The Cold Cold Ground
The Cold Cold Ground

The Sean Duffy Series - Book 1

The Cold Cold Ground

By Adrian McKinty
Unabridged
100% overall 3 ratings. Go to reviews
$9.98 $19.95
Save 50.0%
Quantity:
Add to wishlist
Monthly Membership

Monthly Membership

$12.99
  • Cancel anytime!
  • Memberships will renew every month
  • One credit every month on renewal
  • You can spend 1 credit every month to get an audiobook
window.theme = window.theme || {}; window.theme.preorder_products_on_page = window.theme.preorder_products_on_page || [];

“The audiobook exceeds all expectations because of narrator Gerard Doyle. His storytelling is understated, and his dialect work is remarkable…Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”

AudioFile

Winner of the Spinetingler Award for Best Crime Novel

A Kirkus Reviews Pick of Recommended Audiobooks

Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles—and of a cop treading a thin, thin line—from the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author Adrian McKinty.

“McKinty is one of the most striking and most memorable crime voices to emerge on the scene in years.” —Tana French

Northern Ireland, spring 1981. Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman’s suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things—and people—aren’t always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It’s no easy job—especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force. Add to this the fact that, as a Catholic policeman, it doesn’t matter which side he’s on, because nobody trusts him, and Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation. 

Ratings & Reviews

Review guidelines

100% of listeners recommend it of readers recommend it

Overall 100%

Based on 3 ratings

Listened to this one? Read this one?

Share what you thought and help others decide.

Sign in to write a review

3 reviews

  1. Bob
    Overall Liked it

    Great Story

    I just wish there was more cotinuing stories of Dectective Duffy

    Helpful Report
  2. SarahT
    Overall Liked it

    Meet Detective Sean Duffy of Belfast

    For a cop (or “peeler”) in Belfast, Northern Ireland in the early 1980s, the regular challenges of policing are just the beginning. It’s the height of The Troubles, and Detective Sean Duffy is living and working in what verges on a war zone. Bobby Sands and the other IRA hunger strikers are having their day, paramilitary groups on both sides of the Protestant-Catholic divide are on a hair trigger for violence in the streets, and Duffy tries to remember to check his car for bombs every time he gets in it. Enriching the potential for mayhem is the fact that Duffy is a Catholic on a Protestant-majority police force, in a place and time where your religious upbringing ensures your being singled out — by somebody, sometime — as a target. So death is just a part of the everyday routine in Belfast, and what might stand out as a headline-grabbing murder in another city is simply further fruit of the violence all around. But when a pair of bodies turn up bearing what looks like the signature of a serial killer, that gets Duffy’s and his mates on the squad’s attention. Following this lead takes Duffy down a path he never dreamed of, uncovering darkness to surprise even a hardened Ulsterman. Whether you remember The Troubles well, or it’s a part of history that you don’t know much about, Adrian McKinty draws you into Sean Duffy’s world and delivers a top-notch crime drama in a setting well removed from the run-of-the-mill cop story. Gerard Doyle does a capital job telling the story in the lilting Irish cadence that is his birthright, with a clarity and sense of pacing that pulls the reader around every turn. So give it a listen already! You may find yourself, like this reviewer, panting for Books 2 and 3 of The Troubles Trilogy.

    Helpful Report
  3. Jack Vincent
    Overall Liked it
    Verified listener

    What a ride

    This book is a non stop thriller from start to finish and I just couldn't stop listening once I started , I think anyone who reads this will have the same experience. The performance is second to none highly recommended !

    Helpful Report