'What a story! And what a writer! I was on the edge of my seat throughout . . . a work of brutal, compulsive, strangely beautiful art. Outstanding' Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart

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Philadelphia, 1874.

James McParland, a young Pinkerton detective, is given a high-stakes mission. He must infiltrate the Molly Maguires, a violent secret society sworn to avenge injustice against the Irish.

Dispatched to the Pennsylvania coalfields, McParland lives under a false identity for two and a half years. As he climbs the ranks of the Molly Maguires, he's drawn ever-deeper into their murderous conspiracies.

But he knows the Irish hate nothing more than informers. How far can he go, before his comrades discover his true identity?

As the bullets fly and the bodies mount up, his employers fear he is getting too close to the men they want to hang. Whose side is he really on?

Award-winning novelist Michael Hughes dives deep into his own family history to tell the extraordinary true story of the most famous detective of his time. McParland is a gripping novel of loyalty and betrayal, and a vivid account of ruthless capitalism in Gilded Age America.