate the deaths of these historic bodies, but he discovers links to modern day crimes - and he is not able to let them go. Especially when they impact on his own family!
This is another cracking story from the author. We meet characters from the previous books and a whole lot of unsavoury new ones. We also learn more about mother and baby clinics where unmarried young girls were sent to deliver their babies... and were often mistreated as a result of their shame.
This is a difficult and sensitive story to explore, but it is handled with skill and aplomb by the author as it reaches its compromising conclusion.

Richard Latham
5.0 out of 5 stars
An island with an Ireland
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2012Verified Purchase
The fifth book in the Inspector Devlin; the reader is familiar with the main characters and the writer is relaxed with his creation.
Brian McGilloway's writing is economic. Punchy descriptions and dialogue.
This is a terrific plot that does justice to the cross boarder conflicts and life after the troubles but is routed in events of the past. BM very skillfully keeps it contemporary; many would draw on a the writer's go to - the slowly revealed past as a separate story unfolding with the main narrative. The real skill is doing justice to things from the past but revealing those facts through detective work and dialogue progression so the mystery is contained and the solution rarely fully focuses until the dramatic conclusion.
The subject matter is grim with serious political struggles and religious shortcomings being touched upon sensitively and without rhetoric or justification leaving the reader to be involved and make their own mind up regarding these matters.
I like that best in novels as it allows you to be fully engaged with the story, its setting and the decisions people make in the knowledge known at the time.
This is McGilloway's skill and makes his books worth reading in terms of his historical context and thought provoking subject matter. At the heart of the story are real people. A crime and the difficulties detectives have in trying to solve the case.
Here we have the digging up of the past which uncovers a number of issues a lot of people would like to stay buried. It is how that premises unravels with the plot that makes this an exceptional novel and a intriguing crime murder mystery.
A book that does not require the reader to have read the previous stories already published; it stands alone as a gripping story from the Border region in Ireland but I guarantee once read you'll be chasing down the earlier episodes of this excellent police procedural series.
Brian McGilloway's writing is economic. Punchy descriptions and dialogue.
This is a terrific plot that does justice to the cross boarder conflicts and life after the troubles but is routed in events of the past. BM very skillfully keeps it contemporary; many would draw on a the writer's go to - the slowly revealed past as a separate story unfolding with the main narrative. The real skill is doing justice to things from the past but revealing those facts through detective work and dialogue progression so the mystery is contained and the solution rarely fully focuses until the dramatic conclusion.
The subject matter is grim with serious political struggles and religious shortcomings being touched upon sensitively and without rhetoric or justification leaving the reader to be involved and make their own mind up regarding these matters.
I like that best in novels as it allows you to be fully engaged with the story, its setting and the decisions people make in the knowledge known at the time.
This is McGilloway's skill and makes his books worth reading in terms of his historical context and thought provoking subject matter. At the heart of the story are real people. A crime and the difficulties detectives have in trying to solve the case.
Here we have the digging up of the past which uncovers a number of issues a lot of people would like to stay buried. It is how that premises unravels with the plot that makes this an exceptional novel and a intriguing crime murder mystery.
A book that does not require the reader to have read the previous stories already published; it stands alone as a gripping story from the Border region in Ireland but I guarantee once read you'll be chasing down the earlier episodes of this excellent police procedural series.
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bn crewe
4.0 out of 5 stars
Now on my fifth Devlin and enjoyed them all
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2017Verified Purchase
Now on my fifth Devlin and enjoyed them all. And the setting, on the Irish/Northern Ireland border is unusual and adds a unique dimension to an always complex investigation. The revelations of the Irish culture and history do much to dispel the traditional picture of the whimsical, romantic land of the holiday brochure. The interpersonal dynamics occasionally irritate, but do add a very personal flavour to the narrative.

leoandjane
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another terrific murder mystery!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 December 2018Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this - I found it really gripping and it was so cleverly written in that it interwove so many themes such as the burial of unbaptised babies, the concept of Limbo, the mother and baby homes and the ghastly things that went on in those places and the Disappeared. The real suffering still goes on but Brian Mc Gilloway handles it sensitively while still delivering a cracking page turner.

Paul Bk
4.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 April 2013Verified Purchase
As with any series of books one or two will be fillers, the story weaker, characterisation less well drawn. Not so here, this is as well written and paced as the best of the Inspector Devlin novels.
The body of a baby is dug up on a remote isle, but no sooner has the investigation begun than it falls foul of the rules regards the commission into locating the remains of victims of the troubles - no investigation can lead to a prosecution because the police were looking for the body of an informer. Devlin's conscience won't let the matter rest and soon news of the find is out and more deaths occur.
A strong story and an entertaining read.
The body of a baby is dug up on a remote isle, but no sooner has the investigation begun than it falls foul of the rules regards the commission into locating the remains of victims of the troubles - no investigation can lead to a prosecution because the police were looking for the body of an informer. Devlin's conscience won't let the matter rest and soon news of the find is out and more deaths occur.
A strong story and an entertaining read.