Hunting for humour in our hateful hearts.
The year is 1171. The place is the ancient, sturdy island of Ériu, beset by a brutal invasion and creeping plague—what little the foreign Saxanacha do not take, the Black Death crawls in to claim.
Hail Ní Conchobair is the High King of Ériu, the only survivor of her family’s slaughter—in a manner of speaking. Speared a thousand ways, her every bone broken, she is thrown off a cliff into a pile of corpses, thought never to rise again. But, of course, she does—resurrected by her pagan gods with frozen blood in her veins and a relentless drive for justice, Hail is reborn a revenant, driven only by the pain of her people.
Striguil Ó Murchadha is the lone Disciple to hail from Ériu, an illiterate farmhand ascending to glorious heights with the guiding hand of the Church Below the One. Torn between his people and the increasingly savage demands of his faith, the ragtag group of companions he assembles to investigate a spat of murders in the conquered port city of Duiblinn are frayed and dissolute from the start – and only the Father knows where Striguil’s wavering hand can lead them.
The plague doctor is an enigma—her face a mask, her name a title, her clothes a disguise. Wearing the mein of a crow, she is the only one aware of the oncoming plague—certainly the only one with the tools to stop it. But the source of this knowledge leaves her a target, a darting rat in the alleys of ailing Duiblinn. Finding Hail amongst the corpses, only they combined can put a stop to the plague rising in ambush against both sides of the intensifying war—but should they fail, it is not only their developing feelings for each other that will be lost amongst the wreckage.
From the author of Karma Killer comes a call against war and a eulogy on all the lessons we have yet to learn.
Trigger Warning: This is an anti-war book inspired by the events in Ukraine and Palestine. As such, the book contains severe depictions of graphic violence, sexual violence, war crimes, etc… Please take care of yourself.
