The Abstainer by Ian McGuire
My rating: 6
Pages 369
Year 2020
View all my reviews
6 stars due to the ending.
Let's start why I read this book.... this is not my typical novel to read. I recently bought it and blackwells send me a double for some mistake. So I grab that novel and took me to my work to offer a person. I remember I had with me also the Third Girl by Agatha Christie and I was on the train but didn't felt reading that so I started the Abstainer and the first 50 pages really flow by. Then I had to finish, right?
The story is set in Britain, in the later part of 1850 and it deals with the growing independence movement by Irish revolutionary movement that culminated in the war and Ireland independence almost 60/70 years later. Here we follow a Irish police officer who is living in manchester after being sent from Ireland for violent behaviour. There he basically is a intermediary between irish spies and the UK. We get to know a bit about how police procedure work back in the day, how people live their lives and how the Irish independence movement work. After the UK hanged some of those irish man (the only real historical events), a Irish living in the USA returns to Manchester to help the revolution. To be honest he just wants mayhem.
So what's good? Well, from the life he gives Manchester circa 1870's, the police procedure, the Irish revolution & reasons , the surveillance the cat and mouse chase.
So what not so good? After a particular event, our main character becomes embroiled in politics of english vs irish resentment - even within the police force and we get a slow burn conversations that bore me a bit. I Think it was a bit repetitive and the main antagonist which supposedly was a bad bad gut really don't do much (well apart from a couple of killings).
The last arc if you wanna call it, it was odd. So, our main protagonist goes to USA to find our main villain and we get introduced to a character like 30 pages to the end and the author really try to make us care about him. The final confrontation was awful... And allow me to say why but it will be spoilers
+++++++++ Spoilers BEGIN +++++++++
So as I've said our main guy goes to USA to find that killer and he rescues a small boy who starts following him. He then finds the bad guy and it ends. So how do we know how it ends? It's the boy, several years after telling a congregation I guess that the main villain killed the main protagonist. WTF? I don't mind the main protagonist being killed. To be honest it made the book better and unpredictable. I don't like it was told in a afterthought... Oh well
+++++++++Spoilers End***************
Overall it was a fast pace book, advisable to people who enjoy historical fiction mix with thriller and focus on characters.
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