Meet Seamus McCree, a single dad, amateur sleuth, champion of the little guy against those who abuse their power.In this page-turner, police can’t figure out why someone murdered thirty-eight retirees at a Labor Day picnic. They enlist Seamus, a financial crimes consultant, to follow the money, taking him from behind his computer to the front lines to help investigators ask the right questions.As … investigators ask the right questions.
As Seamus untangles a web of financial chicanery, those threatened hire a hit man who calls himself the Happy Reaper to take out Seamus. He’ll risk his own life to bring justice, but Seamus must overcome his deepest fears when his actions endanger his son.
A protagonist written in the tradition of Robert B. Parker, John Sandford, and William Kent Krueger: Seamus is a good guy willing to pay a price to bring justice to the world.
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The Seamus McCree Series Reading Order
- Ant Farm
- Bad Policy
- Cabin Fever
- Doubtful Relations
- Empty Promises
- False Bottom
- Furthermore (a novella)
- Low Tide at Tybee (a novella)
more
Seamus McCree is an unusual mystery sleuth who solves crimes using his accounting skills more than his physical power. I liked his relationship with his son Paddy, his quirky sense of humor, and the way he puzzled through complex financial crimes. Even though most of his sleuthing happens on an office computer, there’s still plenty of action and suspense. Ant Farm is a page-turner that kept me up past my bedtime several nights. On a personal note, although I run shorter races, I enjoyed the details about Seamus’ training for a marathon, because I related to his need to fit his training around his hectic life.
I enjoyed this book and had trouble pausing for meals, sleep, etc. Seamus is an interesting, complex character.
Investigator Seamus McCree is assigned to look into a mass murder at a picnic with botulism as the murder weapon. At the same time, he agrees to find out why a young friend’s fiancé was killed. The crimes are connected, and McCree quickly discovers that the manipulation of a company’s financial system is behind the murders. That is, follow the money. My knowledge of the financial system is basically limited to checking account/savings account so the intricacy of annuities and related financial topics was outside the scope of my knowledge. Author Jackson makes sense of all this for the reader. At the same time, he takes us on a highly suspenseful, and sometimes downright heart-pounding ride, as McCree solves the crimes and confronts more than one killer. A very positive aside is McCree’s relationship with colleagues and friends, and especially with his college-age son Patrick. A great read! Highly recommended.
There’s nothing predictable or same-old-same-old about Seamus McCree or the kind of crime he investigates. He’s not a solo PI, but a former stock analyst working with a sophisticated group of investigators with expertise in financial crime.
Seamus is likeable and multi-dimensional. He’s a risk-taker when it comes to his own well-being and quite the opposite when it comes to his college-age son, Paddy, a computer whiz and hacker. The father-son relationship adds depth to the story.
I appreciated how the energy of the scenes and chapters was orchestrated, with a range from intense and adrenaline-pumping to quietly intriguing. The writing is tight and polished, the plot original, and the characters complex. The romantic subplot was a surprise but believable.
Ordinarily, I dislike the anonymous point of view. However, Jackson handles this device skillfully, giving the anonymous perpetrator enough of an identity and personality that one senses a person driving the events rather than the author playing tricks on the reader. In many books that use this device, the villain’s POV scenes could be subtracted without losing anything except spoilers. In Ant Farm, the anonymous POV chapters create a suspenseful layer of events in which the plot advances. I’m impressed.
And I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.
Ant Farm starts out like most mysteries. Protagonist’s call to adventure, Seamus McCree in his ordinary world. But the more those little ants tunnel, readers will get this story has far reaching conclusions with plenty of cave ins, e.g. misdirection.
Seamus McCree, a former Wall Street exec, is now employed by a company that works with police in uncovering forensic data that leads to corruption, and, all I could think of as I read, was thank heavens people like Seamus exist or hidden financials worth killing over might never be found, and all of us ordinary ants could forget about it!
Really smart people and die-hard mystery readers should love Ant Farm. Fortunately I am a die-hard mystery reader but not necessarily all that smart, which I suspect the author might have worried about because several times he had to explain what was going on in the story, e.g. speak English to Bear, the police detective he’s assisting, and other secondary characters in this complicated murder investigation.
Seamus is a likable enough character. Divorced, singing in a church choir, he’s a good dad, a bird expert, has a vocabulary out of this world, training for a marathon—the only flaw I saw was his failure to obey orders and a downright stubborn streak. Fortunately, I have a stubborn streak, too. I rarely give up on the New York Times Crossword Puzzle, either, which is why I can say Ant Farm, and its lively cast of characters, is well worth the read. Looking forward to the rest of the series
I just love James Jackson’s character, Seamus McCree. Ant Farm is Book 1 of this series. Seamus is sort of the odd duck in the police and detective mystery world. He’s a financial analyst solving crimes and he has a back-up team of IT people. This guy’s smart. There’s a little humor in him, a little smart-ass attitude, and he’s distrustful of most everyone at first. Amid all this, he has a very real love for his son and a great relationship with him – at least most of the time.
I must confess something here. I read Book 5 of this series first. It could easily stand alone, but this is a great series. It is well-written, very clear to understand and as you already have realized, I think it has great characters. But James Jackson has accomplished a lot and I bet I’m going to find more as I read Book 2 which I will do ASAP. Here’s what I’m trying to say. Seamus McCree is a great character but by reading Book 1 and Book 5 I realized just how much James Jackson’s characters have grown in this series. I can tell that Seamus and his author have grown together. What’s a very good and fun guy to read about in Book 1 becomes a character totally comfortable in his own skin in Book 5. Did James Jackson plot his books out to let we readers see Seamus progressively become a deeper, even more real character or did it just happen as Jackson became a more-seasoned writer? I’m not sure but I’m gonna keep reading and see if I can figure it out.
As I said in my review of Book 5, please be working on Book 6 Mr. Jackson.
***This book was provided to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review.