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** spoiler alert ** After Alexander Lawson -- a rising star on Northern Ireland's police force at twenty-four -- is assigned to the corruption-ridden drug squad, he becomes addicted to heroin under unusual circumstances. Forced to resign in disgrace, he is still an addict when he learns that his high school girlfriend, Victoria, has been murdered in drought-scorched Denver, Colorado. Victoria's family begs Alex to investigate.Against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, bodies begin to pile up, and soon Alex is wanted both by Colorado cops and the British police. On the run and with the murderer closing in, Alex must fight not only to solve the terrifying case and seize his last chance at redemption...but also to stay alive.
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Cphe
Mar 28, 2015
Cphe rated it it was ok · review of another edition
Shelves: mystery-thriller, dark-very-dark, irish-thriller, 2015
I normally love this author's work and find his books riveting reading but this one didn't quite hit the mark for me. I couldn't "gel" with the main character Alex Lawson, primarily because I didn't like him as a character This was a bit too cliche laden and there were some slow moving parts to the story. I could see who the "bad guy" was going to be well before the final denouement. I know it is an earlier work by a very talented author but I couldn't help but feel a bit underwhelmed by it. The ...more
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Eric_W
Oct 18, 2014
Eric_W rated it liked it
Audiobook: Ex-DCDS (Detective Constable Drug Squad), Alec Lawson, is unemployed, living with his Dad, and hooked on heroin when they learn of the death of Victoria Patawaski, his first girlfriend, who had ostensibly been killed during a mugging in the United States (we know from the beginning that’s not the case.) The story unfolds like the peeling of an onion with multiple layers and the reason for Lawson’s addiction comes to the fore along with revelations of the corruption higher in the police force.

Lawson is paid by the girl’s father to travel to Denver and find out what happened to his daughter. He had received an anonymous letter from someone in Denver suggesting that the mugging was not that at all, but rather a deliberate killing. Alex and his friend John are soon sought by the Denver police for an accidental killing and Alex has been warned that if he returns to Belfast he’ll be killed by those in the police wishing to hide their involvement in illegal activities. It’s no wonder he seeks refuge in smack. The killing is related to Victoria's involvement with an environmental organization run by a couple of brothers with political ambitions.

But therein lay one of the problems with the story. I had trouble believing that anyone who had become so dependent on heroin could function quite as brilliantly and covertly as Alex does. Hidden River is one of McKinty's early books, and while it reveals some of the really wonderful plotting and writing of the Sean Duffy series (which I really like - all of them), it had a tendency to be unfocused in spots and overly long (that's hard for me to admit since I generally like long books.) Perhaps it’s the locale, McKinty really shines when his stories are situated in Ireland.

Here’s a nice metaphor: “She had a smile like a sun-drenched cornfield over a missile silo.��

Gerard Doyle does his usual outstanding narration. (less)
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Sandi
May 27, 2013
Sandi rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: audio, crime-mystery-thriller-suspense, read-2013, library-express
A gritty suspense tale featuring a young man from Northern Ireland who comes to the United States to look into the death of a former girlfriend. Dark and violent but not without a bit of humor. Listened to the audio read by Gerard Doyle who is the perfect match for the author's work.
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2 likes · Like · 3 comments · see review
Jeff
Mar 21, 2017
Jeff rated it really liked it
Beautifully written story of a former Irish police officer investigating a murder in the US. The plot is intricate, but the writing is excellent and provides details as they are needed. This is more of an adventure than a mystery.
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Rose
Aug 28, 2008
Rose rated it it was amazing
Love it.. especially the local Colorado aspect of this book. It is fun to connect with the the people/places/weather in this book that takes place in Denver.
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Kim
Jun 07, 2017
Kim rated it really liked it
A friend introduced me to Adrian McKinty late last year, particularly his detective hero Sean Duffy. Hidden River is the first of McKinty’s books I’ve read without Duffy and takes quite a few interesting directions. The principal character in the book is Alexander Lawson, a very young ex-detective who is addicted (though he doesn’t see it himself) to heroin. Lawson was a brilliant and rising star in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) of North Ireland.

Lawson’s first love Victoria Patawasti has b ...more
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Joe Kraus
Mar 22, 2017
Joe Kraus rated it liked it
Shelves: hardboiled-noir
This one isn’t great art, but, oh, is it a lot of fun.

Check your skepticism at the door if you feel like giving this a shot. It turns on several hard-to-believe coincidences �� something that ordinarily bothers me a great deal. [SPOILER] To start with, what are the odds that our hero would escape injury so often, that he’d never be suspected in the range of killings and set-ups he’s behind, that he’d get hired at the one environmental group that he wanted to investigate in the first place, that ...more
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David
Mar 14, 2017
David rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Recommends it for: Irish-Indian girls, heroin addict ex-cops, Republican environmentalists with hot wives
Shelves: mystery, thriller, audiobook, crime, ireland, noir
All of Adrian McKinty's novels are set in the 80s and 90s and contain copious references to the pop culture of the era, as if McKinty can't get over reliving his teenage years vicariously. But his books are gritty Irish noir, usually involving compromised cops, crooked politicians, the Troubles, and femme fatales.

Hidden River was one of his earlier books, written before the Sean Duffy series. It shows a slightly different style, occasionally jumping between different POVs and using heavy-handed ...more
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Tammy
May 28, 2017
Tammy rated it really liked it
This author has had defective main characters in the two I have read. This is Alex who is an ex police officer who has heroin issues as well as more complicated issues with the police. His friend who he used to date is killed and her parents want to know who did it. Alex cannot think straight sometimes and other times he is quite intelligent. He has people after him in Ireland and when he and his friend John come to America they get in trouble too. I enjoyed this book but it is very different wi ...more
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Maylin
Jun 17, 2017
Maylin rated it really liked it
Shelves: audiobooks, crime
No body does dubious Irish cops like Adrian McKinty and this is no exception. Wanna be survivors who are doing the right thing almost despite themselves. There were some great characters in this one - I especially liked the landlord.

I am steadily working my way through AM's backlist and this is one of my faves.
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comfort
Oct 21, 2017
comfort rated it really liked it
Shelves: crime, standalone, brilliant-narrator, uk-usa, favourite-author-must-read, favourite-narrator-must-listen, 2017-audio-finished
Alex, a disgraced cop, a heroin addict, though he denies it, hears that an old flame has been killed in Colorado. He has to flee Ireland where he is going to be forced to be a snitch (which will get him killed), so goes to the USA with his oldest friend to see if they can discover what happened to his old girlfriend.
Very graphic in the violence and when you think he cannot endure any more beatings, he gets beaten again both mentally and physically. A very gripping who-dun-it.
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Andy
Mar 20, 2017
Andy rated it liked it · review of another edition
Not as good as McKinty's subsequent books. Still entertaining, but the writing is a bit clunkier.
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Ann Rieth
Nov 11, 2017
Ann Rieth rated it liked it
On Audible, this was another riveting story by McKinty, beautifully narrated by Gerard Doyle.
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Alex Norton
Mar 17, 2017
Alex Norton rated it liked it
Confused by this one. Loved the writing, strong prose, interesting extremely flawed main character. Enjoyed the setting both temporal and location (Ulster, and AIDS/OJ USA). Felt a little bit too much "Deus Ex Machina" plot twists and lost opportunities with some characters (understandable in a First Person novel). I was even settling in and being OK by the fizzle out ending. I will definitely give the author another go.
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Grace Stamper
Mar 17, 2017
Grace Stamper rated it it was ok · review of another edition
Great ending, but it was more about heroin addiction than the murder. I'm really glad it ended the way it did though.
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Bruce Humbert
Mar 14, 2017
Bruce Humbert rated it liked it
A big fan of McCinty's Sean Duffy books. Thought this was a bit of a step down...
Gerard Doyle's read gets it at least another half star
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Carolyn Rose
Mar 03, 2017
Carolyn Rose rated it really liked it
Alex isn't easy to like and it seems that he gets it all wrong - until he manages to get it right.
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L.M. Krier
Oct 15, 2016
L.M. Krier rated it liked it
I read this in the French translation, in case that is relevant.

There's a tendency in some crime fiction to treat the reader as an idiot and spell out everything for them in words of half a syllable, several times over. It's something this book does in spades, hence only 3 stars.

The central character, Alex Lawson, is a former Royal Ulster Constabulary detective, now a heroin addict, who left the force under a cloud. When his childhood sweetheart is murdered in Denver, Colorado, Alex flies out a ...more
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Daniel
Jul 04, 2012
Daniel rated it liked it
Heroin addict & Pub quizz whizz, Alexander Lawson. Lawsons habit controls his exsistance and the pace of life in the bay town Carrickfergus. At 24 Lawson is washed up, a failed stint as a dectective in Belfasts drugs squad (for obivious reasons) has left the erstwhile coppers once brightly burning star in descent. Lawson believes he's now a marked man, neck deep in debt and trouble with local unsavouries it would appear Lawsons copy book is blotted beyond all salvation.


Salavation however arr ...more
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Eric Cunningham
Aug 18, 2014
Eric Cunningham rated it really liked it
Alexander Lawson is a former police detective for one of Ireland's police force. As a young copper with an IQ off the charts Alexander soon finds himself losing everything as he resigns as a detective and becomes a "ketch" addict. Although this decision may cost him the rest of his life, as he was threatened multiple times. To escape death young Alexander Lawson takes a private case investigating the murder of his teenage love Victoria Patawasti in America. Once in America he is faced with a var ...more
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Kathleen Hagen
Nov 28, 2009
Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition
Shelves: 2009-mysteries, 2009-audio-books
Hidden River, by Adrian McKinty, A. narrated by Gerard Doyle, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Alexander Lawson is a cop in Northern Ireland who is placed in the vice squad to uncover drugs. He gets hooked on heroin himself and ultimately is drummed out of the department. His high school girlfriend, Victoria, who left Ireland to live in the United States in Denver, is murdered. The Denver police pick up someone for the murder, but Victoria’s father doesn’t trust them to ...more
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Felix Zilich
Jul 17, 2014
Felix Zilich rated it liked it
Shelves: crime, irish-luck
Он мог стать самым молодым инспектором в Северной Ирландии. Для блестящей карьеры в органах у Алекса Лоусона были все необходимые навыки и таланты, но парень затеял дело против коррумпированных копов и вскоре понял, что подписал себе этим смертный приговор.

Выход был один - как можно быстрее слить себя и своё будущее, показав врагам, что ты не представляешь ни малейшей угрозы. Именно поэтому Лоусон стал героиновым наркоманом, которого уволили со службы за хищение порошка со склада по хранению ул ...more
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Seana
Nov 25, 2012
Seana rated it really liked it
I really enjoyed this earlier work of one of my favorite crime novelists. Part of the reason was somewhat nostalgic, as I spent several years of my childhood in Denver, where much of the story takes place. I remember the name of Colfax Avenue, though apparently we never stopped there long enough for me to get a sense of its seedy reality. The book is actually a fairly distopian take on what in my more innocent experience was a pretty cool place to grow up.

Two Irish men, both sometime policemen, ...more
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Cheryl
Sep 07, 2014
Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: just-because-i-like-it, 2014-65-books
I think I was technically reading three of McKinty's books at the same time. I had ordered The Sun is God. I had been on a waiting list for Orange Rhymes with Everything for weeks, and The River, I actually had as a free audio book (loved it from the start and immediately had to buy a used print edition - the only way it can be purchased as it is out of print). Everything showed up at once.

This was one of his early books and I have to say, overall I really liked it. There were a couple of scenes ...more
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Aoife62
Sep 16, 2014
Aoife62 rated it it was amazing
I am usually not a crime fiction reader but I make an exception for everything Adrian McKinty writes and "Hidden River" proved again that this was a good decision. There are all the ingedients to make a very good book: a sympathetic, slightly troubled protagonist - who is kind of famous Sean Duffy's younger image - a gripping case, unexpected turns, excellent use of language - from Irish Slang to Denver upper class strewn in with poetic pasages -, philosophical insights and a highly satisfying e ...more
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Catherine
May 06, 2012
Catherine rated it it was amazing
Shelves: read-in-2012
HIDDEN RIVER by Adrian McKinty is a complex story of a good man, Alex Lawson, living a life on the edge. Once a rising star in the Northern Ireland police force, unusual circumstances lead him down a road that would take him away from his promising career and into a dark existence of heroin addiction. When an ex-girlfriend is murdered in Denver, Colorado he escapes his Irish tormentors and heads to the Rocky Mountains to uncover the truth of Victoria's murder and hopefully find her killer. This ...more
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Ryan
May 28, 2008
Ryan rated it liked it · review of another edition
Recommends it for: adults murder mystery fans
Shelves: thinker, drama, suspense, irish, crime
I finally managed to get through this book. It was a long, long read for me. 278 pages, but it read like a 400 pager. Not that it wasn't enjoyable. It just took me a long time to get through it.

I picked this book up because I'd read some of McKinty's other books and enjoyed them a great deal. This book isn't far off the line from the others I'd read/heard. You've got a guy that is the flawed hero, genius, invincible. And eventually he fights through some of his demons and wins. I suspected the ' ...more
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Cindy
Feb 03, 2014
Cindy rated it did not like it
Shelves: mystery, crime
This book could not have been more frustrating. There are few primary characters that I have disliked more than Alex. He started out being self absorbed/selfish and finished the same way. He used every single person he met, to their detriment. Why did I waste my time with this book you might ask - I kept thinking it would get better--that he would prove himself worthy of the sacrifices others had made on his behalf. He never tried to improve anyone's life, just took advantage of them all, right ...more
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Monica
Jun 19, 2015
Monica rated it liked it
Shelves: crime-and-or-evil, irish
It's a standalone with elements which McKinty uses with much more finesse and impact in the Sean Duffy books. Alex Lawson was a misfit RUC officer, bright, promoted quickly, then out of the force, a heroin addict. Needing to escape from dangerous enemies in Belfast, he goes to Denver to investigate the murder of his high school sweetheart at the request of her grieving father.

It's mostly well written, gritty and violent but somewhat predictable. McKinty obviously knows Denver and that's an unusu ...more
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Cheap and Lazy
Nov 10, 2013
Cheap and Lazy rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: audio-book, contemporary, mystery-thriller
Beautifully written DARK GRITTY mystery/thriller, fabulously narrated, and ultimately satisfying. A bit less beauty/noir would have moved the story along faster, but whether that would have made it better or not is a fine line only individual taste can determine (I'm less a fan of literature than one of good story-telling and have consequently graded on that preference). I would think this book has enough of both to satisfy most. A first read (listen) for me by either the author or the narrator, ...more