A ex-cop names his poison. For former San Francisco cop Dismas Hardy, Guinness Stout with Bass Ale is the drink of choice, but a straight Irish whiskey will do anytime. The news of young Eddie Cochran's death calls for a double. The cops think it's suicide, but even to a lapsed Catholic like Hardy, it sounds wrong. Doubts lead him back into the heart of the Little Shamrock, into memories of warm kitchens, cold churches, and sins unforgetten. Blood ties still bind Eddie's family--his beautiful mother, his pregnant widow, his hot-tempered brothers, his compassionate priest. But old secrets and raw angers gnaw at the fabric of their lives. And Hardy's insticts warn him-someone else is going to die.

Tags: Fiction, San Francisco (Calif.), Mystery & Detective - General, Detective And Mystery Stories, Irish Americans, Hardy, Dismas (fictitious Character)

Written by: John T. Lescroart

Publisher: Island Books, c1989.