In Conduit To Murder, Brian O’Hare treats us to another reliably fast-paced Inspector Sheehan Mystery. This time a wealthy old lady is found battered to death, and her high-end antiques business turns out to be a front for a more sinister organization. When you are a fan of the genre, naturally you do want to find out why the keys to her safe-deposit box were hidden in the mouth of her alligator-head walking stick. But when you look forward to reading the sixth book of a detective series, it’s also because the recurring characters have proved endearing. Inspector Sheehan and his Belfast Serious Crimes team are an eclectic collection of personalities who are enjoyable to spend time with. Yes, they’re dealing with grim happenings and unsavory criminals, but you know they’ll muddle through to a satisfying resolution.

         Jim Sheehan’s wife, Margaret finds herself pulled into the action in this book, along with their friend, Bishop Byrne, who turns out to be handy in a fistfight. Sergeants Denise Stewart and Tom Allen, who fell for each other in Book Two are now living together and also working together in the same unit. Sheehan turns a blind eye to this irregular situation and even finds a way to make use of it, sending the pair off to France to collect information undercover as a couple on holiday. Perhaps he should have had some qualms, because they almost don’t make it back. The scenes of Irish detectives interacting with French characters on the Riviera are so well done that I really wished the story could have lingered in that cross-cultural environment. But O’Hare always keeps his plots rollicking forward (and doesn’t kill off members of the team), so Stewart and Allen return with valuable information.

One striking scene in this book shows the victim of an abduction praying to God for help. I’ve read a lot of mystery-thrillers, but I can’t think of another instance where a victim is depicted praying, despite the realism of such an action in such a situation: the conventions of the genre forbid it. This scene, although brief, has an effect like opening a window on a stuffy room. Perhaps it’s this openness to Providence that makes the Inspector Sheehan stories feel so fresh and buoyant. Yes, the world is full of evil, but these Belfast personalities are not governed merely by their own intuitions as they seek justice. Perhaps also it’s the underlying optimism of faith that relieves this series of the need for the brilliant superstar type of detective. This bunch works through challenges together, and you can be confident that at the end of all the twists and turns, the camaraderie remains.