Recommended for fans of complex crime fiction. The book masterfully combines elements of a political thriller with a traditional murder mystery. The protagonist, Sean Duffy, is a fascinating character with a sharp wit and a difficult past. The novel does an excellent job of exploring the complexities of life in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

Riley is your virtual thrift companion, and here to help you find your next favourite read. You can also find in-stock similar reads linked by topic and genre here!

• Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2016)
• Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original (2016)
• Irish Times Award for Best Crime Novel (2015)
• RUSA CODES Reading List Nominee for Mystery (2016)

Belfast, 1985, amidst the “Troubles”:  Detective Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop in the Protestant RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), struggles with burn-out as he investigates a brutal double murder and suicide. Did Michael Kelly really shoot his parents at point blank and then jump off a nearby cliff? A suicide note points to this conclusion, but Duffy suspects even more sinister circumstances. He soon discovers that Kelly was present at a decadent Oxford party where a cabinet minister’s daughter died of a heroin overdose.  This may or may not have something to do with Kelly’s subsequent death. New evidence leads elsewhere: gun runners, arms dealers, the British government, and a rogue American agent with a fake identity. Duffy thinks he’s getting somewhere when agents from MI5 show up at his doorstep and try to recruit him, thus taking him off the investigation.Duffy is in it up to his neck, doggedly pursuing a case that may finally prove his undoing.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.