Dead I Well May Be
{{Short description|2003 novel by Adrian McKinty}}
{{Infobox book |
| name = Dead I Well May Be
| image = Dead I Well May Be.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = Adrian McKinty
| country = United States
| language = English
| series = Michael Forsythe
| genre = crime novel
| publisher = Scribner
| release_date = 2003
| media_type = Print (Paperback)
| pages = 320
| isbn = 9781846686993
| oclc =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by = The Dead Yard
}}
Dead I Well May be is a 2003 novel by Irish/Australian author Adrian McKinty. It is his second novel, following Orange Rhymes With Everything, and was nominated for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award for the best thriller of the year.{{cite web| url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/mar/06/crimebooks.features| title = There goes the neighbourhood| first = Peter| last = Guttridge| date = 6 March 2005| access-date = 23 April 2018|work = The Guardian}} Booklist chose Dead I May Well Be to be included in its ten best crime novels of the year.{{cite web| url = https://lithub.com/adrian-mckinty-working-class-hero-of-irish-crime-fiction/| first = Lisa| last = Levy| publisher = Literary Hub| access-date = 24 April 2018| date = 17 March 2016| title = Adrian Mckinty: Working Class Hero of Irish Crime Fiction}} The plot is often brutal and dark which McKinty describes vividly.
Plot summary
Michael Forsythe leaves Belfast mid-Troubles after being caught working while claiming unemployment benefits. After arriving illegally in Brooklyn 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{{cite web| url = https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7432-4699-6| access-date = 24 April 2018| date = 1 September 2003| title = Dead I May Well Be}}
- The Guardian{{cite web| first = Maxim| last = Jakubowski| date = 12 June 2004| title = "The Afterlife" | work = The Guardian| url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jun/12/featuresreviews.guardianreview22}}
- Kirkus Reviews{{cite web| url = https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/adrian-mckinty/dead-i-well-may-be/| date = 1 August 2003| access-date = 24 April 2018| title = Kirkus Review}}
Awards and nominations
References
{{reflist}}