Benjamin Black

Pathologist Quirke returns to his office to find his brother-in-law, a paediatrician, making notes in a dead woman's chart. The woman died in childbirth but Quirke doubts the cause of death. His determination to discover what is going on leAd him to a Catholic orpahange and a remarkable conspiracy.

As a deep fog cloaks Dublin, a young woman is found to have vanished. When Phoebe Griffin is unable to discover news of her friend, Quirke, fresh from drying out in an institution, responds to his daughter's request for help. But as Phoebe, Quirke and Inspector Hackett speak with those who knew April, they begin to realise that there may be more behind the young woman's secrecy than they could have imagined. Why was April estranged from her powerful family, the Latimers? And who is the shadowy figure who seems to be watching Phoebe's flat at night? When Quirke makes a disturbing discovery, he is finally able to begin unravelling the web of love, lies and dark secrets that April spun her life from...

1940. The royal family must do all they can to assure the British public of their solidarity. But what of the two young princesses - Elizabeth and Margaret? How can they be kept safe without jeopardising morale in the capital? 

Meanwhile Celia Nashe is delighted when she finally gets her long-awaited transfer to MI5. But whatever she was expecting of her mission for the war effort, it wasn't this. A crumbling castle in remote, rural Ireland, playing nursemaid to two pampered young girls.

But her posting soon turns out to be very far from tame. Questions are being asked by the locals about the identities of Celia's secret charges. And when a dead body turns up at the castle gates, it will take every effort to uncover the truth, and to stop it from coming to light.

When an acquaintance from college days approaches him about his wife's apparent suicide, Dublin pathologist Quirke recognises trouble but, as always, he cannot resist. Slowly he is drawn into a twilight world of drug addiction, blackmail and murder, a world in which even the redoubtable Inspector Hackett can offer him few directions.