Who took Eden Mulligan could easily be Who Is Eden Mulligan.
This is a belter of a crime novel that is so much more than just a murder investigation.
The book starts with a bloodied and injured young woman staggering into a Police Station, in Northern Ireland, and saying that “they’re all dead” and confessing to killing them before she passes out
The “them” she’s talking about are her 4 best friends and the police quickly find them all in a remote house. 3 are dead, stabbed to death and posed on a bed, the other is clinging to life.
Painted on the wall is a message. Who Took Eden Mulligan
That is where this story can take a massive turn that it couldn’t do if it was set anywhere else in the U.K.
Eden Mulligan went missing from her Belfast home during the troubles.
Since the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement most of us have forgotten what the people of the Country went through, but this book looks at the way the troubles still effect the people of Belfast and the small towns around it
Chief Inspector Danny Stowe is working on cold cases, looking at unsolved murders. When the woman staggers into the Police Station Danny is asked to lead the murder investigation, it’s his way back into Major Investigations. On the same day his best friend from University visits him, and he ropes her in to help the investigation
Dr Rose Lainey is only home for her mothers funeral. She works in England as a Criminal Psychologist and at first is loath to help, but she needs answers herself, especially when they find out who Eden Mulligan, was and when she went missing.
Mulligan was a young attractive woman bringing up her 5 children alone in Belfast whilst her husband worked in England.
Lainey was from the same area, The Markets, and her mother brought up her family alone after her husband was killed. Lainey always thought her mother was part of the paramilitaries, sneaking out at night and being secretive. Lainey had run away from home after her last college exam, away from what she saw as an overbearing mother, and had never returned until she had a phone call to say her mother had died.
Mulligans disappearance was never solved, in fact the police never really took it seriously.
This story looks at The Disappeared of Northern Ireland. People that went missing during the troubles. People taken off the streets by paramilitary snatch squads, taken across the border, tortured and killed. People who’s bodies were never found.
It looks at the effects the troubles are still having on families today, as well as the sectarian violence that was taking place till only a few years ago.
This book could not have been set anywhere else in the U.K.
I’m ashamed to say I’m old enough to know more about the troubles than I did before I started reading this book. I disappeared down a Google worm hole for hours reading about “The Disappeared”
The relationships between Lainey and her estranged family, and her friendship with Stowe, is a brilliant sub plot. In fact both the lead characters in this book have a great story to tell and hopefully there will be more to follow.
Pages: 368. Publisher: Avon. Available: August 2021
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