Mara, Brehon of the Burren, must battle superstitious beliefs and
fears as she sets out to solve a brutal murder.
When a woman's body is discovered, strangled and bound with rope to the
stone torso of Fár Breige, the ancient stone god which stands sentinel
above the haunted caves and ancient fortifications of the Atlantic
cliffs, the locals believe it was the god who killed her.
In life, Clodagh O'Lochlainn had been a disgrace to her clan, tormenting
her former priestly lover, jeering at her husband, robbing her
relatives: but could she really have been slaughtered by a vengeful god,
as the local population believes? Abandoning preparations for the
celebration of her fiftieth birthday, Mara, Brehon of the Burren, with
the assistance of Fachtnan and her scholars, takes up the task of
solving the murder. Ignoring the ancient legends, she concentrates
instead on bringing a mortal killer to justice. But it's only when
Fachtnan's small daughter is lost in the labyrinth of passages among the
caves that the horrifying truth begins to emerge.