The Psalm Killer

Belfast-based police officer Cross, in Dublin for a conference, turns down a lift to the train station; a young cop insists on walking with him. "Cross enjoyed the walk in the pale sunlight with its hint of spring, though he would have preferred it alone, to savour the rare occasion of being able to feel entirely safe. In Belfast part of him was always alert to the possibility of sudden danger, the peripheral moment of warning, the car drawing alongside or the hot blast of air that preceded the explosion ..." When a thriller so quickly and so eloquently sums up the difference between life in Northern and Southern Ireland, you know you're on to something special, and Petit doesn't disappoint. Cross--English and Catholic--has come to head the murder squad in Belfast because his wife wants to be near her parents. He finds that some of the crimes he's investigating are linked to more than just the sectarian violence of the day--and to a truly devilish killer called Candlestick who you'll remember long after the last page.