When a young butcher, Denis Doyle, spots a strange shape on the banks of the River Liffey in the hot summer of 1866, the city of Dublin is gripped by a grimy case of infanticide.
Ambitious Detective Martin Peakin – an amateur entomologist, full of regret for his failed engagement and eager for advancement– sets off in search of the murderer, eager to impress his superiors and gain a social climb along the way. But, as Peakin draws closer, he begins to realise that not all is as it seems – Denis’wife, Rose, is noticeably skittish; the newlyformed Society for the Protection of Infant Life is accusing a local woman, Kitty, of ‘baby farming’; and Eliza, who works at the brothel that Peakin frequents, has been missing these pas tfew weeks. And what about the recent whispers that surround the young ward, Anne, who has just arrived in town, who lives in that grand house where Rose just so happens to work?
The river binds these hidden and half-known Dubliners together, but who will it divide in the end...
312 pages.
