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Ballantine
March 2013
On Sale: February 26, 2013
336 pages
ISBN: 0345538064
EAN: 9780345538062
Kindle: B009JU6TXY
Hardcover / e-Book
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Thriller
In this explosive debut thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a cityβs dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage. Absalom βAbbieβ Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldnβt keep Abbieβs troubled past from making her a misfit in the working-class Irish American enclave of South Buffalo. And now, despite a Harvard degree and a police detectiveβs badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those sheβs sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts. When Jimmy Ryanβs mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, this sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through the winter-whipped city. It also seems to send a messageβone that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as βthe Countyβ understand. But in a town ruled by an old-world code of silence and secrecy, her search for answers is stonewalled at every turn, even by fellow cops. Only when Abbie finds a lead at the Gaelic Club, where war stories, gossip, and confidences flow as freely as the drink, do tongues begin to wagβwith desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killerβs mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own familyβs past. As the grisly murders and grim revelations multiply, Abbie wages a chilling battle of wits with a maniac who sees into her soul, and she swears to expose the Countyβs hidden historyβone bloody body at a time. With Black Irish, Stephen Talty stakes a place beside Jo NesbΓΈ, John Sandford, and Tana French on the cutting edge of psychological crime thrillers.
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