Please Do Not Ask for Mercy as a Refusal Often Offends

Detective Kilroy is a good cop, hat and brogues included, and he has been given a horrible murder to solve. His inquiries do not close the case. They open a deeper one, and they bring him to Cynthia, an enigmatic woman whose secret could upend everything he believes about his world.

That world looks familiar and feels off. Cars run on electricity, yet nobody has a digital device. Crowds ride the tram to attend a public execution. The seas are retreating, and the Church holds society in an iron grip, history included. Whoever controls the narrative holds the power.

Kilroy soon has to pick a side. One is the Kafkaesque state that pays his wages. The other is a band of truth-seekers who are trying to bring that state down. Meanwhile he grows more and more infatuated with Cynthia, who may love him only for his mind, and in an alarmingly literal sense.

The book mixes detective fiction with a strange, dystopian alternate setting, and the tone leans toward dark comedy and unease. The mystery gets bigger as the story goes on.