<B>A “gripping thriller” (<I>The Buffalo News</I>), the first in a series of Dublin-based mysteries introducing Inspector Mike Mulcahy, who is pitched into a deadly battle with a diabolical villain.</B>Gerard O'Donovan puts Dublin on the crime-fiction map with this riveting tale steeped in Ireland's Catholic history. Struggling to find his feet back in Ireland after a lengthy posting with Europol in Spain, drugs specialist Mike Mulcahy is plunged into unfamiliar territory when the daughter of a foreign politician suffers a horrific sex attack. Dragged into the case against his will, Mulcahy becomes convinced there is more to it than a random, frenzied sexual assault. But his know-it-all colleagues and politically motivated bosses, eager for a quick, uncontroversial result, ignore his belief that the attack had religious as well as sexual overtones. Sidelined and overruled, Mulcahy sets out on his own parallel investigation. But frustrations abound at every turn—until reporter Siobhan Fallon turns up, asking awkward questions and proving to be a distraction in more ways than one.As more young women are attacked, and assault turns to murder, Mulcahy and Fallon are drawn deeper into an uneasy alliance. Each step they take hurtles them ever closer to the monstrous killer known only as The Priest and a final showdown that's as explosive as it is unforgettable.