'Achingly exquisite prose as concentrated as poetry, as unfailing an ear for the cadences and quirks of Belfast dialogue as Roddy Doyle has for Dublin and a fatalistic sense of suspense' Sunday Times

'Impressively confident . . . as lean and grimly purposeful a book as the demon-driven terrorist it sets out to explore' Jonathan Coe

'One of the most outstanding pieces of Irish fiction to come along in years' Irish Times

In this harrowing, haunting debut novel by one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers, Eoin McNamee conjures a dreamlike appraisal of the roots of violence, in a city where reality has long since succumbed to the lure of conspiracy and paranoia.

The central character is Victor Kelly, an Irish Protestant with a Catholic last name, a man with an artistic sense of violence and a fondness for John Dillinger movies. He is a killer in Belfast, a city of shadowed streets, abandoned alleyways, and dark, deserted spaces, a city that is as familiar and strange as any other - Los Angeles, Sarajevo, Paris, or Berlin. A city threatened and defined by invisible boundaries, where geography is the key to survival, and every sensory detail assumes the utmost importance.

Victor's works of art are found kneeling, hands raised in supplication, the ragged lines of death cut deeply into their bodies. Kelly works under the protection of his own political organization, but as his murders become more terrifying and extreme, and the police investigation intensifies, he finds himself caught in a web of allegiance and betrayal.