The Cold, Cold Ground

It is the time of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.  Bobby Sands has died as a result of his hunger strike.  Detective Sergeant Sean Duffy is a Catholic policeman amongst many Protestant police, and the narrator of the story.  The police are all armed, and ready for a riot at any time.

It is shortly after Duffy has gone home that he is called out to investigate a murder.  The victim has been shot in the chest first and then the back of the head.  To symbolise that he was a Judas, his right hand had been cut off afterwards, but Duffy couldn't find the 30 coins that were normally left with such a murder victim.

The postmortem reveals that the severed hand didn't belong to the victim.  It also appears that the victim had been raped.  Duffy has a strange case on his hands.  It becomes even stranger when a second victim is found, with the first victim's hand.  The following morning, Duffy receives a post card from the killer, telling him that he is acting in the place of God to rid the earth of queers.

A puzzling case of an apparent suicide also lands on Duffy's desk.  The facts leading up to her suicide don't make sense to Duffy.  Pathologist Dr. Cathcart points to a bruise on her neck, which might be a thumb, and not her own.

Further investigation into the first victim points to him being a man of some rank in the IRA and having some connection to the UVF.  Later Duffy is taken off the case when a bomb explodes at a gay bar.  However, this doesn't prevent Duffy from continuing the investigation.  Author Adrian McKinty offers quite the twist in the conclusion to the first of a trilogy about Detective Superintendent Duffy.  An excellent read.