Before He Kills Again

This tense crime novel, second in a series featuring former inter-county hurler now turned detective, Garda Tim Collins, finds a Cork city woman raped and murdered in her own home. Assigned to the case, Collins and new partner Deirdre Donnelly soon find out that there is a misogynistic apparatus, male dark forces at play with plans to attack and kill many more women. In a race against time and utter unacceptance of female degradation violence, Collins and Deirdre have to find the killer before he acts again. But can they? Donnelly and her competitive and previously famous sportsman partner hate to lose, but when one of Ireland's most dangerous criminals turns up in Collins' home turf, West Cork, old sparring partner Superintendent Buckley insists he move case. The West Cork investigation imploding and climaxing into a brutal killing, we quickly learn this utterly likeable detective cans sometimes be violent and ruthless. A respected professional, he is often perceived as a wild card amongst the Garda ranks. The witness of this murder in West Cork spurs him into battle. How far will he go to avenge that death? Will Collins become a killer, too? We are shown the dark realism of crime and the battles of will and intelligence that go on in the world policing. A strong sense of place combined with a shocking double climax makes this second installment of the Tim Collins series a thrilling read.

Tadhg Coakley  is the award winning author of five books. His debut novel  The First Sunday in September  was shortlisted for the Mercier Fiction Prize and published in 2018 to much acclaim. His crime novel  Whatever It Takes ( Part 1 of the Tim Collins Series) was chosen as the 2020 Cork, One City One Book.  Everything  (a sports autobiography, which he co-wrote with its subject, Denis Coughlan) was one of the 2020 sports books of the year in  The Sunday Times, The Irish Examiner  and  The Irish Times . His bestselling memoir  The Game: A Journey into the Heart of Sport  (2022) was described in  The Irish Examiner  as 'one of the most distinctive, original, beautiful and best books on sport this country has known'. Tadhg's short stories, articles and essays have been widely published.