Amazon Five Star Review of Domingo
I was reading this sometimes at 3.0 and 4.0am. So many twists and turns, just as you think everything is OK, disaster strikes. I do hope there are more of Domingo.
Balthazar Domingo is an Irish cop working for the West Yorkshire Police. He has an unusual aptitude for the work which, by the age of thirty seven, took him from being a young beat bobby to the rank of detective superintendent without being fast-tracked or groomed for stardom or anything. Two years later he dropped a rank because of a supposedly unprovoked assault on gang boss John Pope.He has a deep grievance against Pope, whom he knows had his girlfriend raped and killed. Domingo's determination to bring Pope to justice ends up with him, during an armed police action, shooting at him and killing a young girl whom Pope is using as a shield. This ends Domingo's career with the force. He also loses his wife who was never happy with him having a girlfriend despite the "other woman" now being dead. Domingo's life becomes a train wreck leaving him with not much to live for. Killing the innocent young girl has filled him with despair and self-hatred and all he has left is his natural charm and innate ability for solving crime. If only someone can give him a crime to solve, and trust him with it.
So it's a good day for Domingo when Matilda, the beautiful lawyer mother of the dead girl, who has accepted that Pope was really responsible for her daughter's death, hires him to bring Pope to justice. She has an outrageous plan that breaks all the rules, but which might well frame Pope for an unrelated but unsolved murder, thereby giving her justice of a sort. Domingo is grateful for her forgiveness, and for giving him something to live for, but he's barely got started when Pope is found in Domingo's flat, shot to death.
Domingo has been cleverly framed for the murder and he's locked up on remand, awaiting a trial for murder. So his life has taken yet another turn for the worse. He's thrown a lifeline by the police who offer him a job with a covert Basic Command Unit. His talents and his nationality are needed to go undercover in county Cork where a drug importing business is operating. He's allowed out on bail to work for them. He sees this as an opportunity to prove his innocence of Pope's murder.
The Yorkshire end of the drug business is run by Vernon Curtis, a powerful and ruthless London gang boss who has moved up to Leeds to take over Pope's empire. It's Domingo's belief that Curtis had Pope killed for this very reason and it's Curtis for whom Domingo goes to work as a courier bringing cocaine from southern Ireland over to Yorkshire. The Irish end of the drug business is led by Lorcan Maguire and his brothers, who are equal to Curtis in their propensity for violence and ruthlessness, much of which we see in the book.
But despite his talent as a detective Domingo also has a tendency for getting into trouble, and getting into trouble with the likes of Lorcan Maguire and Vernon Curtis is no way to behave if you value your life. So, the question is: In his quest for justice and rehabilitation into society, is Balthazar Domingo his own worst enemy? Can this charming, amusing, and reckless Irishman hold himself in check long enough to bring the bad guys to justice and, more importantly, get his life back?
If it seems that I've just given away the whole plot rest assured that you're only at the beginning of a story full of drama, suspense, violence and death, along with humour, love, and a twist in the tale.
I was reading this sometimes at 3.0 and 4.0am. So many twists and turns, just as you think everything is OK, disaster strikes. I do hope there are more of Domingo.
Balthazar Domingo is an Irish cop working for the West Yorkshire Police. He has an unusual aptitude for the work which, by the age of thirty seven, took him from being a young beat bobby to the rank of detective superintendent without being fast-tracked or groomed for stardom or anything. Two years later he dropped a rank because of a supposedly unprovoked assault on gang boss John Pope.He has a deep grievance against Pope, whom he knows had his girlfriend raped and killed. Domingo's determination to bring Pope to justice ends up with him, during an armed police action, shooting at him and killing a young girl whom Pope is using as a shield. This ends Domingo's career with the force. He also loses his wife who was never happy with him having a girlfriend despite the "other woman" now being dead. Domingo's life becomes a train wreck leaving him with not much to live for. Killing the innocent young girl has filled him with despair and self-hatred and all he has left is his natural charm and innate ability for solving crime. If only someone can give him a crime to solve, and trust him with it.
So it's a good day for Domingo when Matilda, the beautiful lawyer mother of the dead girl, who has accepted that Pope was really responsible for her daughter's death, hires him to bring Pope to justice. She has an outrageous plan that breaks all the rules, but which might well frame Pope for an unrelated but unsolved murder, thereby giving her justice of a sort. Domingo is grateful for her forgiveness, and for giving him something to live for, but he's barely got started when Pope is found in Domingo's flat, shot to death.
Domingo has been cleverly framed for the murder and he's locked up on remand, awaiting a trial for murder. So his life has taken yet another turn for the worse. He's thrown a lifeline by the police who offer him a job with a covert Basic Command Unit. His talents and his nationality are needed to go undercover in county Cork where a drug importing business is operating. He's allowed out on bail to work for them. He sees this as an opportunity to prove his innocence of Pope's murder.
The Yorkshire end of the drug business is run by Vernon Curtis, a powerful and ruthless London gang boss who has moved up to Leeds to take over Pope's empire. It's Domingo's belief that Curtis had Pope killed for this very reason and it's Curtis for whom Domingo goes to work as a courier bringing cocaine from southern Ireland over to Yorkshire. The Irish end of the drug business is led by Lorcan Maguire and his brothers, who are equal to Curtis in their propensity for violence and ruthlessness, much of which we see in the book.
But despite his talent as a detective Domingo also has a tendency for getting into trouble, and getting into trouble with the likes of Lorcan Maguire and Vernon Curtis is no way to behave if you value your life. So, the question is: In his quest for justice and rehabilitation into society, is Balthazar Domingo his own worst enemy? Can this charming, amusing, and reckless Irishman hold himself in check long enough to bring the bad guys to justice and, more importantly, get his life back?
If it seems that I've just given away the whole plot rest assured that you're only at the beginning of a story full of drama, suspense, violence and death, along with humour, love, and a twist in the tale.
Used availability for Ken McCoy's Domingo