''Dead I Well May be'' is a 2003 novel by Irish/Australian author

Adrian McKinty Adrian McKinty is a Northern Irish writer of crime and mystery novels and young adult fiction, best known for his 2020 award-winning thriller, ''The Chain'', and the Sean Duffy novels set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. He is a winner ...

. It is his second novel, following ''Orange Rhymes With Everything'', and was nominated for the

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger is an annual award given by the British Crime Writers' Association for best thriller of the year. The award is sponsored by the estate of Ian Fleming. It is given to a title that fits the broadest definition of th ...

award for the best thriller of the year. ''Booklist'' chose ''Dead I May Well Be'' to be included in its ten best crime novels of the year. The plot is often brutal and dark which McKinty describes vividly.

Plot summary

Michael Forsythe leaves Belfast mid-

Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

after being caught working while claiming unemployment benefits. After arriving illegally in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

his only option for work is with a small but ambitious Irish gang run by Darkey White. After several jobs for White, Michael and three of his colleagues are sent to Mexico to carry out a drug deal, but one of the four betrays them leaving Michael in a squalid Mexican prison. After weeks of starvation and violent conflict with the other prisoners, Michael manages to escape and begins his journey back to America to seek revenge on his former boss and the colleague who betrayed him.

Notes

* Epigraph: ::"And if you come, :when all the flowers are dying :: And I am dead, :as dead I well may be..." F. E. Weatherly, " Danny Boy," 1910, ''adapted from "The Londonderry Air"''

Reviews

* ''Publishers Weekly'' * ''The Guardian'' * '' Kirkus Reviews''

Awards and nominations

* 2004 nomination CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger

References

{{reflist 2003 novels