"He got down on his hands and knees and reached in under the bed where he kept his toolbox. Careful not to make a sound, he searched desperately for a weapon of defence. Then the bedroom door creaked behind him and he knew he was no longer alone in the room..."When one of the few remaining villagers in Leaca is murdered, suspicion falls on the one resident Englishman and outsider, Nick Ambrose.As tensions rise and old forms of law threaten to impose summary justice, the easy and rich fabric of life that has sustained the town for so many years unravels and tears with shocking results.Set in rural western Ireland in 1948, McGinley's novel is a gripping and powerful exploration of community, violence and Irish ways.Review:'Its unrelenting suspense hardly allowed me to put the book aside. You read it as crime fiction but, of course, the fact that the "whodunnit" is not the central question makes the story really interesting. There is so much in it, not only the ethical questions, but also the energetic rejection of nostalgia, the good old times, and that 'rural Ireland equals good Ireland'. And it is really, really well written. Hope there are more McGinleys to look forward to in the pipeline!' - Beate Gresser, senior librarian of the University of Erlangen/NuernbergAbout the Author:Patrick McGinley settled in Britain in the 1960s and now lives in Kent. His eight novels include Bogmail, Foggage, The Trick of The Ga Bolga, The Lost Soldier's Song and Goosefoot, which was made into a film starring Timothy Bottoms and John Kavanagh.