A psychopathic killer terrorizes Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula.
Sgt. Barbara Neely is dealing with local Chris Henderson’s complaints about a pervert he claims is watching one of the girls living in a caravan parked in the village that he's already complained about. Inspector Cormac O’Brien, who’s nervously standing by, misses a chance to talk with Neely himself when he’s called out to investigate disturbing quotations chalked on walls in the popular tourist town of Dingle, but Cormac’s more concerned with his lapse of judgment in having sex with one of the women from the caravan and the fear that his crush, veterinarian Dimpna Wilde, will find out. When Henderson and two foxes are struck by a hit-and-run driver, Dimpna is called to help. Later that night a hysterical woman shows up at Dimpna’s clinic with a slightly injured hare wrapped in a blood-soaked jacket, a bloody butcher’s knife, and a wild story about someone trying to cut the animal's foot off. She is Brigid Sweeney, another of the caravan residents, which also include two mastiffs who keep breaking their chains and chasing cars. After she leaves, Cormac calls to report that someone found the caravan dogs stumbling down the road as though drunk; they are brought to the clinic for the night. Returning them the next morning, Dimpna finds Brigid's body. She's been drugged and tied to a tree; her left hand has been cut off and festooned with a rabbit's foot. Although Cormac, whose mother has just died, shouldn’t be working the case after his encounter with Brigid’s caravan mate, his expertise is needed to solve a crime so heinous and baffling that it has the whole area on edge.
An excellent police procedural whose complex characters act out a twisty tale of hate.