‘She gazed at the red line that ran along the circumference of the woman’s neck, the laceration open slightly like a small crevice in the snow. The woman’s face was paler than her short blonde hair, her blue eyes frozen in a stare as if caught in a photograph. They stared away and behind Darcy like those of a blind person. Darcy followed her gaze.‘
– In Plain Sight
[ About In Plain Sight ]
Darcy has always dreamed of joining the serious crime detectives of the NBCI. She finally gets her chance to prove herself on what should have been an open-and-shut case, but which quickly turns into a race against time to stop the multiple sadistic killings of women on the streets of Dublin.
To show her the ropes, she is assigned a once-brilliant but now washed-out detective, Mick Kelly, who should have retired years ago. Darcy fears that if, or rather when, he screws up, she will crash and burn along with him.
So far in her career, she has always managed to keep her secretive past hidden but, as they close in on the killer, her past is coming back to haunt her.
Can she save the next victim from the relentless killer but, at the same time, save herself from her own past?
[ My Review ]
In Plain Sight by Joseph Birchall was released in June 2025 with Poolbeg Press and is described as ‘a dark and atmospheric Irish murder mystery that will keep you guessing‘. It is the first book in the Detective Darcy Doyle series where she fulfils her ambition of becoming a serious crime detective as a member of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI). In this absolutely cracking debut crime novel Joseph Birchall never lets the tension drop taking the reader on a fast-paced and riveting journey through the darker sides of Dublin.
Darcy Doyle had it rough in her childhood years, facing challenges that most of us would struggle to comprehend. From a young age she was driven to succeed, but society had other ideas, taking its toll on her as time passed. But, through a chance encounter, her life was turned around, with her eventually being given the opportunity to join the police force. As a member of An Garda Síochána, Darcy worked with the Domestic Violence unit and was good at her job but the NBCI was where she really wanted to be.
Mick Kelly is a senior member of the NBCI team but in recent times he has been deemed a bit of a washout. Having once garnered great respect among colleagues and criminals as a tough character, his reputation is now in decline. His life is in downfall with many of his workmates now laughing at the state of him, making snide remarks and being generally cruel in their comments. But Mick Kelly has reasons for his current state of being. He is fully aware of how low he has fallen from grace.
When the body of a women is discovered in her home, Darcy is drafted into the NBCI and partnered up with Mick Kelly. The general consensus is that this case is relatively straight-forward and the optics look good from the perspective of the powers that be, adding a young female officer to the team.
Darcy Doyle and Mick Kelly are thrown together in a race against time as it soon becomes very clear that a killer is on the loose. When a second body of a woman is discovered, brutally attacked, the team are left in very little doubt that they have to move very, very fast.
Darcy Doyle and Mick Kelly are a brilliant pairing. She isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and he has nothing to lose. Darcy’s story lingers in the background with snatches of her past drip-fed to the reader as the story unfolds. With brilliant dialogue and Irish wit, Mick Kelly is fabulously cast and very easy to visualise. A perfect series for streaming I would think (just saying).
Brilliantly executed, it really is difficult to fathom how this is a debut author. With three books expected in this series, it’s really exciting to see where Joseph Birchall will take Darcy Doyle to next. Gritty and compelling, with a storyline that never releases, In Plain Sight is a top-class police procedural/crime fiction novel. The pages really do turn themselves, as the plot moves furiously along, with plenty of unexpected yet brilliantly conceived storylines, all interweaving seamlessly and taking the reader on a heart-thumping and tense journey. Congratulations to Joseph Birchall on a seriously impressive debut!
[Thank you to Poolbeg Books for a copy of In Plain Sight in exchange for my honest review]
[ Bio ]
Joseph Birchall spent much of his twenties living abroad before returning to Dublin to establish a successful family business.
A lifelong writer, he penned his first play at just eleven years old. Over the years, he explored screenwriting and novel writing, but family and work took precedence. Eventually, he returned to his first love of writing, carving out time in Dublin’s early morning coffee shops to write.
He lives in Dublin with his wife and three children and still gets up early to write.
https://josephbirchall.com/
