The psalm killer

With an introduction by Alan MooreIt 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.