☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼ with M.C.V. EGAN: Malign Intent

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Malign Intent - by Robert Craven

“Tag, bag and bury the bastard, Garda Inspector Crowe…”

ABOUT THE BOOK

Genre: Crime Fiction; (age 15 +) August - December, present day, one year after ‘A Kind of Drowning’.

August bank holidays should be about relaxation, taking time out to see family and friends, but when former gonzo journalist, Aonghus Hanafin is found hanging along a desolate estuary, the nearest SIO to the incident, Garda Inspector Pius John Crowe, discovers a puzzling detail; the late Hanafin had MS.

Robert Craven's Malign Intent, is a contemporary crime thriller set in Ireland with a slow burning neo-noir atmosphere:

The presence of a second ligature mark around the dead man’s neck raises further questions. Crowe’s instincts tell him there’s something not right about the scene and decides to investigate.

Crowe has seen enough dead bodies in his time to suspect that Aonghus Hanafin wasn’t the hanging kind.

As Crowe delves deeper into the case, he becomes convinced that Hanafin’s death leads to Cillcreann House, the nearby palatial home of the retired bon vivant Chief Justice Barry Gartland and his trophy wife, Rosemary. Gartland, slated to join the prestigious role at the EJC in Strasbourg could do without Crowe nosing around, creating a stir, and pressures the Minister of Justice and the senior ranks to close off the case as a suicide. Through a media connection, Stafford McCaffrey (who owes Crowe a favour or two), Crowe gets to learn of a Swiss bank account, with millions of Euro in it that was set up as part of a charitable organisation, called The Gatland Trust. It's in the process of being hollowed out from a lifestyle that the retired Chief Justice can barely afford. And one he needs to keep quiet about until he’s sold up his estate and Europe bound. Crowe discovers the Hanafin holiday home on land owned by the Garlands with evidence that results in him being stabbed and hospitalised, but not before he has uncovered enough needed to implicate Gartland and a powerful elite which could lead to wider investigation of the judiciary and stymying Barry Gartland’s European appointment. But is what Crowe discovers enough to convict and bring the Hanafin case to its rightful conclusion before Gartalnd takes up his influential seat on the European Justice Council? Or will Crowe end his days alone, stabbed and bleeding out in an acre of greenhouse glass… Malign Intent is the second book in the P.J. Crowe series by Robert Craven, following his break-through novel A Kind of Drowning in 2021. Set in present-day Ireland, the book explores the themes of power, corruption, and justice. It features a deeply flawed but determined protagonist in Crowe, who fights against the odds to uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice; whatever the cost.