The Good Life/an Inspector Matt Minogue Mystery - Rilegato

Dublin's Grand Canal was long ago the site of stately barges bearing gentry in three-cornered hats, of elegant ladies murmuring to one another under their parasols. While children still play and lovers still twine by its banks, today they do so against a background of faceless office blocks and a soaring crime rate.
Inspector Matt Minogue, world-weary but with a well-developed sense of whimsy, is at the scene when a young woman is dragged from the canal, her face showing signs of a vicious beating. She's one Mary Mullen, a (former?) prostitute who's managed to stay out of the way of the police for the past few years. Mary had moved off the streets, but sources hint of an association with the Egans, a ruthless gang whose star has risen in Dublin's underworld of crime and violence. It soon becomes clear that she was using them as a stepping stone to "the good life," where she could leave her past behind. Minogue's search for who it was that came between Mary and her ambitions takes center stage in this masterly novel distinguished by riveting suspense, vivid characterization, and the beguiling evocation of the dialogue, landscape, and lifestyles of modern-day Ireland.