This was so fascinating. Like that's my whole pitch for this book. It was absolutely fascinating and I devoured every bit of information in this. If you're at all interested in learning about the Troubles, specifically focused on the IRA, can't recommend this enough. Every time I listened to this on my commute to work, I was so excited to get back to it and learn more.

And the fact that by the end he actually solved the murder of Jean McConville. Like not provable in a court of law and it's barely more than a guess based on all the evidence, but he did everything but put the gun in the shooter's hand.

The book isn't really about that, for all that the murder is important. It's about everything. The politics and the history and the trauma on all sides. Everyone's motives and pain and triumphs. All the terrible things the English did and all the terrible things the IRA did. Just utterly fascinating. Every moment.

My main issue was with the amount of information. I was constantly researching and looking for more. I listened to this on my commute to work and nearly every day I'd have a handful of things I wanted to google because I wanted so much more. To a degree I enjoy that in a nonfiction. Like this made me so invested in the time period and what was happening. But at the same time, I feel like half the time I was left with more questions than answers. Like either this needed to be pared down a little more and tell a more narrow story, or I wanted it to include more information. It just wasn't quite enough for me.

I did feel a little misled by some of the earlier information. Like the whole first part of the book when he was talking about Gerry Adams being in the IRA and calling the shots and all. I don't dispute any of that, but I would have liked to have known earlier that Adams claims it's not true. It's kind of about perspective and I wish I'd had a different one while reading it. (Just to reiterate, I don't actually believe Adams.)

But this was great. I adored learning about this whole time period, and it gives you a really good overview of the IRA at the time and the political atmosphere. It left me hungry for more, and I might have to track down a physical copy so I can read through the notes section.