August

★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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It's time for another round of, I don't care enough about this to make too much effort, so here's the Publisher's blurb: (I've got to come up with a shorter name for that)

Detective Sergeant Jack Mason's search for an escaped convict is derailed by the discovery of the bodies of three teenagers in the crypt of a deconsecrated church.

Initially the case looks to be straightforward - teenage drug experimentation gone wrong, ending in a tragic double murder and suicide.

Tragic but no great mystery.

Some hope. Much to Mason's annoyance any chance of a quick resolution become a distant hope when evidence of occult rituals are uncovered at the murder scene.

Jack Mason has no choice but to follow the case wherever it leads. As a result he finds himself embroiled in the dark underside of modern Irish society where the establishment closes ranks to ignore the spectre of institutional child abuse, where organised crime gangs operate an increasingly violent drug trade, and where populist politicians build their reputations whipping up hysteria over immigration.

As the complicated case unfolds, deeply buried memories from Mason's past begin to resurface causing the competing demands of the investigation and his increasingly chaotic personal life to become almost overwhelming.

August

in media res