The loner policeman/detective has been a staple protagonist in crime fiction and film for the better part of a century, however here we find Dublin Garda (policeman) Pat Coyne not in this role, but rather as a portrait of a middle-aged man disintegrating. While his partner prattles on about golf, Coyne is pondering the bigger problems of the world, especially environmental ones. Unfortunately no one-not his colleagues, nor his wife and kids, or harridan mother in law-seem to understand him. His frustration manifests itself in increasingly rash acts on the job which earn his the nickname of "Mr. Suicide" as he goes to extreme lengths to clean up Dublin's streets of all its criminal trash.

Over the course of the book, his transformation from misunderstood family man to Dirty Harry starts veering more and more toward Travis Bickle territory as he encounters a criminal's girlfriend and is struck by the need to protect her. This pits him against the city's nastiest gangsters in a series of impulsive, clandestine, off the job actions with their own repercussions. Meanwhile, on the home front, his wife is throwing her self into painting, and possibly the arms of her instructor, which only ratchets up Coyne's breakdown. The climactic showdown brings all these threads together and resolves them with very symbolic actions.

Ultimately, the book, while an enjoyable quick read, is not the tour de force the cover would have you believe. It is refreshing to find an Irish novel that doesn't tread upon the topics of religion and sectarianism (although the jacket copy writer seemed to think otherwise) for once. There are enough unexplained elements though, to leave readers scratching their heads. For example, in the very beginning, there's a chase scene, and an axe is thrown at Coyne and his partner. There's no talk of taking the axe in as evidence, taking prints off it, using it to convict anyone, it's just like "Oh, well someone through an axe at us, hopefully we'll run across them some other time." Coyne has a sort of mentor/father figure who dispenses Obi-Wan type advice to him from time to time, who seems to exist only to point Coyne in the right direction (ie. keep the plot running). And finally, although Coyne is clearly self-destructing and not thinking through the consequences of his actions, it's hard to believe he'd so blithely put his family in the danger he does. It's hard not to compare Coyne (and the book), to Irvine Welsh's imploding Edinburgh police detective Bruce Robertson in the much more inventive and rewarding "Filth." Still minor problems aside, it's well worth reading if you're into modern Irish literature, plus, Coyne's story continues in "Sad Bastard."

When I ordered "Headbanger," I thought I would be reading a police procedural that takes place in Dublin. The only thing I got right is the locale.

Basically, "Headbanger" is the story of Pat Coyne, a police officer in Dublin who is determined to arrest some big-time criminals who have evaded the law for years. The problem is that Pat does not have the support of the Garda or his fellow police officers. In Pat, we meet the ultimate maverick police officer who takes it upon himself to bring these drug lords and murderers to justice single handedly. He employs methods that are not only are outside the system, but are downright illegal.

In the course of his single-minded determination to bring down these bad guys, Pat also manages to get himself involved in the lives of friends and strangers alike, none of whom welcome his attentions. This is a man who reacts without regard to the consequences of his actions. His rash behavior could prove dangerous not only to him and his beloved wife and children, but to anyone who comes in contact with him.

Pat thinks it is his responsibility to make things right for the whole world. Quite a tall order for one man. But, you see, Pat is on an endless search for the meaning of life and what role he can play in setting things right. You can't help but love this guy whose greatest joy is quoting inane statistics about everything in the world you didn't care one whit about to anyone who will listen...or pretend to listen...and spending time with his family.

"Animosity" has scenes of hard-boiled violence, sensitive character explorations and, at times, is just plain funny. The book has no chapters or quotation marks around the dialogue. At first, it was slow reading but once I got into the rhythm, the story flowed. For this reason, I am rating the book four stars instead of five. If I could, I would rate it 4-l/2 stars.

I can't wait to read the sequel to this book to see what kettle of fish this loveable loose cannon has gotten himself into.

Hugo Hamilton writes with an excellent style. There's plenty of characters in this book, all of them fairly interesting and well-explained. The book reads well, and the overall arc of the plot is like several episodes of a soap-opera. My only complaint is that speech from characters wasn't quoted in quotation marks, it was hyphenated like this:

-Well, that's a nice necklace you're wearing.

But it was fairly funny in places. There's so much going on and it's all so original and well-detailed.

Well done, Hugo.