The Psalm Killer: Chris Petit

It was always the same nightmare. Cross saw them lined up in rows, in stretches of city wasteland - those derelict spaces once described to him by a child as the blank bits where things had been before they'd got blown up.

It is 1985 and a killer moves through Belfast's blighted streets. In a time and place ruled and divided by political and religious differences, this series of crimes cuts across all those boundaries. Detective Inspector Cross, together with Westerby, a young policewoman, enters a maze of conspiracy and paranoia, and, as the investigation draws closer to the truth, they find themselves in a nightmare world, with little hope of escape.

The Psalm Killer is Chris Petit's epic thriller set during the Irish Troubles. Masterfully written, disturbing and exciting, it is a book of immense intelligence and a real classic of its genre.