One day when visiting a fierce old man, there is a bizarre, violent incident and some dangerous information is let loose. She’d never noticed before but on a cold winter’s day, pretty much everyone was wearing a long black overcoat. There are reasons for this and we will find out soon enough, but for now the old man, taking the visitor for the son of his friend (did you forget about the feature? The geriatric turns out to be a gangster, and now more people are trying to kill him, even though he has no idea why. Luckily, Brigid, Paul’s nurse friend from the hospice is on hand to guide him through this unwelcome adventure.

A wonderful thriller - the series really comes alive in this book for me and there is one of the cleverest plot twists I've ever read in it.Paul, as the straight man, and Brigit, as the dizzy dame, form an entertaining duo, although I often felt guilty for laughing at their near death experiences. We agreed that the humour was subtle enough to be very funny, and the story had enough twisty bits to be intriguing. It’s well told, using a third-person narrative that is primarily in Paul’s voice but occasionally switches to that of lead Detective Inspector Jimmy Stewart (he’s heard the jokes: “they’d killed a bit of time and given people something to do around the station… He’d not really minded. There was nothing special about his face – just the opposite in fact – it was entirely ordinary, as was the rest of him. The author is a funny man by trade, Irish comedian trying his hand at a novel in a most auspicious manner.

And then we have Detective Inspector Jimmy Stewart is just about to retire and he’s showing the ropes to and simultaneously trying to increase Detective Wilson’s film knowledge, to no avail.Dublin, Ireland and The Corporation Rim are literally light-years apart, but they both couple a wry sense of the absurd with a fast-moving mystery. As a favor to Nurse Brigit, he also sits with Martin Brown, who mistakes Paul for someone else, makes some mysterious comments, and stabs Paul in the shoulder. Desperately, Paul and Brigit receive help from police officer Bunny McGarry to investigate who and why people want them dead. Forced by the terms of the will to do a number of hours of community work if he wants to receive his weekly pay from lawyers, Paul goes around to hospitals in the Dublin area, impersonating long lost relatives to old people with cognitive issues. I would have never thought that a murder mystery comedic thriller would cheer me up, but here we go.

which is what brings him to St Kilda’s hospice where nurse Brigit Conroy asking him to visit one last patient – this time for some grandpa whispering for a change, but things don’t turn out quite as expected and Paul ends up in hospital.I’m not usually a huge fan of crime thrillers because the plots can spiral wildly out of the author’s control, but McDonnell creates a captivating plot with enough juicy twists to prevent it becoming predictable. Sinha’s cheery demeanour changed and Paul instantly felt guilty–like he just dropkicked an excited puppy. And for the fact he was once a naughty boy, and this is part of his community service, stay-out-of-jail card.

Right now, I’m tempted to continue with this Dublin trilogy that already has about four or five book length episodes issued, plus several tie-in novellas. So he spends 6 hours each week visiting an old folks home where residents mistake him for their long lost brother, neighbour or grandchild. He brings a new stand-up show to the Edinburgh festival pretty much every year, mainly as an excuse to eat things that’ve been deep fried. It was funny and smart, nice read but I didn’t like it as much as I though I will be from reading few reviews.On top of that, McDonnell has written a book that goes up against the best when it comes to suspense and mystery, there are many twists and I wasn't even close to working out how it would end. He’s near retirement, which he doesn’t want, and is saddled with Detective Wilson, “an idiot of the worst kind: a highly educated one.