The Death of An Ardent Bibliophile

Very little astounds Peter McGarr, the head of the Irish police's elite murder squad. But on this chilly, foul night when he is called to the sumptuous home of Brian Herrick, McGarr is astonished by what he sees. Sprawled over a table lies Brian Herrick, keeper of Dublin's famous Marsh's Library. He is naked and dead. In a room remarkably similar to Marsh's Library - right down to the oak bookshelves laden with exquisite, irreplaceable volumes - one item is anachronous. A video camera sits in a corner. It seems that beyond rare books, Herrick had an even rarer love for "blue" videos - homemade and based on the poems of Jonathan Swift. Herrick's final episode is still in the camera. With the help of McGarr's young wife, Noreen, a spirited devote of Irish culture and an art dealer, McGarr scours the works of Jonathan Swift for leads that are as concealed as the twisted desires of the human libido. Bizarre and erotic, The Death of an Ardent Bibliophile is set against contemporary Dublin and the Ireland of Swift's time, a period more akin to our own than we might want to admit. And once again, Bartholomew Gill delivers a cunning, literary mystery infused with wisdom, scholarly intelligence, and irrepressible Irish humor.


Genre: Mystery