Hang On St. Christopher

The Sean Duffy Series, Book 8

By: Adrian McKinty

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

New York Times bestselling author Adrian McKinty continues the Edgar Award-winning Sean Duffy series with Hang On St. Christopher.

Rain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It’s July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to “Shortbread Land.” Duffy’s a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It’s an easy gig, if he can keep his head down.

But then a murder case falls into his lap while his protégé is on holiday in Spain. A carjacking gone wrong and the death of a solitary, middle-aged painter. But something’s not right, and as Duffy probes he discovers the painter was an IRA assassin. So, the question becomes: Who hit the hit man and why?

This is Duffy’s most violent and dangerous case yet and the whole future of the burgeoning “peace process” may depend upon it. Based on true events, Duffy must unentangle parallel operations by the CIA, MI5, and Special Branch. Duffy attempts to bring a killer to justice while trying to keep himself and his team alive as everything unravels around them. They might not all make it out of this one.

©2025 Adrian McKinty (P)2025 Blackstone Publishing

Critic reviews

2025, Audible Pick

2025, Booklist Queen Pick

2025, Dayton Daily News

Brilliant as always

The plot the characters the Irish humour

McKinty don’t make us wait so long again

I love Duffy. He so clever and funny and tending toward self-destruction.

He’s back! I love these books. The performance is dead-on. The writing is gritty and intelligent and evocative. There’s never an end to the trouble Duffy can get into in pursuit of his need to find answers! Please, please keep Duffy coming back!

Fantastic!

Loved the narration and writing. It’s clever and fast paced. Highly recommendand looking forward to next one.

great story

Gerard Doyle does such a great job as the reader for this book. This is on of my favorite series.

Detective Inspector Duffy is better than ever

This series is outstanding. The latest volume does not disappoint. Our protagonist is brave, literate, conflicted and devoted to the truth - a truly great character. The narrator, Gerard Doyle, returns to breathe life into the characters. His performance is a pleasure to listen to.
I hope we can enjoy another book in the series before too long.

Good addition to the series

I wasn’t sure I wanted another Duffy book. I loved the way McKinty wrapped things up in The Detective Up Late and I feared where this book would take us and what would happen to Duffy. Would he be killed? Or worse, become a disappointing cliche?

I won’t spoil anything, but I enjoyed this book very much. It wasn’t my favorite Duffy, but it was very good.

Gerard Doyle was great, as always. He did sound at times like he had a head cold, but that didn’t affect my enjoyment of his narration.

Phenomenal

I’ve read all of Adrian Mckinty books, and love Sean Duffy’s character. He’s grown from being an almost out of control police officer to a 40 something almost in control human being. The writing on this book is almost like music, with ups and downs and a pulsating narrative that keeps the rhythm. I should go back and reread the earlier books to decide whether this is the best Mckinty one, my gut says “YES”.

Sean Duffy is back

I’ve read all McKinty’s “Dead” novels. I waited and waited for another. He’s at the top of his craft. Love his music and literary references. Feels like a story told by an old friend.

Best DI Duffy yet

Atmospheric, philosophical, funny, suspenseful, beautifully written and replete with thrilling action sequences, this is, improbably, the best Duffy yet. Rattle the tank as you’re giving chase to an assassin on a stolen motorbike and you’ll find McKinty still has plenty of creative gas left, quite possibly enough to carry over to a ninth entry in the series (one can hope, while crossing fingers that it involves an on-the-rise Michael Forsythe). But sticking to the work at hand, we see part-timer Duffy re-teaming with the beloved Crabby for one last, last fin de Troubles case and refusing, as ever, to do the smart thing and walk away from a murder case he’s been ordered to drop. It’s a gripping mystery, but also a story of an enduring friendship that ranks as one of the most satisfying partnerships in the genre. Narrated by the incomparable Gerard Doyle. If they still had phone books, I’d pay to hear him read one. Better still to hear him intone, one last time as Crabby, “Now, Sean…” As a fan from the beginning, it’s beautiful to see McKinty knit his series together like Asimov did with Robots/Empire/Foundation. Necessary? Nope, as Duffy would say. But great, delicious fun.

Fabulous writing.

Adrian Mckinty is a master! Wonderful read, magical characters.

Gerald Doyle has read all the Duffy and Forsythe series. He nails it every time.

5 out 5 in every way!