NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER โขย In this explosive debut thriller by theย author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, where she confronts a cityโs dark demons and her own past while pursuing a brutal serial killer on a vengeful rampage.
โThe captivating start of a brilliant thriller series.โโTess Gerritsen
Absalom โAbbieโ Kearney grew up an outsider in her own hometown. Even being the adopted daughter of a revered cop couldnโt keep Abbieโs 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 detectiveโs badge, she still struggles to earn the respect and trust of those sheโs sworn to protect. But all that may change, once the killing starts.
When Jimmy Ryanโs 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 messageโone that Abbie believes only the fiercely secretive citizens of the neighborhood known as โthe Countyโ 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 wagโwith desperate warnings and dire threats. And when the killerโs mysterious calling card appears on her own doorstep, the hunt takes a shocking twist into her own familyโs 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 Countyโs hidden historyโone bloody body at a time.
With Black Irish, Stephen Talty stakes a place beside Jo Nesbรธ, John Sandford, and Tana French on the cutting edge of psychological crime thrillers.