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Reviews of An Irish Solution | The Grounds: click here
An author who can write like hell [...] Cormac Millar tells an engaging story with flair and he's right up to date. An Irish Solution is set against the background of the drug trade, dodgy politicians - including a Minister for Justice who seethes with ambition (don't they all) - bent cops and maverick drug enforcement agents in Dublin's unfair city. [...] Millar sprinkles his surprises with real skill [...] I look forward to meeting him again. — Lee Dunne, The Sunday Independent, 25 April 2004
On the way to the violent resolution of the plot, joyful swipes are taken at many of contemporary Ireland's sacred cows. This is an arch, sophisticated and thoroughly enjoyable crime debut that marks Millar as a talent to watch. — Myles McWeeney, The Irish Independent, 6 March 2004
Not just a workaday crime thriller, this witty deconstruction of crime and dodgy politics weaves in some sharply observed comments on Ireland today. — Elizabeth McGuane , Sunday Business Post, 6 March 2005
Dublin is due a decent detective, and in Séamus Joyce, Cormac Millar has created someone up to the job. [...] The novel becomes absorbed in the details of Dublin's legal and media scenes, populated by such characters as "that slithy tove, Peter Simons of Radio Free Dublin". Are these worlds as murky as the drugs business? To call your hero Séamus Joyce is to invite serious critical attention, but it is as a readable crime novel that An Irish Solution succeeds. The first instalment fills a vacancy in the detective market and offers scope for future Joycean adventures.
— Ralph Benson, The Irish Times, 9 April, 2005
Cormac Millar's debut novel powers along at a fine old pace and comes with a dose of irreverence thrown in. The characters are vividly drawn and the seedy world of drug dealers and users is also potently portrayed. As crime novels go, this is up there with the best and marks out Cormac Millar's fresh voice as something to be reckoned with— Kirkus Reviews UK , quoted on the Amazon web sites.
An Irish Solution
points a way forward for Irish crime fiction, and demonstrates how
Irish-style corruption can provide fuel for the form. [...]
Could do for Ireland what Dibdin has done for Italy. Millar [...] could
be the one to bring Machiavelli into Irish crime writing. His hero
Joyce, bureaucrat turned crusader, might yet clean the Augean stables
of Irish politics.
— Gerry McCarthy, The Sunday Times, 4
April 2004
Cormac Millar's story of an ambitious cabinet minister's campaign against the drug trade, An Irish Solution (Penguin, £9.99 pbk), must make him persona non grata in Irish politics and police circles, as he takes apart both establishments with a waspish wit. Corruption at a high level, planting of evidence, bribery and intimidation - the unfortunate acting head of the newly created Irish Drug Enforcement Agency finds himself in the midst of a conspiracy, with only a schoolgirl and a nun prepared to stand up against it. This superbly confident first novel introduces an author with a distinctive style and scalpel-sharp characterisation.
– Susanna Yager, Telegraph website. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/05/02/boyag02.xml&sSheet=/arts/2004/05/02/bomain.html
It is as a story of redemption that this book achieves its most striking and noteworthy attainment. [...] Séamus Joyce proves to be a wonderful creation. [...] there are many other compelling characters and, indeed, strengths. The first of the latter is the sheer exuberance and brilliance of the plotting. [...] AN IRISH SOLUTION is a very considerable achievement. [...] on finishing it I wanted to re-read it, and that makes it a rare mystery. — Nick Hay, ReviewingTheEvidence, January 2008. http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=7203 [A mixed review, but broadly positive...]
An Irish Solution introduces one of the sharpest, most determined and most interesting investigators in Dublin crime fiction. [...] Millar proves he can do action. [...] A richly-voiced, deadly Dublin. — Critical Mick, web reviews, July 2008. http://www.mickhalpin.com/criticalmick_an_irish_solution.htm
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