An apparent miracle unleashes a lethal chain of events in the life of Jack Taylor, ex-cop turned private eye.

Jack Taylor has finally traded in his violent life in Galway for a quiet retirement in the country.

But on a day trip back into the city, Jack is hit by a truck and left in a coma, mysteriously without a scratch on him.

When he awakens weeks later, he finds Ireland in a frenzy over the so-called ''Miracle of Galway''. People have become convinced that the two children who tended to him are saintly, and the site of the accident sacred. The Catholic Church isn''t so sure, and Jack is commissioned to help find the children - to verify the miracle or expose the stunt.

But Jack isn''t the only one looking for these children, and he''ll need all the help he can get - and a stiff drink of Jameson - once he finds them.

Praise for Ken Bruen:

''Bruen is an Emerald Noir maestro'' - DUBLIN SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

''The best-kept literary secret in Ireland'' - INDEPENDENT

''One of Ireland''s most original voices in crime fiction'' - IRISH INDEPENDENT

''Bruen''s visceral writing and anger brings a fierce, almost surreal intensity to this mad story of a heretical book that turns up in Galway'' - METRO

PRAISE FOR KEN BRUEN:
'Bruen is one of Ireland's most original voices in crime fiction, with his stunning, poetic look at the shadowy side of life. His precise, skeletal, yet strangely lyrical prose, unorthodox wordplay, dark-as-sin humour and wonderful evocation of the country and its people have carried this longrunning series to triumph after triumph' Crime Review.
'Grimly hilarious and gloriously Irish' Washington Post.
'It shouldn't work, but it does, delightfully' The Times.