Perhaps a good new year's resolution would be to get back to doing these reviews as soon as I finish the dang book rather than letting a pile of them grow into an imposing heap until they're due back in the library in an hour and I have to rush through them. Yeah, let's give that ago.

Didn't read many crime novels last year, but this was one of the best crime novels I've read in ages. Big part of it has to be the amazing depiction of Limerick low-lives, accurate in terms of brilliant visuals and vernacular dialogue presented in non-ironic way - a very easy accent to mock or dismiss but as rich and lively as it is loud and blunt. The small-time crooks and wheelers and dealers are depicted with the sort of humanity that makes their worse actions more chilling, but the whole thing is a big bold thriller about small fish Jimmy Savage swimming between the controlling crime families, caught up in a series of violent blunders that lead to a gang war. He has his own family and friends and to deal with as well as his own ambitions and betrayals. A fantastic read, lovely art. Incredibly well done.