BOOKER & MCBRIDE

An Irish cop teams up with an American detective to try to bring his partner’s killer to justice in this novella.

Jack Murphy is a bad man, and McBride’s police partner in Dublin was a good one. But he “liked to lay a bet more than most,” and Murphy preys on people’s wants and fears. McBride’s partner got in so deep, he lost his house and his wife and he took his own life. Or did he? It’s been months, and McBride needs a new partner. A program called the Agency Intelligence Swap is up and running, and Los Angeles Police Detective Booker has opted to participate. Partnered with McBride, Booker is worried about not fitting in (a request to hit up a Dunkin’ Donuts throws his new colleague into a paroxysm of laughter), but the two get along like bacon and cabbage. When Booker asks what their agenda is, McBride responds, “The same thing as yesterday and the day before that: Get Murphy.” Fans of the unconventional buddy comedy The Guard, which paired an independent Dublin cop with a Black FBI agent, may find this series opener a fleeting diversion. There are terse, clever bits that entertainingly illustrate the McBride-Murphy dynamic, as when McBride plants a tracker on the villain only to have him almost immediately drive up alongside the cop and throw it at his car window. There are enough unconventional action scenes and twists to keep interest from flagging across a mere 122 pages. References to Joe Biden in the White House and Covid-19 give Lawless’ story immediacy, but there is scant sense of place. Dublin is underutilized, as is the development of the new partners’ relationship (“The two detectives had gotten to know each other over the last few weeks”). Some Irish slang and colloquialisms such as thick are self-explanatory, but for others, like garda and gurrier, the Irish-to-American table that the author provides will come in handy.

A brisk, enjoyable crime tale with a hazy Dublin setting.