National Bureau of Criminal Investigation

The National Bureau of Criminal Investigation is an Irish police organization formed in 1997 through the amalgamation of various units. Its stated role is to assist local officers investigating serious crimes, including murder. The author’s note identifies it as the real-world counterpart to the institutional setting behind the novel’s police work, while making clear that the story does not depict the organization under its actual name.

Formation and Role

The Bureau came into being in 1997, when separate units were amalgamated. Its function, as described in the author’s note, is assistance: local officers retain their place in serious-crime investigations, with the Bureau supporting their work. Murder is among the offences it helps investigate, but the note does not describe its internal structure, procedures, or authority in further detail.

The Novel’s Fictional Police Structure

The novel uses a Murder squad, which the author explicitly says does not exist in Ireland. That fictional unit was retained because the story seemed to require it. The distinction matters: the investigations conducted by the novel’s detectives belong to the narrative’s invented organizational framework, not to a literal account of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s operations.

Authorial Clarification

The author presents the note as a correction to liberties taken with the workings of the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force, and singles out the invented Murder squad as the clearest example. The note therefore separates the novel’s dramatic convenience from institutional fact: the real Bureau assists local officers, whereas the named squad is a fictional device. The author also credits David Walsh with helping answer questions about police procedure and assigns responsibility for remaining inaccuracies to the book.