BELFAST journalist Dan Starkey is used to working to a deadline, but not one that could put him in the morgue alongside his old mate and the late editor of upmarket scandal sheet Belfast Confidential.

Taking over where his friend left off plunges Dan into a whirlpool world of cut-price hardmen, cut-throat personalities, a whole assortment of loonies and a growing awareness of an undercurrent with his name on it.

A dark and beguiling brew of a crime novel with all the hidden depths of a well-pulled pint of Guinness.