Time has moved on for Quirke, the world-weary pathologist first encountered in Christine Falls. It is the middle of the 1950s, that low, dishonourable decade; a woman he loved has died, a man whom he once admired is dying, while the daughter he for so long denied is still finding it hard to accept him as her father. When an old acquaintance approaches him about his wife’s apparent suicide, Quirke recognizes trouble but, as always, trouble is something he cannot resist.

‘Absorbing, atmospheric and moving. More please’ – Guardian

‘Drug addiction, morbid sexual obsession, blackmail and murder, as well as prose as crisp as a winter’s morning by the Liffey . . . Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts’ – GQ

‘A romp of a read, a compelling fix’ – Scotsman