The dead woman is an enigma -- a local lass who emigrated to America some years back, now perched atop a seven-hundred-foot cliff high above the pounding Irish surf . . . with two passports, a pistol, and $27,000 U.S. dollars in her coat pocket. The brutality of May Quirk''s murder -- along with the accompanying death of her unborn child -- haunts Chief Superintendent Peter McGarr of the Special Crimes Unit. What was it that brought her home to County Clare to die? McGarr is determined to find out, as his investigation carries him into the twisted core of a deadly conspiracy centered around money, madness, and lethal politics . . . and leads him far from his own home to a dark place where a dedicated Irish policeman is easy prey.