Quirke's latest case leads him inexorably toward the dark machinations of an old foe, in this mystery from "one of the most imaginative literary novelists writing in the English language today" (The Washington Post)

Perhaps Quirke has been down among the dead too long. Lately the Dublin pathologist has suffered hallucinations and blackouts, and he fears the cause is a brain tumor. A specialist diagnoses an old head injury caused by a savage beating; all that's needed is an extended rest. But when a body turns up, any possibility of that vanishes.

The corpse, discovered in a crashed car one hot June night, is assumed to be the victim of an accident or a suicide, but Quirke's examination of the body leads him to believe otherwise. Then his daughter Phoebe gets a mysterious visit from an acquaintance, who later disappears. Before long, Quirke and his old friend Inspector Hackett find themselves deep in a shadowy world where one of the city's most powerful men uses the cover of politics and religion to make obscene profits.