In London in November 1968, Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen has two burned and mutilated bodies to investigate. He's also getting death threats at his police department desk. As one of the few Irishmen on the force, he's become something of an outcast at work, and he's a little too straight-laced to fit in with the hippies and freaks who seem to be popping up everywhere in the city.
The second body turns out to be the son of a prominent politician who wishes for nothing more than the police quietly to bury the evidence and keep the public from knowing about the details of his son's salacious activities, including gay sex and heroin use. Breen becomes obsessed with both cases as he also deals with the recent death of his father. Through it all, the threats continue, and beleaguered Breen tries to keep from completely falling apart.
William Shaw's second novel starring Breen and constable Helen Dozer--the only female cop on the force--presents a portrait of London in the late '60s that feels utterly authentic, complete with excessive smoking, drinking, corruption at every level and casual misogyny and racism. The forces of social change are just getting started in the music and art world, but the rank and file of the London police department is having none of it. There's more at stake here than a couple of dead bodies, and to solve the mystery Breen must learn to cope with the changes in his life and in society at large. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer and editor