It is early 1957 and the Griffin family has been blown apart since the revelation in Boston. Quirke is drinking heavily, Mal and Sarah's marriage is on the rocks, and Sarah is regretting the missed chances of twenty years before, when she let her sister Delia steal Quirke from under nose. Quirke and his adoptive father, the formidable judge Garret Griffin, are estranged, and Phoebe has decided to assert her freedom from the lot of them by moving out of the family home.

Nothing anyone can say can dissuade her, and Quirke, recognising the part he played in her decision, defends her choice and resolves to look out for her as best he can. But Phoebe - young, naive and vulnerable - pushes Quirke and the family away, defiantly taking up with a louche and dangerous young man by the name of Leslie White.

It's a name that becomes familiar to Quirke as he investigates two apparent suicides, one a well-to-do society woman and the other the wife of his former student Billy Hunt. All is not as it seems in the deaths of the two women, but will Quirke and the redoubtable Inspector Hackett be able put the pieces together quickly enough to keep Phoebe from danger? Will Quirke and Sarah's feelings for each other get in the way of his promise to look after his daughter? And will he be able to rise above his past or be pulled down by a rip tide of whiskey and guilt? Show less