Book Review - "The Final Game" by Caimh McDonnell

Bunny McGarry is a national treasure. He’s a larger than life character whose presence dominates Caimh McDonnell’s comedic crime novels in which he appears. Thus it was with some trepidation that I approached McDonnell’s latest novel, “The Final Game”, as Bunny isn’t in it. In fact, he’s dead. At least to the characters in the novel (it’s complicated). Instead the book takes us back to Dublin where the central characters are Paul and Brigit, operators of MCM Investigations.

My trepidation wasn’t just because Bunny is dead but also because I found Paul slightly annoying in previous novels. He was somewhat needy and seemed intent on pushing away those who loved him most. As it turns out McDonnell had a reason for writing Paul in that way and I am delighted to say that Paul progresses as a fictional person and as a character in the plot. Brigit remains admirably feisty, Maggie is just as fiercely loyal and smelly, and several characters from previous stories come into their own. Nature abhors a vacuum, especially one the size of Bunny, but McDonnell succeeds in filling the void with his assembled cast of characters.

If I have one criticism of the Bunny novels it’s that Bunny is Bunny. He’s not one-dimensional but he is who he is and he’s not going to change all that much, no matter the plot circumstances. “The Final Game” has no such issues as all of the characters are fully developed and grow throughout the novel. The novel passes my ultimate test of being sorry to see the story end and hoping to engage with the characters again. Especially DI Stewart (Retired). And Phil. OK, all of them.

The plot has enough twists and turns to keep pure mystery fans entertained and for those that love deft and slightly daft dialogue McDonnell once again uses his wonderful gift for language to make the reader pause and reread a line just to appreciate the clever wordplay. If I were to invent a term to describe McDonnell’s style and skill with language it would be “Pratchettian”, as in similar to that of the late, great satirist Terry Pratchett. Like Pratchett, McDonnell use words to make you think and smile as well as make you wish you could write like that. As in his previous stories McDonnell makes plentiful use of colorful Irish slang. Get a lexicon if you aren’t from Dublin or haven’t memorized the slang from previous books.

My final thoughts about “The Final Game” are it’s MUCKING GREAT! All the elements are in place for a successful comical mystery, including a twisty plot, interesting characters, and stellar wordplay. Please Mr. McDonnell, can I have some more?