''At 2.20am in the morning of the 13th November 1952 the body of 19 year old Patricia Curran was carried into the surgery belonging to the family doctor. At first Dr Kenneth Wilson thought she had been the victim of an accidental shooting. In fact a subsequent post-mortem revealed that she had been stabbed thirty seven times.''

Eoin McNamee''s wonderful novel, which is based on one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in recent history, is at once a gripping thriller and a danse macabre through a shadowy world of corruption and sexual intrigue - a darkly lyric narrative of white mischief in post-war Ireland, of false accusation and savage murder, presided over by the haunted, tragic figure of Patricia Curran.