In Bartholomew Gill’s last and most stunning work, Irish police chief Peter McGarr investigates the cold-blooded murder of a library night watchman and the baffling disappearance of one of the oldest and most sacred texts in the world.

The theft of the Book of Kells – an exquisite ninth-century amalgam of Christian doctrine and Celtic legend – from the Trinity College library is, in itself, a most shocking crime. But it is the brutal slaying of a night watchman that throws Peter McGarr of the Dublin Murder Squad into the mix. Forced to share investigative duties equally with a publicity-hungry co-Chief Superintendent, McGarr is soon entangled in a twisted web of murder, thievery, back-biting politics, and dark pagan rituals. And surely more blood will flow as secrets, deceptions, and well-guarded lies come to light – forcing an intrepid detective to doubt the loyalties of even his closest compatriots – in a chilling case that threatens to bring about nothing less than the destruction of contemporary Irish society.