John Brady

A Stone of the Heart: an Inspector Matt John Brady

A student's murder in the grounds of Dublin's famous Trinity College brings out Ireland's darker secrets. In this first of the ten-book Inspector Matt Minogue series, a brutal murder in the grounds of Trinity College, Dublin sparks a police investigation with unexpected consequences for Sergeant Matt Minogue of the Garda Murder Squad. When the body of student Jarlath Walsh is discovered with his head beaten in, Minogue instinctively knows that this is no random killing. Walsh was an idealist, an innocent, as his grieving girlfriend Agnes McGuire confirms, yet someone wants Minogue to believe that Walsh was a drug-pusher who got what he deserved. As the Sergeant digs deeper into the case, Dublin is rocked by IRA violence - a violence which seems somehow linked to the student's murder. Only after Minogue himself is nearly killed does he discover the truth, when a hair-raising chase ends in a fateful clash in that no-man's land which is the border with Northern Ireland.'A tragic drama involving many characters, each so skilfully realised that one virtually sees and hears them in this extraordinary novel.' - Publisher's Weekly (U. S.)