Cannon Law: A Detective John Blaine Mystery

by Vincent Banville

Dublin private detective John Blaine feels he has enough on his hands, what with looking after his baby daughter, keeping tabs on the errant wife of a wealthy scrap metal dealer, and endeavoring to persuade a wandering man of the cloth to give up his dirty habits. Then a double murder takes place, a bishop passes away in a bizarre manner, and the nymphet Angel Rose enters his life-and all in the week that Wexford has yet again been beaten in the All-Ireland hurling final. Blaine is forced to duck and dive through the mean streets of a heat wave-gripped Dublin, trying to preserve life and limb. In a violent climax in a junk- yard, Blaine is forced to rely on unlikely allies to save him from a bloody end, and to reflect upon the true nature and meaning of his life's calling.

300 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002